In Reply to: Excellent film posted by Road Warrior on December 10, 2008 at 10:40:18:
You do realize this dates us as oldies but goodies?
I first remember seeing The Day The Earth Stood Still on NBC's Saturday Night At the Movies in the late fifties or early sixties - I think I was 6-7, and I was terrified. Only Forbidden Planet, a regularly shown on the weekday afternoon movie show, Frances Farmer Presents, frightened me more.
But I fell in love with TDTESS as I got older - it remains one of my fave sci-fi movies of all time, a true classic. I've been lucky enough to see it on the large screen on at least 2 occassions. And I adore Michael Rennie, a that wonderful British thesp. I doubt Keanu can compete with Rennie's intense, quiet, deeply mysterious and sexy alien emmisary - it really was a tour de force performance combining the erotic and the remote - and KR's accent isn't nearly as charming. He does do the silent mystery thing fairly well - long reams of dialogue aren't his strong suit. So at least his fans should be happy. The remake, however, doesn't look like it's geared to women, much less young women.
BTW, speaking of Rennie as sex symbol, Rennie played the hero in another Saturday Night At The Movies staple, Desiree, in which I thought his Marshall Bernadotte was much more seductive than Brando's Napolean. I had a huge crush ON MR for sure.
Robert Wise is a bit underrated as a genre director, not only is this one of the great sci-fi movies, but his The Haunting is one of the great ghost movies, as West Side Story is one of the great FIlmed musicals.
I don't hold out much hope for the new TDTESS - why remake a classic, even if you do it completely differently? I've read little about it, seen the trailers, but suspect it may focus on envirnomental aspects of us destroying our planet rather than nuclear disaster.
I loved Saturday Night At the Movies. They had some great films on, and we would gather round the TV with popcorn most Saturday evenings.
Klaatu Barrada Nikto!
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Follow Ups
- Saturday Night At The Movies! Me too. - Harmonia 21:23:47 12/10/08 (1)
- FWIW, TDTESS is on AMC tonight! ^ - Road Warrior 17:38:45 12/11/08 (0)