Comments on: Flying thumbs down: Andromeda Strain implodes

By: hadsil

hadsil — Wed, 28 May 2008 22:51:06 +0000

I like disaster movies, but I learned my lesson with “Day After Tomorrow”. Nowadays disasters are the fault of Bush/Republicans/Conservatives/White Men etc., and only the Liberals can save the day or clean up the mess.

Where’s Irwin Allen when you need him?

By: 2Tru2Tru

2Tru2Tru — Wed, 28 May 2008 21:34:32 +0000

I decided to watch, instead, the back to back History Channels, man is bad for causing drought through global warming, man is bad for causing global flooding, by…I dunno.. too much rain? It doesn’t make sense but I’m pretty sure, man is evil and we aren’t entitled to use any resources on the planet.

By: mjtyson

mjtyson — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:06:36 +0000

Maybe I’m just not up to the intellectual level that Andromeda strain required of its viewers, but I couldn’t fiqure out what the cover-up, especially in the beginning, was about. What was there to cover up? What was operation scoop anyways? Was it the operation to pick up an object that was sent through the worm hole? It just doesn’t sound like an operation that would require killing anyone with any knowledge of the satellite…. Surely a worm hole would be observed by other people all around the world… to include the satellite.

I can see a cover up for those who had anything to do with this movie. I predict a spate of suicides and “accidental” deaths among the crew and creators of this tragedy.

By: Al in St. Lou

Al in St. Lou — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:17:17 +0000

OMG, it sounds as bad as all those antiwar movies that didn’t make any money. I recorded all four hours last night, and now I’m not gonna watch it.

By: AverageJoe

AverageJoe — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:01:21 +0000

Am I the only one straining my brain trying to remember if they filmed the ex-Chinese bioweapons scientist cutting off the correct thumb of gay military scientist’s dead body, also wondering why the gay military scientist didn’t remember the little problem of required thumbprint when he handed off his badge to the lead scientist before being bonked on the head and falling. (Hey wait….How did bioweapon scientist recover so quickly from his emergency strobe light induced migrain that caused him to trip and crash the ill-placed cart into the only security panel on the floor that could be used to stop the self-destruct sequence, making the trip into the maintenance shaft necessary in the first place? Darn, this put the whole plot into question in my mind.)

By: mjtyson

mjtyson — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:19:15 +0000

I just set my DVR to record the original movie, which is scheduled on 1 June and 5 June on Encore Mystery channel. I need to watch it to cleanse my brain of the hack-job.

Why would they not build stairs into that maintenance shaft?!?!

Omigod….hours of my life I’ll never get back…and now I have to hear my kids yelling “Throw the thumb!!!”

By: Paul_in_NJ

Paul_in_NJ — Wed, 28 May 2008 16:01:38 +0000

What about the huge plot hole at the end? What’s-her-name is locked in with a sample of Andromeda – then, we see her, all healthy-like, at the funeral. And no one wonders how or when the sample was spirited away? C’mon! I had high hopes for the remake, but the political overtones made me grit my teeth.

The NY Times doesn’t much like it, although their review shrugs off the anti-government blasts that permeate it.

So – what does Michael Crichton think of it? Anyone know?

By: 29Victor

29Victor — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:57:31 +0000

What, exactly, did you expect from the Lifetime Channel?

By: Blacklake

Blacklake — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:37:49 +0000

I’m glad I missed it. It seems that increasingly the programming on A&E is neither art nor entertainment. Maybe they should just officially re-tag it “The Santitized ‘Sopranos’ Re-Run Channel” and be done with it.

By: CBarker

CBarker — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:28:27 +0000

Doctor realizes they cut off the left one. End of story.

So I’m not the only one that same ending?
The wife thought it wasn’t bad but we both thought it would have been better if it was done as entertainment than as a political hack piece.
It makes me realize that the more they throw stuff like this in my face the less irritated I get with it, and the more bored I become.

By: James

James — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:17:02 +0000

Um, I’d like to point out that nuclear generators DON’T EFFIN’ EXPLODE!!!!!!!!!!!

