The Thing - A Thriller Classic
Added 11/8/2009
Not many movies really deserve the praise that being branded a "classic" entails (if by "classic" we mean something that people theoretically would watch in 2000 years, if civilization hadn't more or less collapsed already, of course). This is, I'm fairly certain, one of those few movies that manage to capture the best of a decade and could probably be called a "classic". Someone pointed out in a review that a movie like this had to be made in 1982, and I think there is something to that. Nobody would make something like this, not in the age of "Grey's Anatomy" and Britney Spears. "We" have definitively lost something in our culture, yet how major it is time will show.
The film is heavily inspired by Lovecraft's excellent tale "At the Mountains of Madness", both about the Antarctic and both about strange creatures originally from Space. Of course, the beginning is rather silly when it comes to the desperate "Norwegians". How hard could it be to find just two Norwegians, or someone in America that speaks Norwegian? For us Scandinavians, from the way the actors speak "Norwegian", it can be compared to someone from Jamaica supposed to be Joe American. That being said, the film starts out intensely with said "Norwegians" desperately chasing a dog over the frozen winter lands, attempting to shoot it from the air. A taste of things to come, yet the dog manages to escape into safety at the American research base. As it will turn out, had the American scientists listened to the warning offered by the Norwegians, things might have been different.
The escaped dog is placed among the other dogs in the kennel, and from this horror shall spawn. The film is an awesome film for several reasons, for one it is one of the last films made with conventional physical effects, before CGI. For this reason, the film is ever-green, not being outdated and more or less unwatchable a few years later, like most CGI-based films from the 80's and 90's. It is a bit gory for my taste at times, but it serves a purpose. Another reason the film is so great is the excellent soundtrack, and apart from the acting and the setting, the main positive feature of this great film is the suspense. The film manages to capture a situation where nobody trusts anybody perfectly, and alliances shift constantly among the station crew. Who has been infected and replaced by the alien force, and who is still human? It really is one of the most suspense filled movies I have ever seen, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.
Set in Antarctica and containing aliens, what else could anyone wish for? 5 stars for this excellent thriller.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Ten Extremely Serious Problems With "The Thing"
Added 11/8/2009
The Thing is undoubtedly one of the greatest glob-fest monster movies ever made, but it's got all sorts of extremely serious problems that drive me insane every time I watch it. Here are ten of them in no particular order.
ONE. In the opening sequence where the helicopter is chasing the dog, the Norwegian tosses out a bomb or grenade or whatever it is while flying RIGHT OVER the dog, BUT the bomb explodes a couple hundred yards in the background. John Carpenter must think his viewers are all as stoned as the characters in his movie if he thinks we'll buy that!!
TWO. When Mack loses to the chess computer, he dumps a glass full of ice and whiskey into the thing and shorts it out. NO WAY HE WOULD DO THAT!!!! This is Antarctica. You don't just destroy one of your only sources of entertainment like that! What a moron! (But what do you expect from a guy who goes through most of the movie slurping on a bottle of J & B?)
THREE. When the guy who gets shot asks the cook to turn his music down, the cook doesn't do it. This wouldn't happen in a real base where these characters have to live with each other for months on end in total isolation. Never mind the fact that they have a black cook who goes around calling everybody "bwana."
FOUR. What's with all the seedy bums slouching around boozing it up and smoking weed at an Antarctic research station? Not bloody likely (imagine British accent). Half of them don't even seem to have jobs. They're just there, hanging around, getting loaded and watching old reruns of The Price Is Right.
FIVE. Why is everybody constantly ragging on the dumb hippy radio operator because he can't raise anyone on the radio? Of course he can't raise anyone on the radio! It's Antarctica. (Actually, he should have been able to raise all sorts of people, but never mind that).
SIX. This is a big one. When the doctor, Blair, is explaining how the alien imitates other life forms, he's walking around this huge disgusting oozing tentacled pile of guts, alien bacteria and half-digested dogs, poking at various bits of slime with the eraser on his pencil. THEN, still talking, HE TAPS THE ERASER AGAINST HIS MOUTH!!! What a moron! Maybe that's how he got infected...
