Keep Watching The Skies
April 5th – April 11th
Extract – Mostly underwhelmed with this one. I love, love, love Office Space. It probably gets quoted or referenced at least once a week in our house. And, as they say, Idiocracy is flawed but does have its moments. So, I was looking forward to Mike Judge’s latest. Despite an excellent cast, the film just flops around the factory floor like some gasping fish. There are some moments. David Koechner is annoyingly funny as the persistent neighbor. Ben Affleck’s druggie bartender was a pleasant respite. And Mila Kunis’ con-woman story had some potential. But in the end, a few laughs here and there don’t add up to a whole hell of a lot.
The Thing From Another World – The sixth and final installment of our Sci-Fi Horror Marathon. This one from 1951. A familiar premise that can be seen throughout the horror genre. A group of people take refuge from a monster-creature in an outpost of some type. In this case, a group of military men, scientists, and a newspaper man take refuge in an arctic outpost from an extraterrestrial “carrot-like” monster. The horror is less about the monster and more about the fear of being trapped and of the unknown intruder and the dark and mysterious outside.
While working my way through the first season of The X-Files which just showed up on Netflix Instant Viewing, I ended up watching the “Ice” episode right after The Thing From Another World. That episode featured Mulder and Scully (along with a couple of scientists and a pilot) trapped in an outpost in Alaska desperately trying to survive a potentially extraterrestrial intruder. The Thing certainly lives on.
