The MacGuffin

In honor of the release of Dark Skies, Spencer and Greg discuss alien movies.

There is something to be said for a film knowing what is and embracing it. Not every film that is entertaining is necessarily good. From the trailer, that was my immediate impression of what I should expect with Lockout, and for the most part I got what I expected.

Let me just say this upfront: the new “prelude” to John Carpenter’s movie The Thing (hereafter known as The Thing (JC)) is not an abomination. The Thing, also the name of the new movie, is an adequate bug hunt movie. If you have never seen The Thing (JC) and you liked Aliens, and you don’t like movies with subtext, then you might enjoy this. It has lots of explosions, monsters jumping out at people, tons of CGI gore, and fire. The plot proceeds logically and somewhat makes sense. There is a place for this kind of movie, and what it severely lacks in originality, it kind of makes up for by being competently directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr. If you have seen The Thing (JC), then you will realize that this is a middle-of-the-road remake (of a remake) that is pretending not to be one. It’s not offensively bad, but it is completely mediocre and you would be better off just watching The Thing (JC) again.

A look back on the sometimes tumultuous career of Nicolas Cage in honor of the release of Season of the Witch, a discussion of some of the best DVD commentaries, and DVD picks of the week.

The Thing
1982; directed by John Carpenter; screenplay by Bill Lancaster, from the story by John W. Campbell, Jr.

John: The best remake ever made.