The Earth Didn't Stand Still That Day Because of "Bullet Time"

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By now, bitching about the current remake trend in the film industry is like mocking President Bush: it may feel good, but it's, like, so five years ago. Still, indulge your humble Geek Editrix:

Keanu fucking Reeves, the man partially responsible for what may be the worst text-to-film adaptation in the history of science fiction, Johnny Mnemonic, is set to murder another SF classic. 20th Century Fox is "re-imagining" The Day the Earth Stood Still, the Cold War-era tale of an alien come to admonish a warlike Earth, with Theodore Logan as Klaatu.

Most heinous, to borrow a phrase.

I know we're supposed to consider the Matrix cycle as some sort of redemptive crucificative act (I, for one, was not too impressed with the series, but I am kind of an asshole about, well, everything), but can't Science Fiction personified (I like to imagine Ursula K. Le Guin in a toga for this) serve him with a restraining order against the genre?

Klaatu barada nikt-whoa.

Still, I suppose there is something in the stilted, spacey acting of Keanu that suggests extraterrestrial origins, and he does kind of look like something David Icke dreamed up on a three-day bender. The best we can hope for is that Fox keeps to the original storyline. The progressive, pacifist themes of The Day... might be muddled if Klaatu, clad in a black trenchcoat, started dodging bullets aided by some sort of space kung-fu.

Speaking of nerds and the movies, yet another college professor is offering a class on physics in film.

Costas Efthimiou, a physicist at the University of Central Florida, says that movie scenes blatantly in violation of the laws of physics have "a dumbing effect on viewers" and contribute to a "culture that fears science." In protest, he has decided to teach a course examining science in cinema. The worst offender? Efthimiou calls out the 2003 film, The Core, which is fucking awesome. Seriously, y'all. "Unobtanium." You can't make this shit up.

In response:


Bob Jones, an associate professor of film at UCF, responded to Efthimiou's concerns in a short e-mail: "These are fiction films. Not documentaries. Tell these guys to get a life."


Thanks, Bob. Yeah, nerds! Get a life!

Flux likes to get hammered and laugh at movies with improbable physics. Sometimes in just her underpants!

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