Quartermass and the Pit or Five Million Years to Earth (1967)

 

My parents have been telling me about this movie for years. I was thrilled to get a chance to actually watch it. Technically this is the third movie in the British Quatermass trilogy, but you don’t need to see the other two movies in the franchise to make sense of this one. I still haven’t seen the other two and don’t know if I want to. In this science fiction horror film, the British government is trying to build a new underground through a “haunted” part of London. There have been sightings of weird things here for centuries, from before there even was a London. The tunnel workers find a bunch of primordial men and what appears to be a spaceship. Of course the government wants to dismiss it as some sort of WWII propaganda. It’s either an unexploded bomb or something the Germans cooked up to demoralize the British population. It’s only Quartermass and his associates that figure out that the device is in fact far far earlier than 20 years (try about 5 million years) and if they don’t do something a horror will be released on London far more deadly than it has ever known. 

Sorcerer's Apprentice (2010)

 

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2010)

The Sorcerer’s Apprentice stars Nicholas Cage and Jay Barchuel. It is based on the Mickey Fantasia clip of the same name.  In fact Barchuel also plays out the scene found in Fantasia. In this version of the movie Cage plays an ageless sorcerer, Balthazar Blake, who finds out that you Dave Stutler is the “Prime Merlinean” the magical successor to the wizard Merlin. Together they must defeat the evil Morgan le Fay who wishes to destroy the world. The film did not do very well at the box office, but it is still a fun fantastical movie. It was implied at the end of the movie that there might be a sequel in a post credit scene, but it never manifested, probably due to the poor reception.

Now let’s compare the two versions of the brook scene J.

Independence Day (1996)

 

Independence Day has got to be one of my all time favorite movies. I watch it every year on the 4^th of July. Essentially a remake of War of the Worlds, Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum and the rest of the supporting cast are just great in this movie. I have to say that Judd Hirsch is one of my favorite actors. I also love Brent Spiner as the super quirky scientist and feel it’s his best performance since he played Data on Next Generation. It reminds us all that those extra terrestrials might not be friendly and viruses can defeat them all. A must watch for any fan of alien films.