Thedaytheearthstoodstill Videos

When I closed my eyes and pictured the greatest villain costumes in sci-fi movies, I was surprised how often hair -- and headpieces -- come into play. That makes sense for those of us who are not costume purists because we're thinking of the character as a whole, and in movies we're very often looking at close-ups of villains. We want to get up close and personal, to study the sneer, to examine the evil eyes, to absorb the dismissive scowl, to observe the raised eyebrows. Isn't it the whole package that sells a character as a villain? The actor makes all the difference in the world, no matter if he's buried under a ton of makeup or becomes nearly unrecognizable, but the costume plays an important role. In honor of all those who will sally forth this weekend in costumes that are good, bad, and ugly, we salute the designers of the top ten (plus a couple of bonus selections) greatest villain costumes in sci-fi movies, and the actors who wear them. The Emperor Ming (Flash Gordon) It takes a truly evil villain to pull off this particular outfit. Arrayed in varying shades of deep red and gold, Ming (the always game Max von Sydow) threatens to steal the show when those eyebrows are raised. Somehow Ming looks both sartorially forward-thinking -- what is that raised cowl doing back there except to frame his bald head -- and ridiculously, gloriously silly. Read the rest over at SciFi SquadFiled under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, ListsContinue reading Are These The Ten Greatest Villain Costumes in Sci-Fi Movie History? Permalink | Email this | Comments

There's something a bit familiar about the premise of District 9 -- namely, the part where the human makes friends with the alien. Now, District 9 is a terrific movie, and director Neill Blomkamp delivered a lot of action, violence, pathos and kick-ass special effects on a relatively small budget. But aliens? We've been friends with aliens before. In fact, this week marks the 25th anniversary DVD/Blu-ray release of The Last Starfighter, a low-budget fan favorite that sought to cash in on the popularity of both Star Wars and video games by sending an unsuspecting teen hero on a mission to save a distant galaxy. His recruiter-slash-buddy was Centauri, an intergalactic con man (played by Robert Preston, riffing on his Music Man persona in his last role). Some of our other favorite aliens-as-friends movies: 1. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) -- Poor old Klaatu (Michael Rennie). He's just a middle manager sent to Earth to file a report on whether or not the galactic overlords should blow us to smithereens. His decision? To leave us be ... if we promise not to screw up. 2. The Brother From Another Planet (1984) -- John Sayles' underseen gem stars Joe Morton (currently of TV's Eureka) as an escaped slave from another world who crash-lands in Harlem. Unable to speak but a whiz with electronic gadgetry, he makes friends with the locals while eluding two men in black (Sayles and David Strathairn). If you've never seen this, you really should.Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Cinematical SevenContinue reading Cinematical Seven: Our Alien Friends Permalink | Email this | Comments

Doubt Philip Seymour Hoffman is thrilling to watch as a priest accused of abuse by god-like nun Meryl Streep. Streep's highly-studied Bronx accent cracks me up, but this is a crackerjack stage play by John Patrick Shanley that he adopted for the screen and directed. Viola Davis makes a deep impression, and Amy Adams is a cute nun. Buy it. Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon | Read Jeffrey M. Anderson's review. The Tale of Despereaux Quoting myself: "A slapdash character study of two rodents ... a gentle and nurturing children's story, imparting lessons without being too condescending to its audience." This could become a family perennial. With the voices of Matthew Broderick, Dustin Hoffman, and Emma Watson. Buy it. Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon | Read my review. The Day the Earth Stood Still You've already seen the best bits in the trailer. Seriously. Even allowing for Keanu Reeves' intentionally blank slate and the prototypical "annoying kid," and crushing on Jennifer Connelly, this was a deadly bore that didn't come close to the far superior original. Skip it. Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon | Read William Goss' review. Yes Man Jim Carrey stars in what our man Will Goss described as "a minor lark in the Canadian comedian's career ... familiar and funny in about equal measure." Still, Carrey familiarity + Zooey Deschanel makes me want to check it out. Rent it. Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon | Read William Goss' review. Bedtime Stories Adam Sandler has always seemed child-like, but Jette Kernion said: "Watching Bedtime Stories is about as delightful as peeking into your Christmas stocking and finding it empty except for a few lint-covered peppermints." (Note: Released this past Sunday.) Skip it. Add to Netflix queue | Buy at Amazon | Read Jette Kernion's review. Filed under: Action, Animation, Classics, Comedy, Drama, Horror, Independent, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New on DVD, Family Films, Home Entertainment, Remakes and SequelsContinue reading Spin-ematical: New on DVD for 4/7 Permalink | Email this | Comments

This past weekend at the box office brought us the fairly mediocre Push, in which Dakota Fanning (roughly 14 at the time of filming) played a snappy psychic 13-year-old with rebel streaks in her hair, whiny quips at every turn, and an unfortunate penchant for short skirts and shots. The weekend before that gave us the fairly entertaining Taken, in which Maggie Grace (24 or 25 at the time of filming, by our best guess) played a seemingly psychotic 17-year-old with a U2 fascination, a disturbingly giddy run not unlike the one at the 5:20 mark here, and a fortunate (for us) habit of getting snapped up by European human traffickers and thus not proving to be a distraction while Liam Neeson goes all out of bubble gum on the streets of France. So, among those of you who saw both films, which teen did you find to be more aggravating with their respective performance: Fanning or Grace? (Or, for the real saints out there, were you irritated by neither?) View PollFiled under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, 20th Century Fox, Comic/Superhero/Geek Permalink | Email this | Comments

