Screen Rant » the day the earth stood still

Best & Worst Christmas Movie Releases of the Past 10 Years

Paul Young — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 15:16:09 +0000

There are several calendar dates throughout the year where studios rush to release all their big tentpole films in an attempt to maximize on the number of people who will see them, and each date corresponds with a major U.S. holiday – Memorial Day, 4^th of July, and Christmas.

Films released during Memorial Day and 4^th of July usually open on the exact dates of those holidays, while films being released for the Christmas season begin showing up in theaters anywhere from ten to fifteen days before December 25^th.

Some of these films are highly anticipated and draw in millions of viewers, generating obscenely large box office numbers (think Avatar), while other films only have moderate expectations. Then there are the failures – the films so bad, so ridiculously inept, that ...

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Awesome 20th Century Fox 75th Anniversary Posters

Mike Eisenberg — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 23:51:25 +0000

20th Century Fox is celebrating its 75th anniversary and published some beyond-cool altered logo posters using some of their most classic movies. The studio is showing off the beautiful work on the front page of an anniversary-specific website and it jumps out at you with stunning color. Only hours after posting a lazy Iron Man 2 poster, we are proud to present these beautiful odes to movie genres.

You may actually disagree with some of the choices to represent certain genres, as they are suggested on the bottom of each poster. Be that as it may, they are awesome and look great. No complaints are justified and I want all of these in my apartment.

The movies honored include: Walk The Line, The Day The Earth Stood Still, Ice ...

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2008 Razzie Award Nominees Anounced

Kofi Outlaw — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 20:58:13 +0000

The Oscars attempt (emphasis on the word, “attempt”) to recognize cinemas greatest achievements each year. The Razzies, on the other hand, recognize cinema’s greatest underachievements each year.

After seeing the nominees for this year’s Razzie Awards, I’m beginning to think that the Razzie judges need to be given jobs on the Oscar selection committee. Maybe then the Oscar noms would be a little bit more spot-on.

Here are the 2008 Razzie Award nominees for your viewing displeasure.

WORST PICTURE

Disaster Movie & Meet The Spartans (Two bad movies, one tired-ass concept)

The Happening (Ouch, M. Night that’s gotta hurt!)

The Hottie and The Nottie

In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale

The Love Guru (Like no one saw that one coming.)

WORST ACTOR

Larry The Cable Guy, Witless Protection

Eddie Murphy, Meet Dave

Mike Myers, The Love Guru

Al Pacino, 88 Minutes & Righteous Kill ...

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End Of Year Discussion – December 31, 2008

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 07:01:38 +0000

It’s Wednesday so it’s time for our weekly open discussion, but as it happens this one is hitting on the last day of 2008! Can you believe this year is over already?

And what an incredible year it’s been for movies… 2008 was a banner year for superhero movie fans with the likes of The Dark Knight, The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Hellboy 2, and yes – even Hancock and Punisher: War Zone.

Other great genre films included Rambo, Cloverfield (do you even remember that opened this year?!), Tropic Thunder, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Kung Fu Panda and more.

Of course we’ve had our share of not so hot movies this year like The Happening, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Meet Dave, Meet the Spartans, X-Files, etc. Then there those we were looking forward to that ...

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Weekend Movie News Wrap Up: December 21, 2008

Niall Browne — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:39:40 +0000

It’s Sunday and therefore it’s Weekend Movie News Wrap Up time.

This week:

Baz Luhrmann gets Gatsby; Brian Helgeland adds Salt; Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise believe that four times is a charm and Parmount Pictures finally get to know Jack!

Box Office

It was the battle of the A-Listers at the box office and against all odds Jim Carrey captured the top spot with Yes Man. A weekend take of $19 million should ensue. Will Smith had to vacate his usual number one position and settle for the runner-up place with Seven Pounds. The drama should make around $15 million this weekend. The Day The Earth Stood Still crashed and burned this weekend dropping a mighty 75% and grossing just $10 million. It looks like the Keanu Reeves film will have to make its coin back on DVD. Not good. You hear that Fox?

Four Christmases grossed another $8 million helping ...

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‘The Day The Earth Stood Still’ DVD Winners!

Vic Holtreman — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 04:45:31 +0000

Screen Rant’s The Day the Earth Stood Still DVD contest is now closed, and here are the winners!:

Eric Tomlinson -Morgantown, WV

Tyler Hayes -Plymouth, MN

Congratulations and thanks to everyone for entering. There’s another contest RIGHT around the corner!

Didn’t we JUST close out a DVD giveway? Well, it’s time for another one! With the opening of the remake of the classic Science Fiction film The Day the Earth Stood Still starring Keanu Reeves, we thought it would be appropriate to give away the original film. If you haven’t seen it, it’s well worth watching, and this 2-disc Special Edition DVD has tons of extra features to give you insight in to the making of the film.

