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Posted on 05/05/2004 7:57:51 AM PDT by HairOfTheDog
New verse:
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Upon the hearth the fire is red, |
Still round the corner there may wait |
Home is behind, the world ahead, |
And unlike good popcorn flicks, like "Day After Tomorrow", Heinlein doesn't deserve to be mocked and scorned. If it looks bad I won't go.
The best one I've seen (though it doesn't follow the book exactly) is Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), which was redone in 1978. I've also seen another one closer to the book--I think this was it:
I refer to that movie as "that disgrace". Hmmph. Don't get me started.
I'm just guessing, but maybe because it's shorter so it gets more widely read than Asimov's other stuff? I haven't read "Bicentennial Man"; will check that out.
BTW I have an Asimov collection I haven't read here yet called The Best of Isaac Asmiov where he lists his favorites of his own stories--here's the contents:
1939: Marooned Off Vesta
1941: Nightfall
1951: C-Chute
1952: The Martian Way
1952: The Deep
1954: The Fun They Had
1956: The Last Question (I've read this one elsewhere)
1956: The Dead Past
1956: The Dying Night
1959: Anniversary
1967: The Billiard Ball
1972: Mirror Image
Here's Asimov's own comments on "Nightfall" there:
"Yet within less than three years of the start of my career it turned out that I had written the best of Asimov. At least, 'Nightfall' has been frequently reprinted, is commonly referred to as a 'clasic. . .One of its advantages is that it has a unique plot. There was nothing resembling it ever published before (as far as I know) and of course, it is now so well known that it can never be published again. . .Yet I was only twenty-one when I wrote it and was still feeling my way. It isn't my favorite. Later on, I'll tell you what my favorite is and you can judge for yourself."
Okay, every time I bring that movie up you guys display an urge to bash it but restrain yourselves, so I can tell you're just itching to bash it, which piques my curiosity on what you find so bashable about it :) So out with it! What am I supposed to find bashable about the adaptation? :)
I saw the movie The Bicentennial Man, starring Robin Williams, and enjoyed it. I have no idea if it was close to Asimov's story, since I never read the original story. But, I thought the movie was thought-provoking, and raised some interesting questions concerning what qualifies as "life".
BTW, has anyone ever tried adapting Stranger in a Strange Land? I'm kinda surprised if not, seeing how popular that was in the 60s.
Here's another Asimov volume I have but haven't read yet which looks interesting (I pick these up from rummage sales whenever I spot them but often don't get around to them 'til much later):
"Asimov's Mysteries"
Contents
The Singing Bell
The Talking Stone
What's in a Name?
The Dying Night
Pate de Foie Gras
The Dust of Death
A Loint of Paw
I'm in Marsport without Hilda
Marooned Off Vesta
Anniversary
Obituary
Star Light
The Key
The Billiard Ball
Emm... well... it had nothing in common with the novel other than the title and a couple character names? Maybe that was it.
Ok, embarrassing moment... we have about three copies of all the "Harry Potter" books - hardcover, softcover, whatever, but we also have a complete set of "English" editions. That is, the version they sell in England. There are some minor differences... anyway, I was looking for the English copy of one of them, ransacking my siblings' shelves... only to recall that it was on my own shelf. Heh.
It's a reference to the movie Steel Magnolias. The groom's aunt made a red velvet cake in the shape of an armadillo, and covered it in grey icing. When you cut into it, it looked like the insides of a creature. It was kinda gross looking.
When the father of the bride (who was annoying the aunt of the groom) asked for a piece of cake, she hacked off the tail of the armadillo and gave it to him. He just smiled and said "I always did like a nice piece of tail."
Steel Magnolias is a fun movie, but a real tear jerker. It stars Julia Roberts(the bride), Sally Fields (mother of the bride), Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis, Shirley MacLaine, and Daryl Hannah. Tom Skerrit plays the father of the bride and Dylan McDermott is the groom.
LOL! Sometimes I have a copy of something but I have so many other books I forget I have it, so I end up going to the library and checking it out, only to discover afterwords that I already had it :)
Yeah, it's gonna be fun. So where do you want to meet up; Fairlee, so you don't have so far to drive home, or back at the Borders in Lebanon, NH? I can get some supper at either place, or we can go to that Applebees in Lebanon again.
There are a few authors like that I feel a need to go back and reread periodically--Tolkien of course, Heinlein, Verne, Wells, Poe, Stephen King, a few others. And certain runs of Spiderman and X-Men :)
I saw the movie The Bicentennial Man, starring Robin Williams, and enjoyed it. I have no idea if it was close to Asimov's story, since I never read the original story. But, I thought the movie was thought-provoking, and raised some interesting questions concerning what qualifies as "life".
Did you see AI? What did you think of that?
LOL! That sounds like something out of Peter Jackson's early movie Bad Taste :)
BTW, speaking of Olympia Dukakis, I always wondered, is she related to Michael Dukakis or not?
He is one of my favorite actors. His voice is just wonderful! I listened to him narrate Thomas Hardy's "Return of the Native" on audio tape once. OH YEAH!
On the Azkaban preview, I saw that Emma Thompson is going to play Professor Trelawney. She's another favorite of mine. She and Alan Rickman played in the movie Love Actually. I haven't seen it yet, but I saw their picture on the DVD box the other day.
Yes, I think she's a good choice. Like Kenneth Branagh was for Lockhart - inspired casting! The version of "Much Ado About Nothing" with that pair is one of my favorite movies ever.
Alan Rickman gets to be very evil in this movie. Just in the previews, he's dripping hate and scorn around. I love his acting.
Just a week... tomorrow, we plan logistics and order tickets. Might have to go Friday afternoon, in which case I'll work extra Tuesday night. It's nice to have a somewhat flexible schedule.
So did you get any more writing done today?
But, even if the movie was named something other then "Starship Troopers", and claimed no relationship with the novel, I still wouldn't like it. The military training, weapons, and tactics portrayed in the movie are just so unbelievable to me that I can't stand it. Some examples:
1. Training: Twice, the drill sergeant deliberately injures a trainee; I just don't think it would happen in reality. The government spends too much money training recruits to allow them to be deliberately injured in training!
2. Weapons: The humans seem to have no weapons other than rifles, hand-thrown grenades, and mini-nukes. No tanks, or armored vehicles of any kind are shown. Close air support is non-existent; in fact, the only aircraft shown are the shuttles that ferry troops from the spaceships to the surface, and back. In terms of firepower and weaponry, our troops in Iraq right now would outclass what was shown in the movie!
3. Tactics: Several times, the humans are shown confronting bug warriors, standing in line in the open and firing with their automatic rifles; that sort of tactic went out with the introduction of the machine gun in World War I. At one point, a squad of soldiers is making their way down a valley when they're attacked by flying bugs; no one thought to send some scouts up to the top of the valley walls. Later, the same squad makes it to an open-air fortress, just four walls in the middle of nowhere. The mounted guns are ignored in favor of the troopers standing on top of the walls and firing their rifles at the hordes of advancing bugs; despite the evidence of flying bugs, the fortress doesn't even have a roof!
I won't go into the stupid decisions made by the squadron leader, such as shooting and killing a trooper picked up by a flying bug ("It's what I would want if it happened to me!" he yells). Oops, I just did go into it... oh well, there is much more to hate in the movie, what I've listed is just a start.
I hear Rose typing away behind me; I suspect you're about to get another earful of things to hate about the movie....
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