N. O’Brain on May 28, 2008 at 11:09 AM

Still, I laugh at the idea of discovering that Andromeda thrives on radiation and blithely continuing to research it right on top of a nuclear reactor.

By: csdeven

csdeven — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:12:47 +0000

What a shame. It could have been interesting; instead, it gives a peek into the mind of the politically-correct paranoids who produced this dreck.

Don’t ask. Don’t tell.

By: N. O'Brain

N. O'Brain — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:09:26 +0000

I couldn’t take the show seriously after the point in the first segment where they explained that:

a) there was a reactor beneath the facility, and

b) there was a nuclear self-destruct device as well.

Um, I’d like to point out that nuclear generators DON’T EFFIN’ EXPLODE!!!!!!!!!!!

By: catmman

catmman — Wed, 28 May 2008 15:06:21 +0000

"Hey Moe, that movie really sucked last night. It just plain sucked. I've seen movies that sucked before, but this was the suckiest pices of suck that ever sucked!" Homer Simpson

By: ttevolla

ttevolla — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:38:53 +0000

Plan 8 From A&E?

By: max1

max1 — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:30:07 +0000

Excellent… one thing i thionk you forgot to mention… they make the New York Slimes (or is it CBS?) journo out to be the real cool cat hero…

By: jimmer

jimmer — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:23:21 +0000

and all of this for A & E to introduce their new logo, new season and new marketing initiative (new tag line). too bad.

By: 4shoes

4shoes — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:22:53 +0000

Thanks Ed, for the heads up, it’s not something I’d watch, but now I can tell my husband to keep on clicking if he stops on it.

By: maintenanceman

maintenanceman — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:19:25 +0000

Alternate ending. Doctor makes it to the panel. Computer asks for right thumb. Doctor realizes they cut off the left one. End of story.

By: Bugler

Bugler — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:10:11 +0000

Great review, Ed. I knew it was going to suck, but I watched it anyway. Why do I do these things?

By: jimmer

jimmer — Wed, 28 May 2008 14:09:23 +0000

it was a hack piece from the get go:

president is a trusting, but mislead good ol’ boy = bush
dirty, evil, murdering security chief = cheney
vent mining = Iraq, ANWAR, SUVs, obesity, etc.
andromeda = harshly necessary war, environment, whatever protest

it all seemed like a liberal ‘24′.

wonder what michael crichton feels about all of this?
imaginative, but misguided?

By: forest

forest — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:49:01 +0000

My wife is really into sci-fi (eat your hearts out nerds), so I watched it and did alot of eye-rolling.

It’s the same story with Dr. Who now too – “The aliens are attacking London! Let’s call the UN and have a gay make-out scene while we wait for them to tell us what to do…”

The Stargate series are good – kill death-cultists – good guys win.

By: thegreatbeast

thegreatbeast — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:45:13 +0000

Did anyone notice the credit to Crichton? It gave an initial (I or J?) before the Michael Crichton. I didn’t know that MC had an unused first name; he certainly doesn’t use it. It made me think that it was a sort of giving the bird to the man and might have marked the lack of cooperation between the producers and Crichton. FWIW.

By: Canadian Infidel

Canadian Infidel — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:34:25 +0000

So, although I did catch the last hour and a half of part one, missing part two (and not taping it) to catch “Iron Man” with my brother and nephew at cheap night at the movies was a pretty good idea then?

By: SlimyBill

SlimyBill — Wed, 28 May 2008 13:06:16 +0000

He then throws the thumb straight up for two stories to the project leader who’s hanging on the side of the wall, complete with a close-up, slo-mo sequence of the thumb tumbling towards the hero…

_
_
Hahaha!
_
A little nukeophobia mixed in, eh?

I couldn’t take the show seriously after the point in the first segment where they explained that:

a) there was a reactor beneath the facility, and

b) there was a nuclear self-destruct device as well.

I am willing to suspend disbelief while watching the boob tube but that just went too far.