A spaceship lands in Washington D.C., capturing the attention of the world. But the alien emissary it ...

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The Day The Earth Stood Still Review

Vic Holtreman — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 04:30:17 +0000

Short version: If all you ask from a movie is cool CGI effects, The Day the Earth Stood Still is for you. Look for any more than that and you’ll be sorely disappointed.

Screen Rant reviews The Day the Earth Stood Still

You know, I can understand the desire to remake The Day the Earth Stood Still… I really can. The original film had a great concept, it’s stood the test of time, and the temptation to revisit it with today’s visual effects must have been overwhelming.

But one of the first rules of remakes is: You don’t remake classic films.

You don’t remake Gone With the Wind, you don’t remake Casablanca and you don’t even TRY to remake Citizen Kane. It’s a losing proposition – remakes that work are few and far ...

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Mid-Week Movie News Wrap Up – Dec. 11, 2008

Niall Browne — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:45:39 +0000

Come on folks, you know the drill! It’s the Mid Week Movie News Wrap Up.

This week:

Affleck goes to Arizona, Warner Bros, figure out Beetle The Bard; The Wolfman howls at a different time; Keanu Reeves has 47 Ronin and own a piece of Hollywood – cheap!

1. One time “Jack Ryan” and former tabloid fodder Ben Affleck is getting behind the camera once more following the stellar Gone Baby Gone.

Affleck will helm Arizona, the film details the death of an investigative reporter who died whilst covering the mob.

I’m damn happy that Affleck is regaining some of “the cred” that he lost during the JLO years. I think that he’s one of the last great leading men (in the traditional sense) and a growing filmmaker!

You go Benji!

Source: Variety

2. Love Harry Potter? Well I don’t, but if you do then you should be interested to know that Warner Bros. is very keen ...

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Can The Person Who Wants ‘Speed 3′ Please Stand Up!

Niall Browne — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:26:36 +0000

Movie fans have a special love/hate relationship with sequels. We love it when sequels to our favorite movies go into production – but we are the first to point the finger when the studio gets it wrong.

Now it looks like 20^th Century Fox wants to pillage even more of their back-catalog and it appears that Speed may have zoomed into pole position on the studio’s list. Not only that – but Jack Traven, the character played by Keanu Reeves in the original is apparently in the scriptment that is making the rounds over at Fox.

So… will we really see another Speed film?

Or the more important question: “Does anybody really want to watch Speed 3?”In 1994 two young actors named Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock starred in a film directed by a former cinematographer named Jan De Bont. That film was ...

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New Poster & Trailer For The Day The Earth Stood Still

Rob Keyes — Sun, 16 Nov 2008 04:52:00 +0000

This week, Fox released yet another trailer for next month’s The Day the Earth Stood Still remake (is it already only a month away?). It feels like I’ve seen the entire movie now and this newest trailer seems to spoil some of it for me. In this one we see much more of Gort and we finally see Klaatu (Keanu Reeve’s character) hanging out with Helen (Jennifer Connelly).

The last trailer from just two weeks ago was a lengthy five minutes and revealed Gort in full form for the first time – and the month before that we got a huge seven minute preview that aired with the Fringe pilot.

I really dug the very first trailer for this film, as it was mysterious and cryptic – but since then I’ve not ...

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Gort Is Angry In New 5-Minute Trailer

Rob Keyes — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 04:31:36 +0000

Here we have yet another trailer for The Day the Earth Stood Still starring Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly. Screen Rant has quite a history for this up coming sci-fi remake of the 1951 classic of the same name so check out our previous posts on this film if you’re interested.

If you want to see the earlier trailers before watching this new one, check out the very first trailer which I really dug. You’ll see alot of repeat scenes but each trailer shows off some new footage. Next, from one of the first articles I wrote here, we have a full 7-minute preview which debuted mid-September alongside the encore broadcast of the Fringe premiere. That second video completely changed my mind and expectations on the film from good to bad.

Now, we are ...

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7 Minute Preview Of ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’

Rob Keyes — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 17:10:12 +0000

On Sunday night, prior to the encore broadcast of the Fringe premiere, Fox debuted this extended 7-minute preview for The Day the Earth Stood Still. This trailer extends and completes some of the scenes shown in the first trailer.

Upon seeing the first theatrical trailer previewed before Hancock in early July, I was very excited. The trailer felt very dark and cryptic, while being realistic as to what would actually happen in that situation.

Unfortunately, this feeling was mostly shot down for me with this new extended preview.

Judge for yourself:

[See post to watch Flash video]

The new scenes, specifically the ones focusing on destruction or the emerging giant spheres (marbles?) do not really work for me. I think these images also hurt the film’s appeal and make it almost “too sci-fi”, ...

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Comic-Con ’08: Fox Panel

Vic Holtreman — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 19:16:14 +0000

This post will be updated continuously during the panel.

