I've just re-watched the remake of the classic Sci Fi flick The Day the Earth Stood Still. It was a real dissapointment: the monochrome palette was unappealing, any sense of menace just vanished and worst of all was the cartoonish CGI look of Gort, the world-destroying robot. Now I know the folds in its rubber-trousered legs were visible on screen in the 1950's original but at least an aura of mystery was biult up around it.
Anyway, seeing it's title reminded me of that other great 'The Day the Earth...' movie, The Day the Earth Caught Fire, a British disaster film from 1961. It's years since I've seen it but I recall it being incredibly suspenseful as the World's temperature rises, with an excellent performance by old hack Leo McKern. A very topical theme in these days of global warming, it's one film I will have to invest in as the Love Film DVD rental scheme doesn't stock it. Anyone else seen it?
I didn't even know there was a remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. Thanks for the warning. I'll be giving that a miss.
ReplyDeleteThe Day the Earth Caught Fire is a new one on me. But "global warming" Pffft. They even had to change the name to "climate change" cos they found it wasn't warming in they wanted ... errmmm, I mean "described".
The "warming" story I remember (and which is scary) is the Time Slip story. Was it the third story? Can never remember the order of them. That was very believable.