Critics Pan 'Day the Earth Stood Still' Remake With Global Warming Theme

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Klaatu barada nikto!

The reviews are in for the environmentally themed "The Day the Earth Stood Still" remake and the results are more devastating than any destruction that Gort could do to our planet. Over at Rotten Tomatoes,  this remake received a lowly 24% on the Tomatometer. This lousy reception to "The Day the Earth Stood Still" remake was fairly predictable. Back in April, Newsbusters writer Warner Todd Huston discussed the reasons why this movie remake would have problems:

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...As far as the new “Day” movie goes, these powerful aliens are mad at us not because we are mean to each other, not because we might then bring that meanness with us into outer space. No, the important message that the Keanu Klaatu wants to bring us, the message that will warn us of an apocalyptic impending alien police action is….

Global warming.

That’s right folks, apparently the new “Day” movie is positing that the worst thing man has done, the one thing that will make an alien race ponder our destruction, is that we caused global warming.

Although the words "global warming" are never actually uttered in the remake, that is what the producers mean as the threat posed being posed by humans along with the other environmental problems. Perhaps the worst environmental problem posed by this movie is the waste of good film stock as you can see in the devastating reviews such as this one by Joe Leydon in the Houston Chronicle:

Arguably the worst reconstitution of a '50s sci-fi classic since the ghastly Godzilla remake — that 1998 travesty made by boneheads who forgot the Original Gangsta Lizard can, like, breathe fire — The Day the Earth Stood Still is a stunningly misconceived folly that is bearable only for as long as it remains a fair-to-middling chase movie. During its final act, alas, it repeatedly sacrifices narrative logic for CGI-spawned spectacle, all the while building toward an ending that aims for the ambiguity of 2001, but misses by several light years. 

For the benefit of those who tuned in late: The original 1951 Day the Earth Stood Still was a cautionary Cold War-era fable — intelligently scripted by Edmund North, efficiently directly by Robert Wise — about a tough-loving extraterrestrial, Klaatu (played with unflappable dignity by Michael Rennie), who issues an ultimatum to earthlings hellbent on threatening each other (and, by extension, the rest of the universe) with nuclear weapons: Chill out, or get chilled. Klaatu is accompanied on his peacemaking mission by a humongous robot named Gort — a laser-armed behemoth who responds to the classic command, “Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!” — but he demonstrates his ability to obliterate humanity in a scrupulously nonviolent (yet totally convincing) fashion.

In the new but not improved version, Keanu Reeves takes over the role of Klaatu, who’s been re-imagined by director Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) and scriptwriter David Scarpa as a vaguely defined alien life force that assumes human form, and doesn’t seem particularly happy about it. Rennie underacted the part to the point of sporadic stasis, but Reeves makes him look in retrospect like an over-caffeinated show-off. On the other hand — and there’s no way to say this without sounding snarky — Reeves has the edge when it comes to conveying the concept of a stranger in a strange land, and a strange body. The deliberateness of Reeves’ gestures and the monotone of his speech, often cause for unintended laughter in other movies, are altogether appropriate here.

So it’s not really Reeves’ fault that this updated remake — in which Klaatu has zero tolerance for global warming, not nuclear proliferation — is about as satisfying as a plate of lukewarm leftovers.

Derrickson lavishes expensive production values on his twice-told tale, and, to his credit, generates some modest suspense here and there. After being wounded by a trigger-happy Army marksman, Klaatu escapes from a heavily-guarded government laboratory and takes flight with a sympathetic scientist (Jennifer Connelly, in the kinda-sorta equivalent of the role originally played by Patricia Neal) and her too-cute-by-half stepson (Jaden Smith).

And even though they’re being pursued by what looks like all branches of the U.S. armed services and the combined police departments of three or four states, the fugitives have time to briefly visit another scientist (John Cleese) while making a wink-wink, nudge-nudge allusion to a key scene from the ’51 film.

But the remake jumps the tracks, and quickly plummets into frenzied incoherence, when the new film’s bigger and badder version of Gort transforms itself into … into … well, gee, it’s hard to describe. A swarm of high-tech locusts, maybe?