For the Fox panel Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connolly and director Scott Derrickson are on hand to talk about The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Derrickson directed the most excellent Emily Rose. He touched on the concerns over remaking a classic film and how much he enjoys and respects the original. He thinks it’s a good idea to revisit the concept using modern day issues.

They will be showing a few clips.

The scene was an extended version of the interrogation shown in the trailer. This version of Klaatu is not docile and non-violent – in the scene he takes over the interrogator, delivering an electrical shock and controls his mind in order to get info so he can escape.

Keanu stated that his take on the role was to be an objective observer as the alien.

Derrickson says that the alien technology is biological and he ...

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Max Payne & Day The Earth Stood Still Posters

Vic Holtreman — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:54:13 +0000

Dark Horizons scored some hi-res posters from Comic-Con for Max Payne and The Day the Earth Stood Still. Based on the Max Payne trailer, it’s too soon to draw any conclusions on whether the film will be good or not, although after his performance in The Happening, I’m not exactly excited to see Mark Whalberg in a leading role again.

As far as the Keanu-starring TDTESS remake, the panel for his film will be starting in an hour. At this point I’m still looking at it with a heavily skeptical eye and my gut reaction is that I think it’s going to be awful. But at least the posters are cool, with one giving us a definite look at the robot Gort.

The Max Payne posters are both extremely cool looking as well. You can click on the images to ...

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First Trailer: The Day The Earth Stood Still

Vic Holtreman — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 21:55:57 +0000

Ok, ok, fine.

Here’s the first trailer to the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still starring Keanu Reeves.

If you don’t know, this version puts a Greenpeace spin on the classic film from 1951. Here’s a quote from the trailer:

“If you die, Earth survives.”

Within the context of the film, I presume Keanu/Klaatu means mankind and not Jennifer Connely, to whom he is saying the line. So there ya go – in the big picture, the Earth is more important than the survival of mankind.

[See post to watch Flash video]
Looks to me like it rips a lot from Close Encounters of the First Kind, but what do I know?

The Day the Earth Stood Still is scheduled to open ...

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We Don’t Have The Day The Earth Stood Still Poster

Vic Holtreman — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:14:54 +0000

I’m not putting up the poster for Fox Studios’ The Day The Earth Stood Still for two reasons:

1. They might decide to threaten me with lawyers for some retarded reason, like they did after my previous post about the movie.

2. I think this film will be such a monstrous suck-fest that there is a danger it will act as a black hole and destroy the Earth. Ironic considering its “green” message.

If you’re interested anyway, click here.

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Day The Earth Stood Still Remake – Worse Than I Imagined?

Vic Holtreman — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:22:31 +0000

UPDATE 2: Despite the email below from Fox, I cannot see how commenting on a review of a script and mentioning items from that review without directly quoting a screenplay is a copyright violation. Therefore I’m putting my article back online.

UPDATE 1: I’ve been contacted by Fox Studios’ legal department with the following email:

“To Whom It May Concern:

We have recently learned that SCREENRANT.com (hereinafter “You” or “Your”) posted a review purportedly from the Twentieth Century Fox feature film screenplay titled “The Day The Earth Stood Still” on your website at [this page]. Your review contains elements protected by copyright and, as such, we must request that you remove the review from the website and cease and desist from all other activities associated with this material.”

Now personally, I don’t know how commenting here on a review ...

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Klaatu To Warn Us About…. Global Warming?

Vic Holtreman — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:23:24 +0000

I know I haven’t posted much lately (thanks to my hearty band of writers!) but I just HAD to chime in on this one.

I don’t know how familiar you are with the original (and classic) version of The Day the Earth Stood Still, but it was borne out of fears of the Atomic Age and the initial stirrings of the Cold War. Today it may seem quaint and dated but at the time it was a very relevant theme to be tackled from a sci-fi angle.

Over at MTV.com they’ve quoted Keanu Reeves in an interview and while he admits that yes, there is a huge threat posed by the staggering number of international conflicts…

“The version [of 'The Day the Earth Stood Still'] I was just working on, instead of being man against man, it’s ...

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Keanu Barada Nicto, Dude

Vic Holtreman — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:04:51 +0000

If you’re a regular reader of Screen Rant you know what a huge fan I am of remakes (not). A while back it was announced that a remake of the classic Sci Fi film The Day the Earth Stood Still was being planned. Today we have further details from Variety, among them the announcement of the lead actor who will be playing the lone alien Klaatu who came to Earth to evaluate humanity:

Keanu Reeves.

There seems to be a collective scream of “Noooooooo!” on movie sites regarding casting Reeves as the somber alien in this movie, but I actually think he may not be a bad choice. Keanu has always had kind of an otherworldly vibe about him and if he can dial it down he could pull this off. He’s certainly played somber characters before.

Now this doesn’t mean ...

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