The Day The Earth Stood Still

An unnecessary remake

An alien race has decided to prevent the earth from dying by wiping out the human race. The alien Klaatu is sent to deliver the message to them before their end but when he meets Dr. Helen Benson he starts understanding the other, not destroying, side of the earthlings.

One should think there could be not so much wrong with a well animated movie that even has Keanu Reeves in it but after seeing this remake of the 50's classic that had such a better story, you see there can be much wrong.

The movie is just boring. There is the climatic topic of "The day after tomorrow" missing that let you stunned. There is the action from "War of the worlds" missing and after all it seems like a movie you've already seen somewhen. Not my cup of tea!


The Day The Earth stood still - released December 2008

Sina's favorites : One hit wonders

For the final post of this special I'd like to mention those actors I liked in one movie only. There are so many of them out there and actually they should be discussed, too. I'd never go as far as calling them my favorites, since I don't like 90% of their work mostly. No disrespect, just counting. Let's take a look at those one hit wonders.

Keanu Reeves

He was Mr. "I talk kinda dumb" in many of his movies. What's that in "Johnny Mnemonic"? I love the movie but why has Keanu to talk as if he's a bit damaged? No, I am not a big fan of him BUT he was great in "My own private Idaho", that was some fine classic acting! Another good part was in "Dangerous liaisons". The rest of his career wasn't my cup of tea, not even in "Matrix" I liked him. I am sometimes under the impression he turns his acting down, fitting to the grade of the movie. That's btw what Udo Kier confesses to do. He used to say "If you want me on a B-Movie you also just get a B-Performance!".

Denzel Washington

Not a big fan of Denzel, though. I don't really know why, maybe its just not my kinda genres he's usually in. But I do love him for one role desperatly and that one is in "Fallen"! And from that movie I also got another favorite who is



Elias Koteas

I am not sure if I ever saw any of his movies, except for "Fallen". His filmography implies I should know him from 4,5 movies. But somehow I didn't see him in there what means nothing less than that I didn't like his performance then. But he was unbeatable in "Fallen", I can assure you!



Colm Feore

who I mentioned before was always the guy I got mixed up with Elias Koteas. They somehow did the same role from my point of view. One in "Fallen" and Feore in "Storm of the century". It's kinda similar but still the same greatness in there!



Alec Baldwin

I love him in "Mini's first time". That was such a great job! And yea I know he's a good actor but that doesnt mean I've seen him in so many movies. Still, I freaking love this character and acting.



Christian Bale

Was Patrick Bateman. One of the greatest characters ever written. He did him so well that the disappointment about him in person alreay started at the Making Of of the movie. It took some illussions about the actor himself. I never saw another movie again where I thought "Man that is a great actor" although I saw him in many. Nah.



Jon Bon Jovi

Yes, I know he's a musician. I loved him in "Vampires: Los Muertos" although the movie itself was a bit crappy.



I think I could go on with that for a while but you get the point here. Some actors don't need to be actual favorites, you see them, you enjoy their work, doesn't always take 20 movies of one actor to do so.

Thanks for reading our special over the last weeks, let us know how you liked it and suggest other specials if you like to!

Greetz, Sina Hawk

My own private Idaho - The road that never ends

"My own private Idaho" is a movie that takes some interpretation instead of a straight review so well let me tell you the story from my point of view:

There is this guy, Mike, with his best friend Scott. They both work in street-prostitution even though only one would have to. Scott actually comes from a rich family and could live a better life if he wouldn't stick to Mike who on the other hand is kinda secretly in love with his best friend - we just dont find out if these boys are actually gay. They sell themselfs to everyone, rich guys, bored housewifes and perverts, everyone who would stop his car.

Mike suffers from narcolepsy and everytime something gets too exiting or nervous he just falls asleep and his friend has to carry him around. Mike decides to find his mother he always dreams of but who left a long time ago. He gets on the track to follow her through states and even countries, in the end left behind alone when Scott at his 21st birthday decides to get back to his safe and rich life instead of the streetlife he lived for a few years.

"My own private Idaho" is a movie to philosophize about, watch it a few times and you still do understand some more about it. In time I realized that it actually is shot like a stageplay, the scenes are a bit too surreal from time to time and Gus Van Sant worked with alot of movie-uncommon aspects.

The cast is great. We got Keanu Reeves and River Phoenix as maincharacters and Udo Kier, James Russo and William Richert next to them. This probably is one of the 2, 3 movies I find Keanu Reeves good acting in. He usually gives a movie that "dumb"-feeling, at least thats my point of view, for example as Johnny Mnemonic. But yeah in this one right here he did some very good acting!

And although the movie was shot in '91 you may get the feeling you are looking on a very latest piece of movie history. I totally recommend you to watch it!

Johnny Mnemonic - A milestone in cyberpunk history

In near future, data smugglers tranfer and transport critic or illegal data through a wire system inside their brain for their costumers. Johnny is one of them and makes good money with it, paying his lifestyle in expensive hotels and with even more expensive whores. But this time his job is a bit too much. He has to tranfer over 300GB while his updated brain capacity is about 150GB. He decides to do the job anyway and instead deletes his childhood memories. How could he know that he is smuggeling the cure for "the black shake", a technology sickness, that could cure the whole world.

From the first second on he took the job, he is followed by a few different interest groups such as the Yakuza, the huge company Pharmacon and a robot priest who's hired by them. But somehow he makes it through with some help - but how to get the data off his brain without the security code?

"Johnny Mnemonic" was released in 1995 shot after a shortstory published a few years before. It was one of the first cyber topic related movies ever and also one of the most memorable and best. Keanu Reeves does the main character and is so much better fitting into the role than in Matrix or other movies. Also you get the feeling you watch a comic based movie after some time which makes it even better. My favorite part at the whole movie is "Jones" the former navy dolphin, half robot, half animal.

Great stuff, totally catchy, massively entertaining, highly recommended. One of my personal Top10!