In any event, what follows is a great deal of f/x excess, as various large items — a trailer truck here, a football stadium there — are arbitrarily destroyed in scenes that seem designed less to advance the plot than to jazz up TV ads and coming-attractions trailers. This in turn leads to an ending that reprises Klaatu’s ultimate power play from the ’51 movie, for no apparent purpose. After that, the remake doesn’t conclude, it merely stops.

At which point, audiences can be forgiven for shouting rude remarks at the screen.

Most of the other reviews of the remake are just as critical. However, it still might be a good idea to produce a remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still." In the remake envisioned by your humble correspondent, Klaatu, starring Yours Truly, would land in Hollywood and threaten to have Gort destroy all the studios unless the producers quit making lousy movie remakes with leftwing themes. The only ones shown mercy by Gort would be hot Hollywood actresses but they would still have to recite "Klaatu barada nikto" like Patricia Neal did in the original film. Yes, Salma Hayek would escape pulverization by Gort by reciting that line.

Did I say that I wanted to play the part of Klaatu? I think I would rather be Gort.

—P.J. Gladnick is a freelance writer and creator of the DUmmie FUnnies blog.


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Hollywood Honchos

Hollywood Honchos seem content to lose other people's money producing vanity films.

This is why I hate remakes

 

Mission impossible comes to mind (no real team effort, to me it was Tom Cruise with a bunch of side kicks) Dukes of Hazzard, Knight Rider, Transformers (HUGE disappointment). And the list goes on.Every time I hear "Remake" rearing its ugly head I think politically and environmentally correct slut fest. 

I wish Hollyweird would stick with their own original BS and leave the classics alone. 

Lord can you imaging a remake of "Good, bad and the Ugly", "Bridge over the river Kwai" or "shudder" It's a Wonderful life"?  

 

"...Transformers (HUGE

"...Transformers (HUGE disappointment)."

Dude, did you miss Megan Fox? She was worth the price of admission alone, lol. 

ckc1227

granted the eye candy was nice but I'm "old school"

I wanted to watch my fav Autobots and Decepticons duke it out and all I saw was this kid trying to get a car so he can get "some." and animation you could barely make heads or tails out of.

Can't wait for the sequel "eyes roll" it will probably be twice as bad so they will have to include partial nudity to throw off the even worse acting :-)

 

Hey do you remember Transformers the movie (the animated one that came out around 1986) now that was sweeeet!

Am I the only man in the

Am I the only man in the world who doesn't think she is hot?

You are not alone.

Like I said she's "nice" not "hot" but nice."

 

 Transformers (HUGE

 Transformers (HUGE disappointment).

No kidding...I fell asleep watching it. Missed the last third and didn't even care how it ended.

The only tension there was...

was of the sexual kind the kid was having trying to get the girl.

 

If you think "correctly"

If you think "correctly" that Megan Fox was fantastic in Transformers, check out Jennifer Connelly in:  Mulholland Falls.  NOT a body double and Jeez-us is she stacked. Definately Bettie Paige worthy.

Remakes

I think the last remake I started to watch was 3:10 to Yuma. I love a good Western but that was a bunch of crap. The original with Glenn Ford, one of my movie heroes, had no cussing or sexual situations. I'll just keep watching the reruns of movies made from Louis L'Amour books like the Shadow Riders or The Sacketts.

Even the remake of the Parent Trap was crummy to me. By the way, last Sunday TCM ran a bunch of the old Disney movies. I got to watch Old Yeller and the Barefoot Executive.

p> YOU CAN KEEP "THE CHANGE" PALIN 2012

Transformers was not a remake and made $700 million

Much better than the cartoon movie where they killed off the main character and made little kids cry - there was a reason the cartoon movie bombed, making only $5 million and the new movie made $700 million worldwide.

Yeah, the new movie had some campy parts with Turturro's dumb character and the stupid cube and some of the action being too fast paced to follow but overall I liked it. Much more realistic than the old dated cartoon for kids. I never understood the obsessive fantasy with the old kid cartoon with people who are not 13 anymore.

