Did anyone catch "Tha Andromeda Strain" last night - Videokarma.org TV - Video

stuwee · #1 05-27-2008, 10:25 AM

I saw most of it, and thought it was quite good for a made-for-TV SCI-FI thing. It was on A&E and though I missed the very end, it's a 2parter, yes? I saw the original years ago, and can't watch it again, because of the monkey scene, I can't watch anything with seizures in it, especaily if animals are involved.

kcollins4 · #2 05-27-2008, 10:34 AM

My wife and I liked it. We'll be watching part 2 tonight. Wish I'd read the book, so I'd have an idea which movie version was more accurate.

ablethevoice · #3 05-27-2008, 10:38 AM

Yeah, I saw part one last night and so far, it was a DOG. I'm really not too optimistic that part two will be any better. If someone would have streamlined the script and not padded it with so much bullshit it might have been marginally better. Certainly didn't have to be stretched into a mini-series. Adding the reporter story thread, and the wife needing help story thread was totally unnecessary and was crammed in there only to add to the running time and make sure that all the sponsors got their million commercials in. Stupid.

It's one of my favorite books, and Robert Wise did an amazing job with the 1971 movie- but this...this is unforgivable.

BTW, The "animal death" scenes were totally staged and NO animal was killed in the original. They used pure CO2 and knocked the critters out. The instant the scene was shot, a vet rushed in and gave the rat and monkey pure O2. Less than a minute later, they were as good as new. In fact, if you watch the original again a split-second before the camera cuts away from the "dead" monkey, you can see the vet's reflection in the stainless steel wall behind and to the right of the cage as he rushes in with the oxygen.

botrytis · #4 05-27-2008, 10:50 AM

My wife never saw the original movie and I told her she needed to watch it before watching this one - I guess I was right.

Celt · #5 05-27-2008, 10:59 AM

I hope I didn't "catch" it!

WhiteSE · #6 05-27-2008, 11:35 AM

i saw it and got bored....i wonder if the A-bomb aboard the F-16 will detonate???

arctic_man · #7 05-27-2008, 11:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stuwee

I saw most of it, and thought it was quite good for a made-for-TV SCI-FI thing. It was on A&E and though I missed the very end, it's a 2parter, yes? I saw the original years ago, and can't watch it again, because of the monkey scene, I can't watch anything with seizures in it, especaily if animals are involved.

it wasnt quite made for TV, more of a book first. From what a few of you are saying it sounds like they went astray from the book too. The book was great if you like sci fi books, Michael Crichton is a great writer, Jurassic Park, Eaters of the Dead, The Lost world, Timeline, Sphere, Congo, n many more

gearhound · #8 05-27-2008, 12:53 PM

I agree withablethevoice.....I rated it one dog bone.
Compared to the book and the original 1971.....it's a soap-opera joke.

Steve

stuwee · #9 05-27-2008, 02:13 PM

Well, I'm still gonna watch part II, my roomie has the Sci-fi channel on when he's home, period. End of sentence, that's all he watches,

!! Thankfully, we have 3 TV's in the house

Sometimes I walk by the one he's watching and, stupidly think maybe this one will be worth a looksee, the last one was Teradactyle(sp) OMG, the flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz were high-tech compared to the dreck I saw on that one and the acting ten times worse than (insert worst acting in a movie Here)

Sorry I guess what I'm saying is having been desensitized by that, I thought the updated computer stuff was refreshing

Thanks for the animal info! I wasn't sure. That was right around the time activist started to cry foul on movies doing bad stuff with animals.

DaWoofer · #10 05-27-2008, 02:35 PM

I watched it and did not expect it to rival the original but I was hoping just to see their effects (digital) and to see what else they might add to the plot. I will watch part two just to finish it so I won't ever have to see it again in the future. I really only watched it cause A&E usually has pretty good programming.

Twenty20Man · #11 05-27-2008, 03:10 PM

i hate monkeys anyway..

Tedrick · #12 05-27-2008, 10:15 PM

Having read the book and seen the original movie numerous times (a real classic BTW), when I saw the trailers for the mini-series this past weekend, I just KNEW it was going to suck. Glad I didn't waste any time watching it.

ablethevoice · #13 05-27-2008, 10:19 PM

I just finished watching part two

The suckage increased exponentially with every passing minute. Got so bad my living room was positively windy. Almost lost my cat in the TV,
Poor Chrichton. He oughta get this production banned from ever being aired again and stop the DVD sales as well.

***Eric H*** · #14 05-27-2008, 10:24 PM

I passed on this one after reading the reviews.

I'm not at all fond of the original either, I was surprised to see Robert Wise was the director because he's done a lot of really great films.

ablethevoice · #15 05-27-2008, 10:50 PM

I beg to differ, Eric. Wise's version was amazing. He captured the same tensity and claustrophobic feeling that the book had without resorting to empty story threads and 80 minutes of padding. This new one rushed through some of the most thrilling revelations and darrrraaaaaaagggggedddd through a bunch of crap that just plain wasn't even in the original story. They killed off not one, but TWO of the team members geez I could go on and on but I've already wasted too much of my time on this abortion just watching it.