That was the film which was in cinemas for one day, then released on DVD the day after wasn't it? Sounds a bit bonkers

Yup! It's weirdly good.

No, you are completely wrong and it don't matter how many times you say it, The Thing (2011) is not a remake. The film quite obviously centres on the story from the Norwegian perspective leading up to the beginning of John Carpenter's version. Yes, there are going to be similarities in the set design, characters and creatures, because the thread has to lead on to the John Carpenter film without it "jarring" to much, but to say that this is a remake highlights either your mi-interpretation of the film or a general blind dislike for the film and no matter what anyone says you are probably unlikely to change your mind.

Oh i know the story line is a prequel

But it shamelessly trades of the original

Now you are just splitting hairs. If you are going to say that about The Thing (2011), then you can level that at many, many films past and present. I think it's clear you have a dislike of this film, I however don't agree with your assessment or your arguments, so I think this is classic case of we can agree to disagree (otherwise we could end up trading comments till Christmas).

So, tonight I may (depending on the football) watch Chronicle. Anyone seen this film?

I haven't seen Chronicle yet. Did you watch it in the end, EC?

I have - its awful

I saw Captain America this week, and thought it was poor compared to Iron Man, Thor etc. I don't really like the character either, don't sense any kind of charisma from Chris Evans at all. Boring, but was worth watching for Hugo Weaving's character, and for the Avengers backstory.

I finally saw Avengers Assemble and bloody loved it! Awesome job by Joss Whedon, the laughs were a surprise too, it was so funny! Terrific film.

We saw the first 'extra' scene after the first lot of credits, but I've just seen the other clip that appears right at the end, after all the credits have rolled. We probably would have stayed for that but the cinema staff stood giving us evil looks for still sitting there, so we left!! Meanies.

 (edit: just seen that the ending clip is apparently not included in the UK version, so maybe that's why the staff were glaring at us, lol)

Can't wait for Thor 2!

Yes Katerina, I watched it and got to say it's not great. Well used storyline you will have seen many times before. I did not think all of the effects were that great either. Spoiler of sorts: boys get superpower, boys spend time developing skills in various ways, it all then starts to go a bit wrong, one boy becomes evil, the other (good) boy engages him in a fight to death - end.

I would have made a comedy out of it.

Watch it if you really don't mind losing that time from your life.

I can't find too many Brits who really identify with Capt. America the way they do with characters like Batman or Spiderman or Iron Man (I think some of that has to do with the wit delivered by Robert Downey Jr.).

I thought it was OK, but did not blow my socks off or something I would want to see again soon, but as you say, I wanted to watch all of the films leading up to AA.

The jury is still out for me with Thor, I will however welcome Thor 2 as enjoy this genre of film. Did you see Green Lantern?

May I just say - of Chronicle . . .

Thought the trailer was fascinating and the concept - although nothing new - was given a scary edge. Powers but you can't control it

Sadly it got silly very quickly.

All of a sudden they can fly - it wud terrify any normal person and as we're asked to believe this is factual by the "shaky camera" documentary style ...then it borders on the laughable.

Shame - it  had potential

Anyone seen Another Earth?

I watched it last night and thought it was going to be all about the second Earth.

But it was much more to do with a girl who is trying to come to terms with her part in a fatal accident. The way the film developed led me to think that I have seen something very similar in terms of the plot development, but can't put my finger on what it is.

Despite me expecting a Sci-Fi film and not getting it, I did quite enjoy it.

I thought Chronicle was great. I know I would be flying if i got those powers.

Top film 

Don't get me wrong, with those powers I would certainly have some fun. Although I would not kill spiders. I may "influence the odd game of football", but I would certainly not lift girls skirts. 

Just decided to go to bed early and watch Ghost Rider 2: Spirit of Vengence. Not seen it but as I had seen the first tim thought I would see what his one has to offer. 

I've seen it.  Quite satirical in its own way.  I'll hire any old crap when I've got Saturday night's TV hanging over me like a hangman's noose. I expected it to be campy and crap but entertaining and it was.

That said, the premise was intentionally stupid but still done with some serious intent.  Despite what the premise suggests, it actually had a reasonable budget.  It was quite a swipe at American foreign policy and right wing politics.  It won't have gone down very well with Tea Party types at all.

I don't know if I'd recommend it, but it isn't crap.  It definitely has its moments of humour and is camp but the plot is carried sufficiently to keep me watching.  The special effects are quite good -considering!  The acting is campy as you'd expect, but adequate for the film type.  Better than shite like "Epic Movie".

It isn't really a sci-fi film.  I was disappointed as really the whole "Earth 2" thing was totally implausible and a plot device to hang a "Sliding Doors", "A Christmas Carol", "It's a wonderful life" what if story on. 

The girl was infuriatingly annoying and somewhat unsympathetic, as she just  mooched around and then decided to sneak into the life of a grieving man on false pretences.  Aside from the awful science, a major plot flaw was that he didn't recognise her despite the fact that she was sentenced in a court to prison.  We're supposed to believe a man who's wife and child had been killed in a traffic accident wouldn't attend the trial and sentencing of the person who did it and have no idea of her identity at all.

"It isn't really a sci-fi film" - Yes, I knew that, I just thought it would be from the title and trailer.

"I was disappointed as really the whole "Earth 2" thing was totally implausible" - Implausible from a physics perspective, yes, it could never happen. But as a plot device, they used it to give the husband a chance at the end of the film to be reunited with another version of his family and a way for the girl to try to gain forgiveness.

"The girl was infuriatingly annoying and somewhat unsympathetic, as she just  mooched around and then decided to sneak into the life of a grieving man on false pretences" - Her mooching as you put it was her externalising her inner turmoil and how she was coping with the consequences of her actions. The fact she took a job where she was pretty much working solitary and performing a rather basic job.

