Filmed in black and white, TTFAW is set at the North pole where a group of scientists at a research camp discover what appears to be a huge plane buried under the ice. A plane carrying a dog team and a newspaper reporter land to help look for survivors not realising that the survivors might not be human.

Probably the most recognizable name in TTFAW is James Arness otherwise known as Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke. While his name is probably recognizable, he certainly wasn’t as he played the monster/alien. Being 6′7″, Arness brought a size to the creature that prosthetics couldn’t have done convincingly in 1951.

The movie is based on a short story by John W Campbell called “Who goes there?”.

The enclosed atmosphere of the movie in the huts of the research camp heightens the terror as the inhabitants have no where to run from the monster and are forced to face and deal with it.

The movie ends with the newspaper reporter saying the lines “Watch the skies, everywhere, keep looking, keep watching the skies.” This tied in perfectly with the UFO frenzy that was going on in the early 50s.

This is a classic movie that inspired movies such as Alien. A must see

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILOsmgU_EQQ]

The potential end of the world from the view point of a newspaper reporter. The two world superpowers (US and USSR) detonate the biggest nuclear tests ever, unknowingly at the same time, with the effect being that the earths rotation changes.

As Sci Fi movies go, TDTECF is a strange one. It doesn’t have flying saucers or aliens or even killer robots, three of the staples of the wave of Sci Fi movies in the late 50s and early 60s. The main character, Pete Stenning, is played by Edward Judd in his first film role. Pete Stenning is a burnt out (no pun intended) newspaper reporter who is barely hanging onto his job. His best friend and college, Bill Mcguire (played brilliantly by Leo McKern) writes both his own and Pete’s articles as he tries to get through the the disillusioned reporter. The female lead, a temp switchboard operator at the ministry who helps Stenning discover what has happened is played by Janet Munro who unfortunately passed away in her late 30′s. The strangest casting though was for the role of editor of the Express newspaper, who was played by Arthur Christiansen, the actual editor of the Express at the time. If you keep a close watch, you will see Michael Caine in one of his first speaking roles in the movies.

TDTECF was directed by Val Guest who unfortunately recently passed away. He came to the project with good intelligent science fiction experience having written and directed both The Quatermass Experiment and Quatermass 2. After TDTECF Guest went on to direct such varied projects as the Space 1999 tv show and Casino Royale, the first movie based on a James Bond novel.

TDTECF was filmed in black and white and due to its low budget, is suplimented by stock footage of weather from around the world. Some of the scenes show the low budget but it isn’t distracting in the slightest. With no spectacular sets, the viewer gets caught up with the characters. There is stock footage of an anti nuclear demonstration in London that is used in one scene. Even though the cause of the worlds trouble is two nuclear explosions, you do not see a single mushroom cloud expect on the front page of the newspaper.

For all its short-comings, lack of money, small unknown cast, The Day The Earth Caught Fire works and works very well. The whole disaster angle is well played, and unlike the typical hollywood movie, doesn’t have spectacular explosions or dramatic life or death situations. This is a movie that is as much mental as it is visual. As the movie progresses and the government start to enforce more and more restrictions, you understand what might happen.

If you enjoy Science Fiction and black and white doesn’t put you off watching a movie, then give The Day The Earth Caught Fire a go.

My wife is an instant pole dancer.

Just add alcohol.

A special team put together from the CIA, Special Forces and the Marines search for stolen radioactive material that they fear will be used against the United States in a terrorist attack.

First Team started slowly but picked up the pace towards the climax. The danger with a story dealing with such a subject as radioactive material is that the author uses too much technical information and the reader begins to gloss over, luckily, while it does happen here, it is only briefly.

The action, as with Larry Bonds books, is first rate with the main characters believably over coming the challenges thrown their way and its nice to see that they didn’t have to kill everyone they meet, as so many books seem to have.

Obviously the first in a serious of books that probably will be written more by Jim DeFlice than Larry Bond, a good start with a solid bunch of characters and plot. Look forward to the next one.

The Matrix is the story of a hacker who is suddenly told that everything he sees and believes is actually generated by computers as his actual body is maintained by robots for the electrical energy it generates.

The Matrix was a huge box office hit, aided by the special effects and the big names of Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishborne among others.
The Matrix was directed by the Wachowski brothers, who before this, hadn’t made any movies in the same vein. Obviously after The Matrix they went on to make the sequels before making the politically charged V for Vendetta.The Matrix, as mentioned, had a great cast, introducing Carrie-Anne Moss and Hugo Weaving to a bigger audience than they had received before. The story is a great mind twister but often has to take a back seat to the special effects such as ‘bullet time’. As a visual treat, The Matrix is second to none. As a story, especially when taking into account the poor second and third movies it perhaps didn’t have the focus it needed, and perhaps with the later movies, was just a vehicle for more stunning special effects.

A must see movie, if only for the special effects.

Alien tripods erupt from the earth after severe lightening storms. One family struggle to survive while trying to find safety.

The remake of the 1953 movie version of the 1938 radio broadcast of the 1898 book by H.G. Wells. This version stars Tom Cruise and Dakota Fanning among others in this updated tale. While some portions of the story were changed, locations, main characters, others parts, such as the actual tripods and the encounter in the cellar were kept in.

Talking of which, the tripods are generally scary. The tripods look evil, and are very convincing when moving, an issue that prevented the 1953 version of also including three legged monster machines.