Knight Rider and Dukes were light hearted fun TV shows, I had no intention of seeing a movie of them.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is Not Pollution

Granted PT transformers was not a remake...

as for the obsessive fantasy bit that's what I and many others grew up with. I like it, I still like it and I make no apologies for it and compared to some other truly thespian shows like...Desperate Housewives. Those old shows are a cut above.

 

I don't get the comparison with the cartoon though

Michael Bay intentionally made the robots maintain mass when they transformed and got rid of the ridiculous 50ft robot to tiny handgun or tape deck, he kept Prime's voice but got rid of the magically appearing trailer ect... all much improved. I understand people liked it as kids but if you watch the cartoons now, they do not hold up. People who hate it the most have this obsession with the cartoon or in general have no real interest in action or sci-fi movies. It was far from perfect but people who really did not like it based on some ridiculous comparison to the cartoon come off more mad that the movie was not made how they wanted it, instead of holding it up on it's own. Younger generations who have no connection with the cartoon loved it. I approached it with little expectations and can criticize the hell out of any movie including this one but still came away really enjoying it. To me that is testimony to them getting quite a bit right. I am looking forward to the sequel.

I appreciated and enjoyed many of the old 80s TV shows, A-Team, Knight Rider, Air Wolf ect... for what they were but I have never been interested in a modern movie remake of any of them.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is Not Pollution

As far as remakes... Cape

As far as remakes...

Cape Fear and Ransom were good.

Dan Diego, I'd also add

Dan Diego,

I'd also add "The Fly", "The Thing" and "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels" as good remakes.

One of the Best Remakes

A Fistful of Dollars a remake of the Japanese classic Yojimbo(1961).

All of you are right..

which proves not all remakes suck lard. I stand corrected.

 

I would say that was an

I would say that was an adaptation, not necessarily a remake...same as The Magnificent Seven.

Also, a foreign language film can be made more saleable by putting it in a different context and in a domestic language.  Interesting that in the Spaghetti Westerns, all the actors spoke in their own language, and then they dubbed them over as the case may be in whatever language was needed for a certain market.

I don't know if Mission Impossible was a remake, per se, but again, an adaptation, and of a TV series. 

Generally, these remakes over the last 20 years are pretty awful.  

Ben Hur and The Ten Commandments were remakes, but of course the originals were not only in black and white but also were silent. 

But, that's the way people are.  They want their movies in color, and with famous actors of the time in them. 

Hollywood has historically cared less about the important cinematic art and the nuances of a production team coming together and getting it just right...but many, many times they did end up with masterpieces.  Even the lesser movies of Hollywood's Golden Age, though often formulaic, were superior films compared to many made since then.

Look at how popular Gone With The Wind and The Wizard Of Oz are after 70 years.  It's possible that a remake could equal or out do them, but not likely, especially when you're mind is comparing back to the original. 

One of the 24% who thinks George W. Bush was a great President. One of the 89% who wants to bring back the stock and pillory.

RR, When the remake thing

RR,

When the remake thing came up, I had to distinguish between "remake" and "adaptation".

For example, the different Dracula or Christmas Carol films to me are different adaptations from a common source.

Your Magnificent Seven is a little bit trickier - but I'd agree and say it's an adaptation rather than a remake (or maybe a film inspired by another).

And of course, there's Bob and Doug McKenzie's take on Hamlet (you hoser).

Good Movie Remakes

After spending some time looking through remake lists this is what I could come up with that I enjoyed:

Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)


The Italian Job (2003)


King Kong (2005)


Scent of a Woman (1992)


The Thomas Crown Affair (1999)


True Lies (1994)

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is Not Pollution

An older movie fan---

It is rare when my wife and I attend a movie anymore. Most of them are merely highlights for foul language, drugs, T & A and in this writer's opinion, unintelligent showplaces for today's public faces to be seen by their fans.

