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  • TUESDAY AUGUST 28 2007 12:01 PM

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



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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Comments
Zarth

zarth

Seattle, WA
December 2004

AUG 28, 2007 12:09 PM

Flux said:
. . . 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?


Excellent.

Honestly, I might have liked to see an updated version of the film (basically just with a cooler Gort - like, one that moved occasionally), but I can't imagine Keanu Reeves being the right man for the task.

RileyStClair

RileyStClair

Los Angeles, CA
September 2006

AUG 28, 2007 12:12 PM

Zarth said:

Flux said:
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?


Excellent.
.



+1

zyryx

zyryx

Tyler, TX
April 2004

AUG 28, 2007 12:12 PM



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



sounds like the start of a good drinking game to me!

TheCoolerKing

TheCoolerKing

NEWSWIRE

Los Angeles, CA

AUG 28, 2007 12:15 PM

Klaatu barada nikt-whoa.


Hahaha. Nice.

I agree that his spaced-out, aloofness, the only thing he really does, could serve him well here. In certain roles he does manage to somehow pull it off. Sometimes.

JohnnyForeigner

JohnnyForeigner

United Kingdom
July 2003

AUG 28, 2007 12:18 PM

About the only remake Keanu should be allowed near is Plan 9 From Outer Space ARRR!!!

JekyllAndHyde

JekyllAndHyde

Baltimore, MD
April 2005

AUG 28, 2007 12:22 PM

No, NO, NOOOOO!

Keanu Reeves has to be stopped; that's all there is to it. I'm only mildly annoyed by the idea of remakes, no deathly opposed to it, but this crosses a line....

ericwine

ericwine

Charlotte Hall, MD
January 2007

AUG 28, 2007 12:28 PM

Is nothing sacred? mad

Flux

Flux

SUICIDEGIRL

Georgia, USA

AUG 28, 2007 12:31 PM

ericwine said:
Is nothing sacred? mad



Signs point to no.

wereduck

wereduck

I'm lost
July 2007

AUG 28, 2007 12:31 PM



I know we're supposed to consider the Matrix cycle as some sort of redemptive crucificative act



I must have missed that memo, since "Reloaded" and "Revolutions" were so shitty. Every other scene was an attempt at being super-emotional (contrary to the first movie), despite the fact that the actors were playing it deadpan (in line with the first movie). The only other time I cringed as much in a theater was when Kiera Knightley tried to make a rousing speech in "At World's End."

I know I'm generalizing here, but on a whole, "Matrix" fans are the fucking worst. A friend of mine made the unpardonable sin of saying he didn't like the movie, because (his words) "it's a dumb movie pretending to be smart." He said in a room full of "Matrix" fans, who proceeded to insult his intelligence and say he didn't "understand" the movie. I like the first one, but most of the philosphy mumbo-jumbo that was in it was seen elsewhere, but it's treated as if it's ground-breaking. In short, it was a dumb action movie, but with intelligent window dressing.

projectnova

projectnova

San Francisco, CA
July 2002

AUG 28, 2007 12:39 PM

i like the little comment about Flux at the end... like... wtf?

Evilgasm

Evilgasm

Netherlands
April 2007

AUG 28, 2007 12:41 PM


Efthimiou calls out the 2003 film, The Core, which is fucking awesome.


The guys at the INSULTINGLY STUPID MOVIE PHYSICS site called that one years ago. It was so bad they had to give up analyzing it half way through.

But the worst thing about it.... It was written by man named John Rogers. This is the same bastard responsible for Catwoman and for fucking up Transformers. And he has a degree in physics! eeek surreal

Forget about Reeves. Somebody needs to keep that guy away from the science-fiction genre!



Science-Fiction is no more written for scientists, that ghost stories are written for ghosts.

Brian Aldiss



That doesn't mean it had to be stupid!

Heathen_Dave

Heathen_Dave

Birmingham, AL
July 2005

AUG 28, 2007 12:42 PM

we3_pirate said:
The only other time I cringed as much in a theater was when Kiera Knightley tried to make a rousing speech in "At World's End."



Oh god don't remind me of that... or really anything dealing with that movie.

Edit: They could have called it, Pirates of the Caribbean: We Didn't Hire Writers but You'll Watch it Anyway

wereduck

wereduck

I'm lost
July 2007

AUG 28, 2007 12:48 PM

Heathen_Dave said:

we3_pirate said:
The only other time I cringed as much in a theater was when Kiera Knightley tried to make a rousing speech in "At World's End."



Oh god don't remind me of that... or really anything dealing with that movie.

Edit: They could have called it, Pirates of the Caribbean: We Didn't Hire Writers but You'll Watch it Anyway



Sorry. frown

shapeshifter23

shapeshifter23

San Francisco, CA
September 2005

AUG 28, 2007 12:50 PM

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.



Okay, that was funny (sort of)...

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."



Hmmm, interesting point (if over-intellectualized, maybe). But on a purely aesthetic level, I've found that the type of flashy CGI acrobatic effects of movies like The Matrix seem to my eye to be tawdry and vapid, in the same way laptop digital electronic music can be. There's just a brittle, hollow quality to the imagery (or sound). Give me the good old-fashioned trick photography and live animation of vintage Ray Harryhausen monster movies or George Melies silent shorts or early Hong Kong martial arts flicks over today's spiffy high-tech sci-fi/horror/fantasy cinema anyday...

NoPantsDave

NoPantsDave

Cincinnati, OH
OLD SKOOL

AUG 28, 2007 12:50 PM

Well, now, this just makes me sad.

One amusing thing....if I recall Michael Reinie (or however you spell his name) was chosen specifically because he was an unknown in the US and would add to the whole being an alien idea. Why couldn't they stick with that theory and get some new person that none of us know?

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