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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
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Day the Earth Stood Still, The
20th Century Fox
MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some sci-fi disaster images and violence
Starring
Keanu Reeves,
Jennifer Connelly,
Jon Hamm,
John Cleese,
James Hong,
Jaden Smith,
Kathy Bates,
and
Kathy Bates
The Day the Earth Stood Still is 20th Century Fox’s contemporary reinvention of its 1951 classic. Klaatu, an alien who arrives on our planet, triggers a global upheaval. As governments and scientists race to unravel the mystery behind the visitor’s appearance, a woman and her young stepson get caught up in his mission – and come to understand the ramifications of Klaatu calling himself a “friend to the Earth.” (20th Century Fox)
| GENRE(S): |
Drama
|
Sci-fi
|
| WRITTEN BY: |
Edmund H. North (1951 screenplay)
David Scarpa
|
| DIRECTED BY: |
Scott Derrickson
|
| RELEASE DATE: |
Theatrical: December 12, 2008
|
| RUNNING TIME: |
minutes, Color |
| ORIGIN: |
USA |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
70
Los Angeles Times
Kenneth Turan
This contemporary remake of the science-fiction classic knew what it was doing when it cast Keanu Reeves, the movies' greatest stone face since Buster Keaton.
67
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
William Arnold
Surprise! The remake is not a heresy. It's a decent enough stab at being what the old movie was to its time, following the same basic plot, full of respectful references to its model, updated with a gallery of fairly imaginative special effects.
67
Portland Oregonian
Marc Mohan
The one unforgivable crime committed in this remake is the lack of the original's most famous line of dialogue: "Klaatu barada nikto." Would it have been so tough to squeeze that in somewhere?
63
Charlotte Observer
Lawrence Toppman
I can't explain the film's main problem without giving plot points away; suffice to say that, after decades of watching Earth, Klaatu's team of observers has missed a crucial event you and I witness every day. I can tell you about the secondary problem, though: too much money.
63
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
An entertaining rethink of the 1951 classic.
63
Baltimore Sun
Michael Sragow
Passed my popcorn-movie test. Using the vast, expensive technology of a big studio production, it roused enough cheap energy to drive me to eat a bag of popcorn fit for a circus animal and wash it down with a quart of Diet Coke.
63
Miami Herald
Rene Rodriguez
Just because the new The Day the Earth Stood Still is green, though, doesn't mean it's dull. If anything, there's a lot more mayhem and destruction this time around.
60
Empire
Helen O'Hara
A remake that does not disgrace the original, this is sufficiently different to stand alone and just as relevant in its concerns – as well as succeeding (arguably better) as a thriller. And after this performance, are we sure that Keanu Reeves is really human?
58
Christian Science Monitor
Peter Rainer
For most of the way this ecofriendly fantasy is pleasantly clunky, and Reeves, whose expressive range here is slim to none, is perfectly cast as the alien.
58
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Tasha Robinson
Like the big shiny sphere at its center, the film is fairly pretty, but there's no real sense that there's anything inside it.
50
Washington Post
Ann Hornaday
Although the new version, which stars Keanu Reeves, is likely to make audiences pine for the meta-irony of "Mystery Science Theater 3000," it's not a complete failure.
50
Village Voice
Luke Y. Thompson
The problem here is that there are no big ideas.
50
Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
All this is presented in an expensive, good-looking film that is well-made by Scott Derrickson, but to no avail.
50
Chicago Tribune
Michael Phillips
Keanu Reeves plays Klaatu, confining his usual two-and-a-half-note vocal range to half that.
50
USA Today
Claudia Puig
The story, an updated version of the 1951 classic about a portentous extraterrestrial visit, feels musty and derivative, and not only because it's a remake.
50
TV Guide
Cammila Albertson
Pretty good as science fiction thrillers go, but sadly, there isn't much more to say about it.
50
New York Post
Lou Lumenick
One of the big problems here is that, despite much exposition, the nature of Klaatu's mission on Earth isn't at all clear.
50
ReelViews
James Berardinelli
It lacks the simple elegance and intelligence of the earlier film, and employs special effects and pointless action scenes to replace passages of dialogue.
50
Film Threat
Scott Mendelson
A 'so-so' movie. It's not particularly good, but it's competent and more or less successful in its goals.
50
Chicago Reader
J.R. Jones
The opening stretch, when the visitor arrives on earth and blithely dresses down mankind, is great fun. But screenwriter David Scarpi has drained away much of the sentiment.
50
The Hollywood Reporter
Kirk Honeycutt
Despite the best efforts of stars Keanu Reeves and Jennifer Connelly, this new "Day" is tired and corny.
50
Boston Globe
Ty Burr
Something has been lost in the translation, and it's not just the script.
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)
Liam Lacey
As a message movie, it's preachy without being serious; for an action movie, there's a lot of racket but not much fun.
42
Entertainment Weekly
Owen Gleiberman
The original Day the Earth Stood Still had a paranoid poetry that lifted the audience up even as it warned the world to come together. This one is so dour it just comes off as a scolding.
40
The New York Times
A.O. Scott
Any movie that awards a former Monty Python cast member a Nobel Prize in anything cannot be all bad. And The Day the Earth Stood Still could be worse.
40
New York Daily News
Joe Neumaier
The film's major action sequences are never exciting, and even the now-requisite destruction of New York feels lazy.
40
Variety
Todd McCarthy
This botched remake of "The Day the Earth Stood Still" seriously dishonors the seriously fine 1951 sci-fi landmark on which it's based.
30
NPR
Bob Mondello
Dunno about the Earth, but time certainly stands still for a goodly portion of Scott Derrickson's expensively produced but utterly boneheaded remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.
30
New York Magazine
David Edelstein
Klaatu is a dream role for the beautifully blank Reeves, since he doesn’t even have to pretend to emote.
25
San Francisco Chronicle
Peter Hartlaub
How can this movie not be fun?
20
Salon.com
Andrew O'Hehir
A jumble of spare parts and leftover dialogue, as if it had been assembled out of unused bits of every movie where an unknown whatzit threatens our way of life and the government goes into full institutional pants-crapping panic mode.
20
Austin Chronicle
Marc Savlov
Dull, unnecessary film.
10
Wall Street Journal
Joe Morgenstern
What's never explained is why anyone would do such a dumb remake of Robert Wise's 1951 sci-fi classic.
10
Time
Richard Schickel
Suffice it to say that these morons have, quite simply, turned The Day the Earth Stood Still on its head and what's falling out of its pockets in that upended state is a stream of junk.
 The average user rating for this movie is 4.9 (out of 10) based on 100 User Votes
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