This movie review about the remake of “the Day the Earth Stood Still” was one of the better slams I’ve read in years:
“Simply put, the script is just howlingly awful, full of dialogue and situations that make it not just impossible but pointless to suspend disbelief. Mr. Derrickson tries to fill the screen with the sort of flashy sequences that viewers expect from this kind of movie, but the results are much more aw-shucks than shock-and-awe.
The pulsing globe-of-light thing is nothing we haven’t seen before, the giant robot looks like something out of an ‘80s heavy-rock video, and then there is Keanu Reeves as the alien, Klaatu. An alien who is all but emotionless and speaks in a monotone – isn’t that the role Mr. Reeves was born to play? Based on previous performances, you might think so, and yet he still seems shallow and unconvincing. There are supposed to be some deep reverberations going on within Klaatu as he comes to realize that we humans have some good qualities beneath our hateful surface, but watching Mr. Reeves’ face is like staring at a TV tuned to a dead station.
Keanu Reeves is a wonder star! You wonder why he’s a star!
Keanu Reeves as the alien, Klaatu. An alien who is all but emotionless and speaks in a monotone – isn’t that the role Mr. Reeves was born to play? Based on previous performances, you might think so, and yet he still seems shallow and unconvincing.
***Who says movie reviewers can’t write? Basically he says that Keanu Reeves looks shallow and unconvincing when he’s playing an emotionless monotonic character. A sock puppet would do a better job acting. Now... that’s good writing. I disagree with the reviewer, but it’s still excellent writing.