Remember the iconic 1951 Cold War era film, “The Day the Earth Stood Still”? It was a black and white film starring Michael Rennie as Klaatu, an alien who came to Earth to warn our warring nations that a galactic police force had deemed the world a “danger” to intelligent life everywhere and that we faced annihilation unless we acted nice. It was one of the classic, dystopian films with a utopian message. If only we could all just get along! Well, true to the axiom that there isn’t anything new in Hollywood, it is being remade as a Keanu Reeves vehicle (that’s Hollywood talk for “starring Keanu Reeves").

Now, the original film was all about love for your fellow man, ending war, planting daisies and a being nice little Earthling… or Klaatu and his trusty robot Gort will blow you up. As the Cold War was looming in the minds of the civilized nations and MAD* had set the table for “doomsday clocks” and backyard bomb shelters, the original “Day” was a timely, if not a bit hamhanded, epic with a message. The title character, Klaatu, when hiding as a human, even took the name “Mr. Carpenter” as an allegory to Christ. Naturally, the bad, bad humans martyred the kindly “Mr. Carpenter” in the end. It was all very much geared for its time.