That said, what is perhaps the worst to anyone who has been on the planet long enough, is the stark idiocy of remakes in general. It seems the producers/directors are not satisfied to enhance the originals with the latest in graphics, but they have to change the plot line to one of today's controversial issues, such as Global Warming, (which I believe, long after I am gone from this sphere to be proven to be  the product of minds like Gore's and really part of a natural cycle).

Please God, I have lived through 7 versions of "Titanic". Do not punish me anymore.

 

Hollywood barada nikto!!!!

I agree misterbill

HOW MANY TIMES CAN YOU SINK ONE DAMN SHIP!!!!!

 

misterbill & Heavy

I agree.

One movie I am totally looking forward to is "Marley & Me", which will be released Christmas Day.

It was a best selling book, written by John Grogan (who was a columnist here, therefore I read alot of "Marley" in his columns)...and for anyone who has ever owned a dog, the book will have you laughing so hard you'll have tears running down your face.

I'm hoping the movie will be great as well...it was filmed here in South Florida, so that's always fun, plus it has the excellent Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson....should be a fun movie for families, and if it's one tenth as good as the book was....terrific!

 

Gag reflex alert!!

Well it's good to know that nuclear proliferation isn't a problem any more.

I guess Klaatu's message is "Nevermind Ahmadinejad!! You've got carbon emissions to worry about!!

 

Reeves is playing Klaatu? I

Reeves is playing Klaatu? I thought he was playing Gort!

More Hollywood remakes in pre-production:


The Birds
-- birds driven mad by global warming start attacking humans.


Dr.Strangelove
-- when a Global Warming Doomsday machine is accidentally turned on, the President turns to a mad scientist and his bizarre plan for the few survivors to live underground, and to breed prodigiously with a 10 women to one male ratio.


The Wizard of Oz
-- okay, I think we can all guess the plot as Kansas is turned into a dustbowl by global warming.

If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same...
Yours is the earth and all that's in it...

Reeves is playing Klaatu? I

Reeves is playing Klaatu? I thought he was playing Gort!

Who cares, and does it matter?

Reeves is playing Klaatu?

Reeves is playing Klaatu? I thought he was playing Gort!

And I thought he was playing Patricia Neal's role.

Good morning Jack

You left out Ice Age. In it Rosie O'Donnel moons us, blocks out the sun and causes a new ice age.

ha ha croc. Harsh. But

ha ha croc. Harsh. But fair!

If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same...
Yours is the earth and all that's in it...

Jack,Keannu Reeves: The

Jack,

Keannu Reeves: The Career Where Emoting Stood Still.

CN -- ha, good one. Hence my

CN -- ha, good one. Hence my thinking he'd be Gort: the metal robot.

If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same...
Yours is the earth and all that's in it...

Jack, Are you sure

Jack,

Are you sure Reeve's acting abilities could cover the emotional range needed to play a robot? It might be a stretch... :)

Remake versions

The Birds-- actually, the birds are attacking the clothes that are made from organic foods--Producers --the energy crowd.

Dr Strangelove  -- In reality, a dream state of an acned teenager using drugs.      Producers   DEA

 

 The Wizard of Oz   As above, caused by GW                            

Produced by the energy crowd.

 Starring (behind the curtain)  Al Gore

 

REEFER MADNESS   Producers  DEA

Starring   ex-President GW Bush

 

MISTER DEEDS GOES TO WASHINGTON

 Starring Barry Obama who actually out stars the original Gary Cooper and then Adam Sandler.

  Reeves is playing

 

Reeves is playing Klaatu? I thought he was playing Gort!

What a missed opportunity. The only one who is legibly qualified  insane enough to play Klatuu especially in this remake would be Al Gore. The part was written for him. Monotone, alienlike, boring, not appearing too human, breathing fire and brimstone about global warning, that's our own Al Gore. He might even be good enough to be Gort as well. Robotic Al. Heck his name is only one letter off.

Just call him Algort...

Sigh!