SEVEN. Why the HELL does an Antarctic research station need FLAME THROWERS???? I've never been able to figure this out.
EIGHT. Blair's computer simulation of the spread of the alien cells is so crude, primitive and SLOW that it makes me want to shoot myself every time I watch it. I mean, he could have worked all that crap out on a slide rule faster than it took to run the program (and he would have had to work it out in advance to write the program in the first place).
NINE. Mack at one point destroys one of the things by blowing it up with a stick of dynamite. That makes no sense at all. If every particle of the thing can infect another host, all he accomplished was spreading it all over the place. Not very bright, but what do you expect from a drunken helicopter pilot?
TEN. Where did the thing who had taken over Blair find all the parts it needed to create that miniature flying saucer? I mean, they stuck him in the TOOL SHED, for Christ's sake. What exactly were they keeping in that tool shed? A miniature nuclear reactor? An antigravity device?
I could go on about this--on and on and on--but I'll leave it at that. If you're reading this, Carpenter, I demand an explanation!!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Excellent service
Added 10/28/2009
It is an excellent product and the delivery service was excellente as well. I will keep ordering with you guys.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
The Thing (1982)
Added 10/26/2009
The Thing(1982-I am not sure I have seen the original) is a good suspenseful yet disgusting and gory (overdone) movie. It's Horror with Sci Fi and limbs ripped off, heads moving,dogs mutating. it creeped the hell out of me growing up and then seeing it again. I guess 82' was a good year!(I was born ;) )
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Without a doubt, one of the greatest horror movies ever made!
Added 10/24/2009
"The Thing" stars Kurt Russell and Wilford Brimley and is directed by John Carpenter. Right from the getgo, you know that this is going to be an awesome horror movie. And if that's what you guessed, well you are indeed correct! "The Thing" is a movie that's the epitome of paranoia and claustrophobia. The movie takes place among the barren landscapes of Antarctica, and focuses around twelve men secluded in a laboratory in the middle of the frost and snow. Then of course, comes the mysterious threat of the Thing!
There are so many good points of this movie, it's hard to pick just a few highlights. "The Thing" is one of those movies where everything is done right. From the characters, who are all likeable, down-to-earth men that develop their different personalities over the course of the movie. Then of course the ever-intensifying atmosphere of the film, which grows and thickens with the growing threat of the mysterious Thing. The setting is also great, showing the terror of being isolated in an area with something dangerous in your midst. And probably most apparent is the absolute brilliance of the special effects! Nowadays, it's not common to find a movie with such great special effects, as a good deal of would-be great modern horror flicks are ruined by half-done CGI. Don't worry here, though, because "The Thing" is fully loaded with awesome special effects that'll have you loving the movie even more!
Overall, "The Thing" is, as I previously mentioned, one of those movies where basically everything is simply done right. I certainly think that this movie would earn its spot among the highest-ranked horror films of all time, and is a movie that is still enjoyable no matter how much it ages, or how many times you watch it. Highly recommended! Thanks for the time, and peace.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
The Thing - A Thriller Classic
Added 11/8/2009
Not many movies really deserve the praise that being branded a "classic" entails (if by "classic" we mean something that people theoretically would watch in 2000 years, if civilization hadn't more or less collapsed already, of course). This is, I'm fairly certain, one of those few movies that manage to capture the best of a decade and could probably be called a "classic". Someone pointed out in a review that a movie like this had to be made in 1982, and I think there is something to that. Nobody would make something like this, not in the age of "Grey's Anatomy" and Britney Spears. "We" have definitively lost something in our culture, yet how major it is time will show.
The film is heavily inspired by Lovecraft's excellent tale "At the Mountains of Madness", both about the Antarctic and both about strange creatures originally from Space. Of course, the beginning is rather silly when it comes to the desperate "Norwegians". How hard could it be to find just two Norwegians, or someone in America that speaks Norwegian? For us Scandinavians, from the way the actors speak "Norwegian", it can be compared to someone from Jamaica supposed to be Joe American. That being said, the film starts out intensely with said "Norwegians" desperately chasing a dog over the frozen winter lands, attempting to shoot it from the air. A taste of things to come, yet the dog manages to escape into safety at the American research base. As it will turn out, had the American scientists listened to the warning offered by the Norwegians, things might have been different.
