The Day the Earth Stood Still

Tuesday is the day new releases always hit the video store. The question I always have is… is there anything new actually worth watching?

This week I think there is.

Maybe I’m biased just because I really like this director- I admit that. But I really enjoyed the remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still. The film stars Keanu Reeves (not my favorite actor), Jennifer Connelly (very good) and Jaden Smith (Will’s son… great young actor). This PG-13 film was totally clean. The rating was for “sci-fi violence.” As I said in my official movie review of this film, conservatives would probably have more problems with Shrek 3 than this film.

This isn’t my favorite movie, but it was really entertaining. And the aspect I enjoyed the most was something that this director excels at… he makes films that are entertaining, but also stimulate you to think. This film is a great discussion piece about “redemption.”

I talk a little about the film and the director in my movie review, linking my interviews with him:

Is it possible to entertain audiences and stimulate them to think about important issues without sacrificing the film’s enjoyability or coming across as preachy? I guess 2008 is the year to do it. Wall-E did it, and so did The Day the Earth Stood Still, Scott Derrickson’s remake of the 1951 classic.

I really like the director of this film. I interviewed him when his The Exorcism of Emily Rose came out two years ago. Scott is an interesting guy. He’s a Biola grad (a Christian school in Southern California) with films like Hellraiser on his director’s resume. So when he tackled “Emily Rose,” I was excited to talk with him about the horror medium. After all, a bunch of Christians would consider horror films pure evil. Right? Scott and I had an interesting dialogue about that very subject.

Note: The link above is to my first interview with Scott. I actually got a chance to interview him a second time and released it as a special podcast. If you haven’t listened to that quick 15 minute podcast where I interview Scott… I encourage you to. We talk about everything from working with Jaden Smith, to the development of his next project, Paradise Lost. (How cool is that!)

Pop some popcorn and rent this one this week.