The girl was going to front up the husband at his house, but bottled it at the last moment, using the cleaning service as get out. You could say false pretences, but I think it was more like she was forced into it by not wanting to come clean at that point. I helped as far as the story goes because she played a part in helping the husband's recovery from grieving and part of her own reabilitation.

"Aside from the awful science, a major plot flaw was that he didn't recognise her despite the fact that she was sentenced in a court to prison." - Well, I would not place too much emphasis on the science as you could pull a million and one films to pieces when it come to scientific inaccuracies. But it was explained in the film that because the girl was a minor when the offence took place she could not be identified and that is why he did not know what she looked like or what she was called. The offence also took place 4 years prior to her starting a relationship with him. So yes, he would not know anything about her.

I liked Another Earth, found it a thoughtful and emotive film. Not a sci-fi movie but a movie about human relationships and redemption. I also thought that the cleaning was a metaphor as well as a plot device. The prospect of Earth 2 intrigued me ( the questions - what would you say to yourself if you met the 'other you' etc) and I wanted to know more, and see more of it.

EC - I haven't seen Green Lantern yet but it's on my Lovefilm list.

A few people have said that now, so I just wanted to stick my oar in:

IMO, "Another Earth" is absolutely Sci-Fi. It's a classic example of what Sci-Fi is all about: at its best, the genre is not really about fantasy and other worlds at all, but rather it's about using those elements to examine the here-and-now...

Which shud i choose to see

Snow White

or

Abe Lincoln ???

Personally, Snow White, I am just a bit Vampire'd out, there has been way too much on TV and film over recent years.

I would be interested to know what you think. I don't know the world of the Green Lantern - well only what I have learnt from The Big Bang Theory - lol

Yes, an interesting opinion and one which I have heard before and one which I think is well used in Star Trek. But I don't think Another Earth is Sci-fi, mainly because there is little to no Sci-fi elements to it save for the second Earth.

I would also say that Sci-fi is not all about examining the here and now (although I think you can probably find a metaphor to something current or recent in most Sci-fi films - whether the film maker intended it or not - I like to think not everyone is trying to say something in a film). For example, what is being said in Transformers? For me it's a switch off the brain and enjoy some well animated robots kicking the living cr*p out of each other - some may see it as a direct comparison to the Bush regime and his outlook on foreign policy.

Good chatting Eugene - enjoy the debate.

Well, quite; but that's why I prefixed my earlier comment with "at its best"...

Y'see i can't get enough vampire stuff

But Snow White looks more polished

Hmmm

I went to see Prometheus last week and really enjoyed it, though I felt that the trailer gave too much away.

I'd go for Snow White.....but I reckon Kristen Stewart's moody face might annoy me a bit.

Saw the trailer for Abe Lincoln the other night, but nothing in it really grabbed me.

Made a decision yet, Saint?

A few film updates, from me:

The Woman in Black - dull, not-scary, Daniel Radcliffe proves to me that he's not much of an actor (has the same expression throughout the entire film)

The Grey - really good survival film. Quite dark and 'artsy' in places, but it definitely captured the feeling of wanting to survive.

Footloose (Remake) -even if this wasn't a remake it still would've been completely pointless. I know the story in the original wasn't much to go by, but this one didn't really try anything new.  The female lead was smoking hot though.

Abe Lincoln, but only because that awful 'couldn't act her way out of a wet paper bag' girl from Twilight is in Snow White.

We rented to first 2 a few weeks ago.  Woman in Black was watchable, but in no way scary.  The Grey, must be a bloke film, husband and son enjoyed it, I fell asleep.

I'm off along to blockbuster now and intend to rent The Descendants & Carnage.

Back from Blockbuster and in addition to the 2 movies mentioned above I also rented Chronicle and The Muppets.

"The Muppets" is great! 

(Mind you, I do have a bit of a thing for Amy Adams...  )

yeah, it is pretty blokey - but still good. Although Renton probably wouldn't enjoy it, not enough camp vampires I'm afraid.

Hey !!! 

 . . . although i do bloody love a vampire movie 

I can't agree with 'at it's best' because there were so many plot holes and, to my mind, implausible behaviours. 

As I wrote in my earlier posts I found the girl's behaviour more than a little bit implausible and melodramatic.  As a drama, for the girl to sneak into the life of someone whose wife and son she had accidentally killed and to then sleep with him is more the plot of a psychological sex thriller/horror.

The bad science made Star Wars look highly plausible by comparison and would have been better relegated to 'a portal' where the plot device would not imply physical consequences or any further explanations other than being 'magic' or of 'alien technology'.  "The Butterfly Effect" used a plot device that didn't imply any real world consequences nor need explanations beyond the main character suffering bizarre blackouts and was all the more better for it.

The post-crash legalities just seemed a bit suspect but American sentencing policy is ridiculously harsh and long sentences are common.  Even so, I find it difficult to believe that she would have been anonymous to her victim yet still sentenced to four years as a 'minor' who was about to go to MIT and owned a car.  I don't know the intricacies of the US legal system but it just seems unlikely.

Finally there was the plot device where despite having this massive habitable planet on its doorstep, no Earth governments were prepared to send a mission, and it fell on private enterprise to mount the mission and to run nothing more than an essay writing competition to find one of its astronauts.

Those are some really big plot holes!

Although a TV series . . . . has anyone seen The 4400 ??

Saw a few episodes when it was aired on Sky 3, as it was then, but can't say it ever really held my attention that much.  Just seemed like a load of pretty people in a soap within a sci fi premise.  Can't remember if there were lots of character enhancing flashbacks, but there probably was.  That was definitely the style at the time.