This is a scary movie. Scary in the fact that you jump and hope the main characters survive. Scary as in the way the movie treats the action, with a lot of panic and not a lot of information for the characters.

This is a good movie that does justification of the original body of work. If anything, I would have cast a lesser known star in the lead role so you could buy into the average guy role, but other than that, great movie.

<RANT>

No matter where you live in the world, if you are interested by cars and things that go fast, you are aware of the BBC motoring show Top Gear. If you are aware, then chances are that you heard that one of the trio of presenters, Richard ‘Hamster’ Hammond was seriously injured in a high speed crash while driving a rocket car. Aside from the worries about Hamsters health and well being, there appears to be a movement, both within and from outside the BBC, to cancel one of the most popular shows made by the BBC.

Don’t believe its popular? Go visit your local or favourite Bit Torrent site and see how many downloads there are for Top Gear. Probably more than Lost or Desperate Housewives. Still not convinced, look up the donation fund created since Hamsters crash for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance service, which at last glance was over 188,000 pounds. Thats money from all over the world from fans of the show and well wishers.

Top Gear has been criticized in the past for being offensive, and encouraging drivers to drive too fast. Being offensive is part of the charm of Jeremy Clarkson, a man who often will say something offensive, and maybe rude, rather than staying silent. His unique term of phrase may put some people’s noses out of joint but it also a reason why so many people are fans of the program. Would you prefer someone to tell it as it is, or who sugar coats everything so you are led to believe that a car is worth buying, even if it isn’t. Mr Clarkson has attracted the wrath of several countries, car manufacturers and lots of people, yet is still popular to write columns in several news papers. Obviously, he isn’t offending as many people as we are led to believe, or perhaps people are only offended by moving pictures, not the written word.

Obviously, a television show that shows the presenters driving 200 mph super cars does emphasize speed but as for encouraging drivers to put their feet down? If you are going to buy an Aston Martin DB9, you probably already know that it goes like the clappers and you don’t require Captain Slow driving around an airfield to tell you so. While concentrating on the high end of the car market, Top Gear does review many slower and lower priced cars. After all, when the celebrity’s who appear on the show do their timed laps, they drive slow cars such as the Suzuki Liana or the Chevrolet Lacetti, neither that would inspire anyone to break the speed limit.

To blame a television program for encouraging drivers to drive too fast after buying a Mitsubishi’s EVO 8 is a bit like blaming the movie Rambo for someone buying a crossbow and then shooting it at someone. If you are going to spend the money on a seriously fast car, you generally know the top speed, and have taken that into account when making the purchase. I wouldn’t dream of buying a car without looking up or knowing how fast it could go, and how fast it could go from 0 to 60 miles an hour.

Top Gear introduces new cars to fans of cars. I wouldn’t have fallen in love with the Wiesmann GT without Top Gear. I wouldn’t know that all Porsche drivers are cocks or that Americans are unable to make a proper car without the trio of Clarkson, Hamster and Captain Slow himself, James May. I also wouldn’t know that the Aston Martin DB9 can accelerate from 0 to 150 miles an hour while in fourth gear, that its quicker to drive a Mercedes to Oslo than taking the ferry.

Television shows should be entertainment, and Top Gear certainly is. I just don’t think it would have the audience it has if the cars shown were just pictured and talked about. You need to see cars in motion to appreciate the beauty and power that they possess. You would never watch a television show about the latest jet fighters without seeing them actually flying and so it should be with Top Gear.

Even the Road Safety minister of Britain, the sadly named Richard Ladyman, has come to the defense of Top Gear. Ladyman who was a guest in a previous series and battled Clarkson on the subject of speed cameras before doing his celebrity lap (and crashing), says that Top Gear celebrates the great engineering that goes into high end cars.  Given the choice between looking at a Ford Focus and a Jaguar XKR, I know which one I, and probably most ‘sane’ car lovers would choose. Top Gear sometimes borders on the edge of being auto porn with its beautiful four wheeled guests.

Top Gear does have astounding races, such as racing a Bugatti Veyron against a plane to get back to London first, or racing an Aston Martin DB9 to Monte Carlo against a train. They also destroy caravans and have silly challenges such as buying a sports car for under 1000 pounds and then putting it through such tests as driving over a cobbled road with a container of water in their laps to find out which car has the best ride.

Top Gear is the best of motoring television and if the BBC does bow down the loud minority of spoil sports, it will be only a matter of time before Top Gear appears in disguise on a different channel or even in a different country because I am sure that there will be many others will to give Top Gear money to do what they do.
</RANT>

A peaceful farming colony is threatened by the evil Sador, so the farmers send one of their own looking for help. Who he finds are seven mercenaries. Sounds familiar?

Yes, this is a rip off of The Magnificent Seven but in space. Made in 1980, BBTS was a cheap movie, made quickly to jump on the Star Wars waggon. The only problem with that is that it looks cheap.

Richard Thomas plays the young farmer who goes out looking for help, and he finds Robert Vaughn & George Peppard, among others, to help him. Which is good because the evil Sador is played by the evil John Saxon. In the last 25 or so years, if you wanted a bad man, someone despicable, there are two names that are interchangeable because of their evilness. They are John Saxon and Michael Ironside. Both put in appearance in early 80s sci fi movies as the bad guys.

This is not a terrible movie, but with a little better money, they probably could have had a more original script, much better special effects, and a better name. The actors are good enough.