A comment from IMDB about

A comment from IMDB about this movie:

 

 I was hoping the World would end not because of Human's destroying the planet but because of Keanu's acting skills and this crap movie.. The only way to enjoy this movie would be to start using MST-3K lines while the movie was playing.. I should be shot for seeing in IMAX when the screen only showed a letterbox version so 25% of the IMAX screen was black barred... $15 bucks for this crap...

 

As Colin Mochrie (sp?) used

As Colin Mochrie (sp?) used to say when playing the Director on "Whose line is it anyway?"

This doesn't rise to the level of crap!!

We're on a mission from Zod

 "And even though they’re being pursued by what looks like all branches of the U.S. armed services and the combined police departments of three or four states,"

Are they wearing sunglasses and driving a 1970's police interceptor?  Cuz that'd be AWESOME!

They did do that... right?

When a liberal speaks, the truth is busy elsewhere.

Academy Award Winner

Looks to me that this movie has all the ingredients to win "Best Documentary".

Some other remakes

FLORENCE OF ARABIA

In which Omar Sharif is spared from dying in the desert by sitting in the shade of Barbara Streisand's nose.

THE THIN MAN

Starring the Obamas  in which Nick and Nora Charles try to find what Barney Frank and Charles Rangel did with the money.

 

TO CATCH A THIEF

Starring Rod Blagojovich

 

THE LADY AND THE TRAMP

Starring Britney Spears.  The actress for the lady has not been selected yet.

CASABLANCA

Starring: Rahm Emanuel as Rick, Nancy Pelosi as Elsa

PSYCHO

Starring Obama as Bates, Cheney as the detective and cameo by Monica Lewinsky in Janet Leigh's role.

PLANET OF THE APES   

An entire cast of Denmocrat politicians.

 Caught this flick last

 Caught this flick last night. It was....not good....not good at all. It did touch on many liberal themes, so they'll be satisfied. But it was a bad movie. If you have an IQ over 10(I just made it), you'll be disappointed.

"Libs never let you down. You don't have to talk to one very long before the stupid comes out."

I'm suprised Hollywood

I'm suprised Hollywood didn't ruin, I mean remake, a great Brit sci-fi movie from 1962 called.

THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE

Starring the late great Leo McKern, obligatory impoerted US star and excellent Brit supporting cast.

You could say this was the most intense global warming possible -- and  it was caused by the SUN.

Oh --and the little thing of Earth being knocked out of its orbit by simultaneous nuclear bombs going off. 

Check it out if you. Good apocalyptic yarn,  and terrific acting unlike most B movie fare of the time.

If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same...
Yours is the earth and all that's in it...

so, with this flick, hollywood is totally admitting ...

global warming is sci-fi.  i knew we had nothing to worry about ... meanwhile, the rebuilding of below-sea-level new orleans continues ... in lieu of it being totally underwater in 20 years.

 

 

 

So at the rate their going

How long til Hollywood is begging for money?

I have only ever made one prayer to God, a very short one: O Lord, make my enemies ridiculous. And God granted it - Voltaire

Hey, wait a minute...

...I thought 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' was November 4...?

sick, no that was THE DAY

sick, no that was

THE DAY THE EARTH WENT NUTS 

If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same...
Yours is the earth and all that's in it...

Hollywood will soon be asking for a fed bailout so...

...they can continue to crank out lefty-themed movies that no one wants to watch...as Detroit will  be cranking out lefty-designed cars that no one wants to buy...

Not content with destroying

Not content with destroying newspapers, the Liberals have decided to destroy the film industry as well.

 

"Gov. Palin has been subjected to one of the most massive and dishonest pile-on smear attacks in the history of liberal media."  -- Lowell Ponte

Here's a fun thought;

Here's a fun thought; someday we'll look back at all this global warming madness as the joke it is, and these enviro-disaster movies will have the kitch quality of "Reefer Madness."

*groan*

Nothing is safe anymore.  I thought I might want to see this movie.  When I heard that Keanu was worse than usual I debated.. when heard it was saving the earth from global warming I decided there was no way I was putting my $7.50 (plus popcorn) into this trash heap.

