Clip from The Thing (2011)

[Sheridan Passell]

Why were you hiding it from us all? Why???

[Sheridan Passell]

New clip. Not bad, although she's a bit forced. Will probably play better in context:


Also, for what it's worth, the guy from this australian blog http://buzzmagazine.com.au has seen the movie with a bunch of other online press and says he liked it (his review's embargoed for now).

[Sheridan Passell]

Just found out the actor who played Norris in the original movie, who dies of a heart attack, went on in real life to die from a heart attack.

[Sheridan Passell]

Well,... shit.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_thing_2011/

Interesting that the main criticism (lack of character development) is exactly what the critics levelled at Carpenter's version (which also got horrible reviews on release).

...This time I suspect they're right though.

[dnwilliams]

That's what you get for rigging the Top Movies of 2011 list so a blatantly destined-to-be-crappy remake can be #1.

[Sheridan Passell]

Thanks for the emotional support.

It was a fair vote.

Meanwhile:

The Thing debuted to an estimated $3.2 million. That's down from fellow October horror remakes The Stepfather ($4.4 million) and The Fog $4.1 million), and nowhere close to heavy-hitting remakes like Halloween, Friday the 13th and A Nightmare on Elm Street. It should wind up with roughly $8.5 million for the three-day frame.

F*ck. $15m is considered a decent opening for a horror. How the hell did this make less than the Stepfather remake? And how did it end up making less than every other horror movie this year?

They might as well not have cast a hottie in the lead because they didn't even put her on the poster.

Sigh. I give up. I'm out of here. Dalmatian Jaws, please turn off the lights.

[dalmatianjaws]

This probably means I'll love it.

Neither critics nor box office are a fair determination of quality. The best test is the fanbase it builds over time, and even that's not perfect, as I've found a few hidden gems that are a few years old.

That said, these critiques seem to line up with what we've seen in trailers and clips. Oh well. For how much I love the original I completely forgot it was out this weekend, actually.

[Sheridan Passell]

I'm reading that there are a lot of flat out logic flaws with the film, eg all the vehicles are destroyed and yet later they're driving a vehicle. A lot of lazy plotting so far as the whodunit mystery, the test, etc. That's the stuff that really annoys me. They also say she gets way too much wasted screentime whist the much more intreging supporting characters get so little - we only catch their names while they're being eaten. Also she jumps to ridiculously accurate conclusions based on almost no evidence, and the cgi in the latter stages is as bad as feared.

That aside, it's amazing that so much internet chatter and so much love for the first movie equals precisely nothing at all at the box office.