The escaped dog is placed among the other dogs in the kennel, and from this horror shall spawn. The film is an awesome film for several reasons, for one it is one of the last films made with conventional physical effects, before CGI. For this reason, the film is ever-green, not being outdated and more or less unwatchable a few years later, like most CGI-based films from the 80's and 90's. It is a bit gory for my taste at times, but it serves a purpose. Another reason the film is so great is the excellent soundtrack, and apart from the acting and the setting, the main positive feature of this great film is the suspense. The film manages to capture a situation where nobody trusts anybody perfectly, and alliances shift constantly among the station crew. Who has been infected and replaced by the alien force, and who is still human? It really is one of the most suspense filled movies I have ever seen, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish.
Set in Antarctica and containing aliens, what else could anyone wish for? 5 stars for this excellent thriller.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Ten Extremely Serious Problems With "The Thing"
Added 11/8/2009
The Thing is undoubtedly one of the greatest glob-fest monster movies ever made, but it's got all sorts of extremely serious problems that drive me insane every time I watch it. Here are ten of them in no particular order.
ONE. In the opening sequence where the helicopter is chasing the dog, the Norwegian tosses out a bomb or grenade or whatever it is while flying RIGHT OVER the dog, BUT the bomb explodes a couple hundred yards in the background. John Carpenter must think his viewers are all as stoned as the characters in his movie if he thinks we'll buy that!!
TWO. When Mack loses to the chess computer, he dumps a glass full of ice and whiskey into the thing and shorts it out. NO WAY HE WOULD DO THAT!!!! This is Antarctica. You don't just destroy one of your only sources of entertainment like that! What a moron! (But what do you expect from a guy who goes through most of the movie slurping on a bottle of J & B?)
THREE. When the guy who gets shot asks the cook to turn his music down, the cook doesn't do it. This wouldn't happen in a real base where these characters have to live with each other for months on end in total isolation. Never mind the fact that they have a black cook who goes around calling everybody "bwana."
FOUR. What's with all the seedy bums slouching around boozing it up and smoking weed at an Antarctic research station? Not bloody likely (imagine British accent). Half of them don't even seem to have jobs. They're just there, hanging around, getting loaded and watching old reruns of The Price Is Right.
FIVE. Why is everybody constantly ragging on the dumb hippy radio operator because he can't raise anyone on the radio? Of course he can't raise anyone on the radio! It's Antarctica. (Actually, he should have been able to raise all sorts of people, but never mind that).
SIX. This is a big one. When the doctor, Blair, is explaining how the alien imitates other life forms, he's walking around this huge disgusting oozing tentacled pile of guts, alien bacteria and half-digested dogs, poking at various bits of slime with the eraser on his pencil. THEN, still talking, HE TAPS THE ERASER AGAINST HIS MOUTH!!! What a moron! Maybe that's how he got infected...
SEVEN. Why the HELL does an Antarctic research station need FLAME THROWERS???? I've never been able to figure this out.
EIGHT. Blair's computer simulation of the spread of the alien cells is so crude, primitive and SLOW that it makes me want to shoot myself every time I watch it. I mean, he could have worked all that crap out on a slide rule faster than it took to run the program (and he would have had to work it out in advance to write the program in the first place).
NINE. Mack at one point destroys one of the things by blowing it up with a stick of dynamite. That makes no sense at all. If every particle of the thing can infect another host, all he accomplished was spreading it all over the place. Not very bright, but what do you expect from a drunken helicopter pilot?
TEN. Where did the thing who had taken over Blair find all the parts it needed to create that miniature flying saucer? I mean, they stuck him in the TOOL SHED, for Christ's sake. What exactly were they keeping in that tool shed? A miniature nuclear reactor? An antigravity device?
I could go on about this--on and on and on--but I'll leave it at that. If you're reading this, Carpenter, I demand an explanation!!
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Excellent service
Added 10/28/2009
It is an excellent product and the delivery service was excellente as well. I will keep ordering with you guys.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
