Geek Bits: 10 Best and Worst Sci-Fi Remakes of Same Movie, Darth vader on a Unicycle and More [Links]

Welcome to “Geek Bits” where we share the geekiest bits of the Internet
for you.  Why is Spielberg getting paid for Star Wars? Who lives longer:
Superman or Wolverine? How many Tribbles would fit in your house?

Find out in this week’s “Geek Bits.”

10 Best and Worst
Sci-fi Remakes of the Same Movie

“Top Five Best and Worst Movie Remakes” Blogfest hosted by: Alex J. Cavanaugh, Stephen Tremp, Father Dragon Al, Livia Peterson . See the full list of participants here.

We already did a post called “8
Sci-Fi Remakes Surprisingly Better Than the Original”, so I thought
I’d mix it up, because every now and then
someone comes along and remakes the remake.

1.  Shichinin no Samurai (1954) dir.
Akira Kurosawa

Best: The Magnificent Seven
(1960) John Sturges – The ultimate Western with the biggest actors in
Hollywood defending a small town.

Worst: Battle Beyond the Stars
(1980) dir. Jimmy T. Murakami – A cheesy movie about a bunch of alien
races fighting an evil alien.

2.  King Kong (1933) dir. Merian C.
Cooper & Ernest B. Schoedsack

Best: King Kong (2005) dir.
Peter Jackson – He captured the magic and even restored a deleted scene
from the original.

Worst: King Kong (1976) dir.
John Guillermin – From stop-motion to a man in a suit.

3.  Gojira (1954) dir. Ishiro Honda

Best: Godzilla, King of the Monsters!
(1957) – An American dubbed version with additional footage that most
people are familiar with.

Worst: Godzilla (1998) dir.
Roland Emmerich – They evacuated the city of New York and still
couldn’t find him… her.

4.  The Last Man on Earth (1964) dir.
Ubaldo Ragona and Sidney Salkow

Best: The Omega Man (1971)
dir. Boris Sagal – Vincent Price at his best.

Worst: I Am Legend (2007)
dir. Francis Lawrence – Walking Dead meets Fresh Prince

5.  Not of This Earth (1957) dir. Roger
Corman

Best: Not of This Earth
(1988) dir. Jim Wynorski – Stars ex-porn star Traci Lords in her first
nude performance in a mainstream film.

Worst: Not of This Earth
(1995) – They tried to take a Roger Corman film seriously.

6.   The Shaggy Dog (1959)

Best: The Shaggy Dog (2006) –
A dog of a movie,  but it made over $61 million thanks to Tim
Allen.

Worst: The Shaggy Dog (1994)
– The first TV movie was an even bigger dog.

7.  Solaris (1968) dir.B.Nirenburg

Best: Solaris (2002)
dir.Steven Soderbergh – 2001 meets Titanic thanks to George Clooney.

Worst: Solaris (1972)
dir.Andrei Tarkovsky – The film won an award at the 1972 Cannes
Film Festival, but Tarkovsky’s style makes it confusing.

8.  Invasion of the Body
Snatchers (1956) dir. Don Siegel

Best: Invasion of the Body Snatchers
(1978) dir.Philip Kaufman – The perfect analogy of 70s non-conformism.

Worst: Invasion (2007) dir.
Oliver Hirschbiegel – Nicole Kidman is as emotionless as the aliens.

9. High Noon (1952) dir. Fred Zinnemann

Best: Outland (1981) dir. Peter Hyams – A classic Sean Connery
space thriller.

Worst: High Noon (2000) dir. Rod Hardy – TV movie starring Tom
Skerritt

10. Piranha (1978) dir. Joe Dante

Best: Piranha 3D (2010) dir.
Alexandre Aja – Cheesy, trashy and goofy. Perfect.

Worst: Piranha (1995) dir.
Scott P. Levy – They didn’t reshoot the special effects, but just cut
in the original footage.