Hollywood was hit hard this weekend, December 19-21! Beyond The Trailer host Grace Randolph gives you bad news for Yes Man, Seven Pounds and The Tale of Despereaux, as well as her review for Clint Eastwood s Gran Torino.Author: beyondthetrailer Tags: yesman sevenpounds thetaleofdespereaux jimcarrey willsmith thedaytheearthstoodstill grantorino boxoffice indymogul nextnewnetworks movie gracerandolph Posted: 22 December 2008 Rating: 0.0 Votes: 0

Hollywood was hit hard this weekend, December 19-21! Beyond The Trailer host Grace Randolph gives you bad news for Yes Man, Seven Pounds and The Tale of Despereaux, as well as her review for Clint Eastwood s Gran Torino.

As the season marches on, 'for your consideration' ads litter the trades and various awards analysis websites. However, there aren't nearly enough campaigns for the year's worst performances. You have your obnoxious kids (Jaden Smith in The Day The Earth Stood Still, Logan Lerman in Meet Bill). You have your touched individuals who straddle the line between functional and, ahem, 'full retard' (Sophie Okonedo in The Secret Life of Bees, Omar Benson Miller in Miracle at St. Anna, David Morse in Hounddog). You've got your guys that give 'insane' a bad name (Jason Butler Harner in Changeling, Donny Osmond in College Road Trip), and you've got your girls that give English a bad name (Ahney Her in Gran Torino, Natalya Rudakova in Transporter 3). Oh, and then there's just about the entire cast of The Happening. (If I had to pick just one person, though, I'd go with the gardener who babbles on about hot dogs. The man's priceless.) So, unless we're about to let Witless Protection sweep the Razzies, what were some of your least favorite performances of the year?Filed under: Action, Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers, Awards, Mystery & Suspense, Disney, Lionsgate Films, Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, Remakes and Sequels, War Permalink | Email this | Comments

Eric says that he is absolutely ready to start having kids with wife Rebecca Gayheart. Plus, he reveals what he knows about T.R. Knight's rumored departure from "Grey's Anatomy."

The weekend's sole big-budget multiplex offering -- the sappy alien-invasion remake The Day the Earth Stood Still -- opened well with $31 million. But the bigger news lies under the top 10. This was the weekend that Doubt and Gran Torino began their elaborate platform releases, which Miramax and Warner Bros. (respectively) hope will result in multiple Oscar nominations. Doubt opened on 15 screens and grossed $525,000 for a $35,000 per-screen average. Gran Torino -- a goofy, entertaining little movie that's only an awards contender because of Clint Eastwood's involvement -- opened to $284,000 on 6 screens for $47,333 per screen. Another piece of Oscar bait, The Reader, opened with marginally less fanfare, ending up with $170,000 on 8 screens ($21,250 per screen). These sets of numbers are promising, but the real test for these movies is what happens once they expand beyond their ultra-limited initial releases. Slumdog Millionare, for example, is handling its slow expansion very well, with $13,000 per-screen on 170 screens, after five weeks. There's not much to say about the other wide new releases. Nothing Like the Holidays, Overture's niche-y Christmas offering, was predictably lackluster, opening to $3.5 million. The computer-animated Delgo was another flop for Freestyle Releasing (which, as a commenter helpfully pointed out last week, is a for-hire distributor that has nothing to do with the production of its films) with less than $1 million on over 2000 screens. The only other thing I want to point out this week is that Quantum of Solace may have trouble setting the all-time Bond franchise record I had expected it to set handily. It has not held up well after a strong opening, and is now $10 million shy of Casino Royale's $167 million. Its weekend gross was $3.8 million, so it's going to be close. The full top 10 -- and then some -- is under the jump. Filed under: New Releases, Box OfficeContinue reading Weekend Box Office: 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' and Oscar Contenders Enter the Fray Permalink | Email this | Comments

Keanu Reeves stars in The Day the Earth Stood Still.Author: ITN Tags: movie buff movie news keanu reeves the day the earth stood still peter o'toole dean spanley Posted: 11 December 2008 Rating: 0.0 Votes: 0

Bank details knicked on Facebook - first movie sent into Space - Yes Man Author: ITN Tags: bank deatils facebook credit card details yes man jim carey keanu reeves the day the earth stood still Posted: 10 December 2008 Rating: 5.0 Votes: 1

