October | 2011 | Effed by the Wind

Film Threat Review: The Thing (2011)

When the Powers That Be suggested John Carpenter’s “The Thing (1982)” for the next big remake, there must have been some folks in the room who understood that there is no substitute for the horror masterpiece. Yet, they couldn’t leave well enough alone (have you met Hollywood?). Instead, they decided to disguise their remake as a prequel. I suppose one could argue that “The Thing (1982)” began in the middle of a larger story, after the creature had already decimated one camp. But the Thing has one modus aperandi: impersonate the inhabitants of Antarctic research camps and kill them off one by one. All of this has happened before and all of this will happen again. In essence, “The Thing (2011)” is a big old pile of redundancy, wrapped up in flames and topped with a Ripley-shaped bow…

Read the rest at Film Threat.

October 14, 2011
Categories: Filmpinions . Tags: filmthreat . Author: Baxter . Comments: Leave a Comment

Film Threat Review: Bots High

In the late 90s, robot death matches became a national sport. Geeky dads and engineering students worked furiously in their garages to build machines, designed to do one thing: destroy other robots. When “Robot Wars” went off the air, our metal friends thought their long nightmare was over. But it turns out it was just passed on to the next generation. Joey Dauod’s documentary, “Bots High,” follows three teams of high school students in Florida, as they prepare their creations for the national championship.

For the egghead kids with designs on attending M.I.T., there isn’t much in the way of traditional extracurricular activities to compliment their skill set. Fortunately, several schools around the country have started offering a sort of robotics club, with a robot battle as the end game. It’s a great way for them to experience a practical application for the math and science they’ve learned, as well as get to know other, like-minded teens. Besides, a geek is a lot more daunting when they have a killer machine under their command…