The Top Ten Bits This Week

10. The Full length trailer for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (via Geek Girl Diva)

“Welcome to level seven…”

9. Reviews of Star Trek Into
Darkness are in:

• Star Trek Into Darkness boldly
  goes where franchise has gone before (Nerdvana)
• Star Trek: Into Darkness – A
  Hopefully Spoiler-Free Review By @MAntoniaP (The Knights)
• Star Trek Into Darkness Out
  Now, Reviews (Star Trek Movie Blog)

8. Officially Licensed Star Trek Pajama Set

7. Closet
Geek Gurl asks “Why are they remaking the Crow?”

6. Decades ago, when Spielberg and Lucas were both working on a movie
they made a bet (via Geek
Tyrant):

“[Lucas] said, ‘Oh my God, your movie is
going to be so much more successful than Star Wars. This is
gonna be the biggest hit of all time’. [Spielberg] said, ‘You want to
trade some points? I’ll give you two and a half per cent of Star Wars if you give me two and a
half per cent of Close Encounters.’ I said, ‘Sure, I’ll
gamble with that, great.’ Close Encounters made so much
money and rescued Columbia from bankruptcy. It was the most money I
ever made, but it was a meager success story. Star Wars was a
phenomenon and I was the happy beneficiary of a couple of points from
that movie which I am still seeing money on today.” Celebritynetworth

5. “Superhero Life Expectancies” It’s a good thing the Hulk doesn’t smoke…

By LifeQuotes4U team

4. Summary for Dawn of the Planet of
the Apes: “The film takes place 15 years after “Rise of the
Planet of the Apes.” Caesar leads a band of genetically evolved apes,
but the humans that survived the deadly virus a decade earlier threaten
their existence. A truce is formed, but things quickly spin out of
control as war breaks out in the fight for dominance. Jason Clarke
(“Zero Dark Thirty”), Gary Oldman (“The Dark Knight Rises”), Keri
Russell (“Mission Impossible III”), Judy Greer (“The Descendants”) also
star, with Toby Kebbell (“RocknRolla”) and Enrique Murciano (“Traffic”)
newly added to the cast.” (via MTV
Movies)

3. “How many Tribbles would fit in your house” calculator. In 60 hours
my house would have 19,230 TRIBBLES!

Star
Trek: How Many Tribbles Will Fit in Your House?

2. Cars of the Silver Screen

Image source: MoneySupermarket
Car Insurance

1. Darth Vader (Brian Kidd) wearing a kilt and riding a unicycle.
(Thanks Hart!)

REVIEWS

TV

• Doctor Who “Nightmare in Silver” 

  Plot: On a visit to an interstellar theme park
  they come across a Cyberman graveyard which comes to life.

  Written by Neil Gaiman with super-fast Cybermen, an evil Doctor
  (“Mr. Clever”) and Warwick Davis make this the most enjoyable episode
  of the second half of the season. (4/5 stars)

• Revolution “The Longest
  Day”

  Plot: When Monroe launches an all
  out attack that wipes out their forces, the Georgia Republic is on the
  verge of surrendering.

  All the characters seem stuck in one spot emotionally and I have no
  idea where the show is going. The explosions were cool though. (2/5
  stars)

• The Neighbors “Pilot”

  Plot: Marty Weaver (Lenny Venito)
  just wants the best for his wife Debbie (Jami Gertz) and their three
  kids. That’s why he’s moving them to Hidden Hills, New Jersey, a gated
  community complete with its own golf course. It turns out the community
  is home to stranded aliens.
  
  I missed this on TV, but started watching on Hulu Plus. It’s
  surprisingly funny! The twist of having normal people living among
  aliens is a lot more interesting than having aliens living among normal
  people. The relationship between the alien couple Larry Bird (the Simon
  Templeman) and Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Toks Olagundoye) is the best part. Yes, they’re all named after sports stars.

BOOKS

• The
  Wind Whales of Ishmael
  by Philip Jose Farmer

  Summary: Ishmael, lone survivor
  of the doomed whaling ship Pequod, falls through a rift in time and
  space to a future Earth – an Earth of blood-sucking vegetation and a
  blood-red sun, of barren canyons where once the Pacific Ocean roared.
  Here too there are whales to hunt – but whales that soar through a dark
  blue sky….Hugo Award-winner Philip José Farmer spins a fascinating
  tale of whaling ships and sailors of the sky in a bizarre future world
  where there are no seas to sail and no safe harbor to call home….

  This is a strange book. The writer is very popular and the characters
  are strong, but the world-building is so bizarre I couldn’t suspend
  disbelief enough to enjoy it. Plants that
  have tendrils that suck your blood. Animals and plants that are living
  hot air balloons. I just couldn’t get into it. (Not Recommended)*

*Book provided
by publisher Titan Books. This in no way affected my opinion of the
book or it’s contents. The views and opinions expressed in this article
are those of the author.

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