Saturday 26 January 2008

Good question

I was watching a great science fiction film this afternoon. "This Island Earth", which I think I saw when I was very young. I kept getting deja vu as I watched it.

It happened to be starting as I was flicking through the channels, and I thought I'd watch it and see if it was any good. It was great.

There was a square-jawed hero nuclear scientist, a glamorous yet brainy female nuclear scientist who, despite being one of the finest minds in the world, shrieked and fell over whenever anything mildy stressful happened, and a bunch* of aliens in improbable makeup.

I think what really made me decide to see it through to the end was this:

Picture the scene.....a small plane has been involved in a bizarre near-crash incident, the pilot (square jawed nuclear hero bloke) losing control and being engulfed in a weird green glow.

So far so good.

The next scene, hero and scientific sidekick mate are discussing this odd event, the phone rings and the hero speaks to someone who has been running tests on the plane.

Hero: "What? Nothing wrong with the plane?" (Pause) "Well, did you check the controls?"

I love the idea that the team of aeronautical engineers in the hangar might go "Fuck! If only WE'D thought of that! The Controls! Well, no wonder he's a genius world famous scientist."

FOr all I know, they could have, I suppose.



*A very small bunch. I think they had a limited costume budget.

4 comments:

Verdant Earl said...

Did you see the Mystery Science 3000 movie? They spoofed this film, so you might be getting deja vu from that.

livesbythewoods said...

Hello Mr Earl, nope, never seen that as far as I know.

I seem to recall watching a whole raft of old sci fi films as a child, but can never remember much abut any of them until I see them again, when I do the "Oh yeah...he gets killed in a minute" thing.

badgerdaddy said...

The best of the bunch, no question, is "The Day The Earth Stood Still" and Fox - who are total wankers - actually did a great job on the restoration of the print.

Which makes me think some other bucnh did the work and Fox probably fucked them over for it. And don't get me started on the woman that does the PR for 20th C Fox - she is an utter arsehole.

But what a wonderful movie - even now it stays in my top five, it's that good.

livesbythewoods said...

Ooh yes! I remember that one. I love that kind of film.

I don't love zombie films, though.