A&E's remake of "The Andromeda Strain"

With Tony and Ridley Scott as co-producers, I thought this TV film had promise. Unfortunately, compared to the Michael Chrichton novel, and the 1971 film version (directed by Robert Wise of West Side Story, and The Sound of Music fame), this turkey has absolutely none of the sheer terror of the original story, nor none of the nail-biting suspense. Four hours of tedium, wrapped in tons of additional characters, subplots and "Military/Government-Establishment" hokum.

Could of been better story telling, disappointing IMO.

BTW, this was mostly filmed within a hours drive from my home town in the BC interior so it held a special interest for me if just for the backdrop.

Just for curiosity's sake, I rented the DVD of the 1971 version of "The Andromeda Strain." I'd seen the film once, but as that was 37 years ago, I wanted to see if I still liked it.

Despite being handicapped by 1971 special effects, and some cheesy sets (particularly those with very fake looking consoles full of buttons, knobs, switches and lights), it still works very well. Certainly worth a "look-see" for those who saw the A&E remake and were wondering what the differences were. Let me say this, "There are plenty of differences between the two, and all the superfluous fluff added to the remake did nothing other than fill the allocated time slot." The better of the two is most definitely this 1971 version.

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Originally Posted by emaidel

Despite being handicapped by 1971 special effects, and some cheesy sets (particularly those with very fake looking consoles full of buttons, knobs, switches and lights), it still works very well. Certainly worth a "look-see" for those who saw the A&E remake and were wondering what the differences were. Let me say this, "There are plenty of differences between the two, and all the superfluous fluff added to the remake did nothing other than fill the allocated time slot." The better of the two is most definitely this 1971 version.

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Once upon a time, it was "story first, effects second". Many a movie are made today with too much of the latter, and very little of the former - reverse order.

Look at great pieces of science fiction like The Day The Earth Stood Still, Forbidden Planet or Invasion Of The Body Snatchers. Cheesey special effects, but strong storyline - they're classics. Will any of the modern Sci-Fi movies make it to classic/cult status? If they do, I'll bet they have a minimal of special effects.

On it's own so so but compared to the 1971, it sucked for me.