War of the Worlds

"the chances of anything coming from mars- areamilliontoone he said... the chances of an- y -thing coming from mars are a mill-ion to ooooone -- But still, they came!

I heard it had the typical 'Speilberg sugar sweet family ending' - but I've not seen it yet, and won't until it's out on DVD.

One of the main attractions of the book by HG Wells for me was that it was set in my home town - woking. The sandpits on Horsell common where the marsians landed - I used to regularly play on as a kid. Otherwise the book is okay but no wow factor. If they had shot on location in Woking or at least tried to accurately recreate the sites I might be interested. But thats unlikely in a film directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise isn't it. the music by Jeff Wayne made many years ago was superb.

Not only that Jude but Woking centre has that enormous brewery-cum-arcade-cum- posse hangout in the middle where there were (if memory serves) enormous statues of the WOTW illustrations of the aliens in steel which got changed to a jet fighter on a pole if I'm not mistaken.

I'll see it just to see the King Kong trailer in front. Quite inspired by all the things that were *not* in the WOTW trailers, presidential speeches, humans fighting back against the aliens, Will Smith, that sort of thing.

No! I haven't!

I know...hideous... but the sand-pits on Horsell common are unchanged.

I saw it last night and thought it was great, no doubt it will be a cult B-movie of the future. The sound was terrific - I was jumping in my seat, and the tripods were genuinely scary. The ending was fine - after all, that is the ending of the book. Although it isn't typical. Usually these films end with Americans (as these films are usually American) winning the day through their ingenuity and all getting together. In this film they just get lucky. (The sort of device Hitchcock used - for example The Birds when they disappear at the end.) I liked that. One of the things the book does raise is the issue of colonialism and especially our policy in Tasmania of killing all the natives. We care about them as much as the Martians care for us. The Martians have come to Earth because they want food from us, much as we want energy from Iraq. And Tom looked gorgeous. He does wear a pair of jeans well. Mark will love it I'm sure, although not for the above specific reason. (Although you never know. My work colleague who I went with last night, came out after the film. I guessed a bit when he said 'Phwoar' on seeing Mr Cruise.)

why do movies have to have completely horrid children...there was a point where I was rooting for the aliens to extinguish the kids! I hate those mouthy kids in these type movies..aliens come down and are killing everything in sight and a 16yo kid from new jersey is mouthing off about taking them out???/ yeah riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight

Maybe the movie was made to attract 16 year old kids.

you are more than right there Radiodenver but damn just because I'm 37 does not mean I don't want a good action film with a decent story to it not geared to a few blockhead teenage boys LOLOLOL!

Dan - "Quite inspired by all the things that were *not* in the WOTW trailers, presidential speeches, humans fighting back against the aliens, Will Smith, that sort of thing." Yeah, that was good now you mention it. And King Kong looked good. It seems to be an exact remake of the original - same time period and almost the same script - the woman stealing the apple at the beginning, and the Fay Wray screaming. Hm, I love the original and I also love Kong. I've written one Kong story - Post-Traumatic Hokkaido Blues and am working on another now. This one is set in Copenhagen during the Napoleonic wars when the British invaded. Kong is a side-show in a hotel there.

You can always wait for the next Stalone-Rambo movie. That's geared more to the 25 year old male. Lets see...Rambo mounts a rocket launcher and mini-gun to his 1970 Oldsmobile Delta 88, sips prune juice and blows the hell out of x-hippies turned politicians in Sunnyvale, California.

Okay I'm just not speaking to you Radiodenver! LOLOLOL Rambo? are you kidding me? NEVER will I pay a dime to see Stallone in Rambo ...speaking of Stallone have you seen Cop Land? I saw it about two weeks ago and I'll be damned if that was not the best Stallone movie ever!

My fav Stallone movie was Nighthawks. Mainly because it had other good actors in it.

There's another thread somewhere on here discussing that very thing, RIG. I forget which thread....some help here, guys...?

This is my favorite thread at the moment. It's at the top.

Mind you...the book has a stunning opening paragraph No one could have dreamed we were being scrutinized, as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of life on other planets and yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this Earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely, they drew their plans against us.

My 16yo so said: If they had been planning this attack for a million years and been studying earth all that time. who was the scientist that forgot to study germs? OMG I was on the floor laughing!

I have to say it does get a bit lame...

dun dun dun dun dun dun............ dun dun dun dun dun dun................ eorrrrrrrrrrrr eorrrrrrrrrrrrr.. Just though I would add that bit..

"the chances of anything coming from mars- areamilliontoone he said... the chances of an- y -thing coming from mars are a mill-ion to ooooone so I put it each way and had an accumulator with scientology being true!" da da daaaa! (daddle ar daddle ar) da da daaaaa!