Not long ago it was rumored that when J.J. Abrams' Star Trek hits theaters this May 8, it will do so by arriving in both conventional theaters and on IMAX screens. While nothing official has been announced yet, it appears the folks in charge are waiting till The Day the Earth Stood Still hits theaters. Why? Well, according to our peeps, a Star Trek trailer will be attached to IMAX prints of that film. Here's what a source told us: "We got our print-info sheet for Day the Earth Stood Still in IMAX and attached is a trailer for Star Trek. So it appears that JJ Abrams Trek Reboot/Remake is coming to IMAX in May." Not for nothing, but it seems like a fairly obvious choice to bring Star Trek to IMAX theaters since, as proven by The Dark Knight, the fanboy-ish stuff thrives in that environment. Unfortunately, unlike Dark Knight, Abrams did not shoot any of the film with IMAX cameras; instead, the flick will be converted to fit the format. What say you? How will you watch Star Trek -- in regular theaters or on IMAX screens?Filed under: Action, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Fandom, Exhibition, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels Permalink | Email this | Comments

White Dog Samuel Fuller's follow-up to The Big Red One was shelved by Paramount Pictures before its scheduled release in 1982 because of fears that its premise -- a white dog has been trained to attack black people -- would stir up more controversy than box office. Fuller was understandably outraged; in his autobiography, A Third Face, he wrote: "The studio has used me as a scapegoat for their lack of determination and courage." The film, co-written by Curtis Hanson (LA Confidential), with a score by the legendary Ennio Morricone, later received acclaim when it was released in Europe but never received a home video release in the US and has rarely been seen here. Kristy McNichol plays an actress who adopts the dog; Paul Winfield is as an anthropologist who tries to reverse the training. The Criterion Collection DVD includes a featurette with Hanson, producer Jon Davison, and Fuller's widow, plus a print interview with the dog trainer and essays by J. Hoberman and Armond White. I'm buying, but even if you're not a huge fan of Samuel Fuller, you'd want to check it out. Rent it. Step Brothers Combining Will Farrell, John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins, and Mary Steenburgen under one roof, Step Brothers mines familiar territory with sharp timing and plenty of belly laughs. Mine is, admittedly, a distinctly minority opinion. Available on DVD (single-disc rated, single-disc unrated, two-disc unrated) and Blu-ray, with an audio commentary by Farrell, Reilly, director Adam McKay, and a score by Jon Brion. Other features include deleted scenes and alternate takes, a gag reel, 'making of,' and a couple of gag featurettes. Rent it. Much more on Wanted, The X-Files: I Want to Believe, and The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian after the jump, plus Indies on DVD, Blu-ray Picks, and Collector's Corner.Filed under: Action, Animation, Classics, Comedy, Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, New on DVD, Family Films, Home Entertainment, Cinematical IndieContinue reading Spin-ematical: New on DVD for 12/02 Permalink | Email this | Comments

While it doesn't arrive in theaters until December, Fox feels pretty confident in their The Day the Earth Stood Still remake -- so much so that they aired roughly seven and a half minutes of footage last night during a repeat of the Fringe pilot. Seems a bit odd to show that much footage this far in advance of the film's release date, but apparently Fox wants to build good buzz now ... and, thankfully, it would appear the film warrants it. The footage (which you can see after the jump) is not comprised of one, long extended scene. Instead, we're taken through a whole bunch of scenes from what would appear to be the first half of the film, with some playing out a bit longer than others. Essentially, The Day the Earth Stood Still tells of an alien visitor (Keanu Reeves) and a giant robot who land on earth and turn the place upside down. Jennifer Connelly, Jaden Smith, Kathy Bates and John Cleese also star. Check out the seven-minute clip after the jump. The Day the Earth Stood Still hits theaters on December 12. Gallery: The Day the Earth Stood Still Filed under: Drama, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery & Suspense, Fandom, Movie Marketing, Remakes and Sequels, Trailers and ClipsContinue reading Watch This: Seven Minutes of 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Mystery & Suspense, Fandom, Exhibition, DIY/Filmmaking, Movie Marketing, Comic/Superhero/Geek, Remakes and Sequels, ComicCon I'm not exactly sure how a scheduled block of round-table interviews turned into a half-organized two-headed press conference, but that's pretty much how it went down in this particular convention hall room. (Sounds like I'm complaining, but I'm just trying to give you a taste of the chaos that goes on here: Nothing's on time, nobody seems to have the right answers, and a lot of time is simply spent ... waiting. (It's fun AND frustrating!) But to be fair, it's not every day you sit in a room populated by Mark Wahlberg, Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, and Mila Kunis (among others) -- but there we were! (We, um, weren't allowed to take photos -- at a press conference. Don't ask me.) After much waiting and friendly nerd-banter among patient movie folks, the cast and director of Max Payne walked in to share their thoughts on their upcoming videogame adaptation. Mr. Wahlberg was quick to note that, while he wasn't much of a game player, he was very excited about playing a kick-ass action hero. Interviewers wanted to know why the actor chose a popcorn movie after The Departed, and one even poked a little fun: "So you won't be running away from the wind in this one?" (A cute quip, but a little classless.) When the questioners focused on director John Moore, he was his typically enthusiastic self, promising fans a gritty good time that delivers the mayhem. And just as the adorable Mila Kunis was about to explain how her character is actually a kick-ass assassin-type...Continue reading SDCC: Fox Presents 'Max Payne' and 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' Permalink | Email this | Comments