By Debbie Schlussel
Not much worthy at the box office, this weekend. The best stuff–I’ve seen most of the new releases–comes out on Christmas Day. For this weekend, at least, the best movie is a remake far inferior to the original classic. (Will add my review of “Beauty in Trouble,” soon.)
* “The Day the Earth Stood Still“: There’s not really much objectionable about this remake of the 1951 sci-fi classic about a spaceship that lands on earth, with an alien, Klaatu, who warns of our imminent doom. It’s just that–like most remakes of classics–the rehash isn’t nearly as good. It’s yet another on-screen version of “If It Ain’t Broke . . . Don’t Remake It.”

Then, there’s the tad of leftist green envirocrap inserted in. In the original, an alien comes to earth to tell them the earth will be destroyed unless nations get together and make peace. It was allegedly a reference to the nuclear arms buildup and the Cold War. In this version, Keanu Reeves says that we earthlings are destroying the planet. He never says how, but apparently he means we are wrecking it environmentally. It’s not very in your face, so I wasn’t too offended.
This version was longer than the original, and seemed much, much longer. It was slow and boring. It missed the charm and class of the original. It did have better special effects, but we expect that when it’s a 2008 flick versus one from the early ’50s. The only other difference seems to be what I call the Obama movie factor–everybody’s in interracial families and relationships in so many movies, lately. In this version of “The Day The Earth Stood Still,” the single White mother (Jennifer Connelly) has a Black kid (Jaden Smith–Will’s annoying, whiny son), whose father died in Iraq.
Like I said, the movie wasn’t bad. It just wasn’t great. You can definitely take your kids to it. But best to rent the original.
TWO REAGANS

* “Frost/Nixon“: Hmmm . . . When are they gonna make “Frost/Clinton” or “Walters/Lewinsky,” or “Barack Hussein/Jeremiah/Khalid/William and Bernadine”? Don’t hold your breath. Never before have I wasted two hours watching the description of how someone prepared for a TV interview trying to “get” someone.
This movie is about journalist David Frost doing the first, in-depth TV interview with former President Richard Nixon, post-Watergate/Nixon resignation. Nixon is played by Frank Langella. And while he looks the part, David Frost looks like Tony Blair (no surprise, since the actor who plays him played Blair in “The Queen”).
Frost and left-wing journalists Bob Zelnick and James Reston are shown trying to get the Nixon interview, trying to pay for it, and most importantly, trying to “get” him. Gotcha journalism is loved by liberal movie critics everywhere, who are raving over this okay, but not very interesting movie.
The best parts of this movie are when–for about 2/3 of the way–Nixon outsmarts his lesser interviewer. That was entertaining. I found myself quietly rooting him on against these arrogant, unduly indignant lefties who really weren’t interested in real journalism, so much as they were solidifying the left’s takeover of Congress and other institutions. Also well done is Kevin Bacon, playing his Vietnam War Vet chief of staff and trusted adviser and protector. I probably should have nominated him for Best Supporting Actor for the Detroit Film Critics Society.
But mostly, this film was just a sneering exaggeration of the real Nixon. And, admittedly, some of it is made up. Shocker.
Do you really need to waste your time and ten bucks seeing an interview you didn’t really watch or care about in the 1970s? Do we really need to relive and relive a tiny blip in repeated leftist media victories that weren’t so victorious for America’s long-term survival?
In history, this interview doesn’t really have a place. It’s really an irrelevant figment of pop culture, not history–no matter how much director Ron “Opie”/”Richie” Howard wants to make it so. It’s been long forgotten, and President Nixon’s reputation was rehabbed, anyway, despite the effort to embarrass him further on national television via this interview. Nixon went on to become a trusted foreign policy consultant to every President until his death. He was sought out for interviews on his views in that area. David Frost, on the other hand, went on to a lackluster perch at the Terrorist News Network a/k/a Al-Jazeera. But they don’t tell you that in the movie. Gee, I wonder why.
Yes, this interview wasn’t history. This movie is just a desperate attempt to make it so. And despite that, Nixon will be remembered as a good and decent man. And David Frost? Remind me again who he is.
TWO-AND-A-HALF MARXES


* “Nothing Like the Holidays“: If I were Hispanic, I’d sue the makers of this film for defamation. It’s a dumb American-Hispanic-Family-Gets-Together-for-Christmas movie, full of stupid, dopey jokes you’d see on a bad sitcom and stereotypes, not just of Hispanics but Jews. And it was just a slow, boring waste of time I’d expect to see as a TV movie. Not sure it’s even worthy of Telemundo or Univision. It’s the usual plot: everyone is fighting, then there’s a happy ending. Like an episode of “The Love Boat” or “Hotel” revisited. No thanks.
The Puerto Ricano family consists of the usual suspects you see in Hispanic movies: cheating, unfaithful father . . . check, boisterous interfering mother who likes to cook and complain . . . check (well, this one is in every ethnic movie, to be fair), Iraq veteran “war hero” who is really not a hero and is in the Army because he has no other place to go . . . check; pretentious, vixenish actress wannabe . . . check; successful professional son who out of the ethnicity to a stuck up Jewish woman . . . check, check, check.
The movie was annoying and had way too much screaming and melodrama piled on top of the dumb jokes and stereotypes. Extremely substandard. The only thing that stuck out in this movie was actress Debra Messing’s nose. Time to get the bad nose-job redone . . . check, check, check.
TWO MARXES