I'm A Man Of Means By No Means

Wednesday was apparently “Family Movie Night” at Vicki’s school, so Scott had requested that we reschedule Riff Trax night for Thursday.
Then he suggested that in lieu of Riff Trax night we go to see The Day the Earth Stood Still, which we did yesterday evening.
I have to say that I don’t understand all the hate for the movie.
Was it a great movie? No, not really, but it was entertaining, had a good cast – for the most part; more on that in a bit –a decent story, and some good effects, so while there isn’t a lot to rave about, there really isn’t much to complain about either.
It does differ significantly from the original, but the original was made in the 1950s, so how could it not?
For the record, I can understand why the original is considered a classic; it is, as far as 1950s science fiction movies go, very good. It puts forth a lot of concepts that are rather old hat these days but were pretty innovative and original at the time.
Anyway, more than fifty years later the world is a very different place, so a more slavish remake wouldn’t have worked, which is why I wasn’t bothered by the changes and updates.
As for Keanu Reeves, the role of Klaatu was pretty much tailor-made for his…umm…talents. Flat, wooden delivery is what was called for, and it was what Keanu delivered. In spades. But it worked. In fact, it actually added something to the character in a lot of ways. It gave him a sort of understated charm.
Also, it’s always good to see John Cleese, so the movie had that going for it.
And, of course who can complain about Jennifer Connelly? However, I have to say that it’s saddened me to see that over the years she’s lost a lot of her voluptuousness. She still looks good, really good, but I kind of miss the figure she had in The Rocketeer.
Among the things that did bother me in the movie, though, was Will Smith’s son. I don’t know that it was necessarily anything to do with him; I think I just disliked the character.
Beyond that, I’m not really a fan of child characters (or actors) in movies in general, especially if they have a pivotal role (for no good reason other than to have a cute kid in the movie). There are exceptions of course, but a lot of times kids in movies feel tacked on. For me, that was the case in both the original and the remake, though I think it was an improvement in the remake that the kid didn’t get quite as much focus.
It was fun to make some snide comments with Scott about backhanding him, though. Child abuse: always good for a cheap laugh. (Well, not real child abuse, obviously.)
Another complaint I had was that at no time did anyone say Klaatu Barada Nickto. That seemed like a very foolish oversight/choice on the part of the filmmakers. Even if they weren’t used in the same context as in the original movie, they should have popped up somewhere along the line.
Also, there was a lot, and I mean, a lot, of really conspicuous product placement. One especially egregious moment was a one-two punch of bam! LG Shine! And while you’re still reeling from that, bam! Citizens watch!
I will say that while its prominence was distracting and kind of off-putting, the Microsoft Surface thing does actually look pretty cool*.
Finally, my other complaint was that Gort was so called as an acronym assigned by the military, rather than simply having it be his name.
In the original, and even moreso in the remake, Gort himself was awesome.
After the movie we decided to head back to my house to actually do the whole Riff Trax thing as well. To continue the Jennifer Connelly theme, we watched Dark Water, but before that, in the spirit of the season, we watched Nestor, the Long-Eared Christmas Donkey, which was a lesser-known – I certainly don’t remember it – Rankin-Bass Christmas special from the 70s.
The narrator sounded familiar, so Scott looked him up. Turns out it was Roger Miller, most known for his song King of the Road, from which this entry draws its title, as ever since Scott looked that up the song has been stuck in my head.
As we were both full of popcorn when we left the theater, we opted not to get any kind of dinner, and simply snacked on some candy bars as we watched the Riff Trax.
When I went to bed – later than usual – I found that I’d had too much caffeine, and while I wasn’t hungry, my stomach was kind of unsettled, so I didn’t sleep well and have been dogging it all day today.
Just to add insult to injury, when my alarm went off this morning I was dreaming that I was home from work and taking a nap. Yes, my internal life is just as exciting as my actual life and I do actually dream about sleeping.
Anyway, that pretty much brings you up to speed on what’s going on. And look, I went an entire entry without saying “fuck” even once!
What’s that? I just said it? Oh, fu-

*I will put together some further thoughts on Microsoft Surface in a future post.