While watching (admitedly its been a bad spinoff) Stargate Atlantis we had to sit through 'the attempted, albeit misguided, saving of the planet' from... global warming.

after a collective headsmack we hoped it wouldnt get too preachy.  Fortunately after a garbled awkward 'well we all have to do our part' blurted in about 2.7sec flat it was over. thank god.

"part of what I'm hoping to introduce as the next president is a new ethic of [government enforced] responsibility" - B. Obama

All Time Favorites

The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) is one of my all time favorites! In the past I have given it as a gift to my geek an non-geek friends alike.

I am so glad I didn't go and see the remake, I'm afraid would I probably have puked or lest gotten out of the theater to get a good dose of carbon dioxide.

Gort! Klaatu barada nikto!

Movie Moratorium

The original I saw many years ago.  Of course, leave it to Hollywood to jerk with a classic, a la The Manchurian Candidate.  

The Movie Moratorium continues, not just because I got severely burned out on movies earlier this year, but also because of the utter lack of creativity in Hollywood.  Really.  If I want to see a new movie...I may as well hit the archives and go see an old one. 

"THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!!!  A WAR ON FREEWILL IS COMING!!!" - Nevermore, "Bittersweet Feast", from This Godless Endeavor (2005)

Everything Old is New Again

I'm only looking forward to a handful of movies this year, and all of them sounds like "I've seen this before, haven't I?":

 

  • The Soloist, in which journalist Robert Downey Jr., after an all-night bender and party fight lands him in a LA city park, discovers the hidden talent of cellist and mental case Nathanial Ayers.  Much as I love Downey (especially after he took a tentative step out of the conservative closet earlier this year), I read the description and saw the first trailer, and the only thing I could think of "I've seen this movie before.  It was called Shine."
  • Sherlock Holmes comes out in November 2009.  I don't think I need to comment on this one, but I think RDJ will make an excellent Holmes.
  • Terminator 4, a.k.a. Terminator Salvation.  Suddenly, John Connor looks like Bruce Wayne and Connor's hot wife went from Claire Danes to Bryce Dallas Howard.  That's not exactly an upward trade.

So, thank goodness Hollywood has gotten smacked around for The Day The Earth Stood Still.  Good.  Maybe now we won't get a pot full of global warming to go with our overpriced unoriginal blockbusters. 

Global Scamming

"Gort, Maringa!"

 

Difference of Opinion is what makes a Horse Race

Okay, this is just sad.

So, The Day the Earth Stood Still is about global warming...

My father is a democrat, and a pretty liberal one at that and even he finds this idea pretty lame...

Can't wait until they redo Forbidden Planet or Earth vs The Flying Saucers...

Mike

Demons of the Id!

Forbidden Planet is being remade with the script to be done by J. Michael Straczynski. With JMS, this should be alright, though I don't think it will be better.

jmt
http://www.jmichaelt.org

Couple of thoughts:   This

Couple of thoughts: 

 This is a bad movie, but not because of any "green" theme. The script treads lightly on the green stuff. It's not a big part of the movie at all.

And global warming is never discussed or brought up. It's only stated that we're not taking care of the planet, which is composed of a million different things.

Saving the Planet = Green Propaganda

If it is about us not taking care of the planet then that is what the "Going Green" hysteria is all about.

Carbon Dioxide (CO2) is Not Pollution

The Obsessive Devotion

 It's only stated that we're not taking care of the planet, which is composed of a million different things.  Not taking care of the planet.  In other words, this movie has been given an environmental theme. 

I'm sure there is a director's cut someplace which shows the obsessively devoted Leftist environmentalists dream-world: the end of said cut having millions and millions of Americans literally completely dismantling the world's most powerful and most advanced economy on earth (ours, of course) all of them crying tears of guilt as they do it. 

Really.  Too many people out there have an OBSESSIVE DEVOTION to "green".  I'm getting very sick of it. 

"THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!!!  A WAR ON FREEWILL IS COMING!!!" - Nevermore, "Bittersweet Feast", from This Godless Endeavor (2005)