Wednesday, October 19, 2011

The return of The Thing

Jason Apuzzo at Libertas reviews the new remake of The Thing.

BTW, he takes a shot at the sci-fi series, Falling Skies, which I think is well deserved. I watched every episode of the first season, and thought it was pretty awful: utterly pedestrian writing, cringe-worthy overacting, excessive emoting, comparatively few scenes actually featuring aliens, and an unbelievable plot line (the aliens were able to wipe out the armies of the world - millions of troops, with sophisticated weaponry - but has trouble even locating a poorly armed band of guerrillas, whose second-in-command is a college professor? In Massachusetts? Please). This series is so vastly inferior to the - sadly - cancelled V that it makes me shake my head in complete bafflement.

One positive: I do like the program's sarcastic biker-gang character, John Pope.
Posted by at

9 comments:

  1. rinardmanOctober 20, 2011 at 11:33 AM

    I'd say any of the "aliens invade Earth" sci-fi movies & TV series require a fair amount of suspension of disbelief. For that matter, any sci-fi requires some degree of the same. My favorite, Fringe, is hardly plausible; but certainly entertaining.

    ReplyDelete
  2. RebeccaHOctober 20, 2011 at 1:15 PM

    I agree about Falling Skies. It struck me as singularly juvenile, a show aimed at kids. That makes it about as exciting to me as watching grass grow.

    ReplyDelete
  3. JeffSOctober 20, 2011 at 1:52 PM

    I watched one or two segments of "Falling Skies".

    Ugh! I prefer "Invader Zim".

    We'll see about "The Thing".

    ReplyDelete
  4. YojimboOctober 20, 2011 at 2:27 PM

    "The Thing" will probably be eaten by a hungry polar bear just before he drowns.

    How can you mess with the original?

    ReplyDelete
  5. mojoOctober 20, 2011 at 2:42 PM

    They'd be better off if they used better stories, but the better SF stories get kinda tough to film. Can't be that bad anymore, though.

    Suggestions:
    Greg Bear, "Blood Music", "Darwin's Radio"
    Larry Niven, Beowolf Sheaffer stories

    and so on. Lose the dweebs in the writer's pit.

    ReplyDelete
  6. richard mcenroeOctober 20, 2011 at 3:57 PM

    There was actually an interesting National Geographic special about alien invasions. It's available in chunks on YouTube...

    ReplyDelete
  7. MinicaptOctober 20, 2011 at 9:37 PM

    Perhaps he was a "Harvard Professor"?

    Cheers

    ReplyDelete
  8. Kevin BOctober 21, 2011 at 8:37 AM

    I think I prefer Frank Sinatra in the musical version of John Carpenter's The Thing.

    http://davidthompson.typepad.com/davidthompson/2011/10/they-think-that-im-a-dog-but-im-the-thing.html

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousOctober 22, 2011 at 3:31 AM

    Blues Brothers was good, and all those other things you once said you'd never seen,Paco.

    I don't trust your movie instincts.

    In fact... well never mind.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)