I can't find part two of "The Andromedia Strain" on A&E this weekend. Dish shows part 1 but not two. Anyone know what is going on? The ads talk as if part 1 is on one night and then part 2 the next but part 2 does not show up in the guide or a search on Dish.


Steve

Part 1 and Part 2 are back to back on Tuesday, as I recall. I think just Part 1 is on Monday.

Do you have Dish, does it show as part one and two in the guide. I know it's should be Monday and Tue. but it's not showing (or ste to record) part two.

Funny, I was looking for part 2 this morning on Comcast and couldn't find it either.

I have Dish Network... Part 1 is Monday at 9pm, Part 2 is Tuesday at 9pm. Various other repeat times as well, and the description in the EPG clearly notes Part 1 and Part 2.

HOWEVER... something is wrong with the EPG data, because if you try to set timers to catch part 2, the receiver skips it and thinks it is a "duplicate event". I had to manually set timers and then manually un-skip (restore) the Part 2 timer so that it would be set to catch both parts.

So is it in HD?

I will watch it, with my friend that has A&E HD, I hope it isn't SD 16:9....

Nice cast BTW

in HD:
Monday Part 1 - 9:00pm (1st showing).
Tuesday Part 2 - 9:00pm (1st showing).

Daniel Dae Kim (Lost)
Benjamin Bratt (Law & Order)
Eric McCormack (Will & Grace)
Christa Miller (Drew Carey)
Andre Braugher (Homicide)
Ricky Schroder (NYPD Blue)
Viola Davis (Jesse Stone)

Exec Producers:
Ridley Scott (Aliens)
Tony Scott (Top Gun)

Remake/expansion of Michael Crichtons 1971 movie about an alien biological disease unleashed on Earth....its 3 hours (sans commercials) of new sci-fi in the summer.

Reviews I've seen have been brutal, but still looking forward to it.

Brutal as in Terrible? or Brutal as in Great?

I'm still tunning in... great cast BTW

(what happened to the other thread?)

I think CPanther meant brutal to mean awful. The reviews I have seen have been lukewarm about the movie, neither loving nor hating it. I am going to give it a shot, too.

(what happened to the other thread?)

lol....i think it had fallen to the 2nd page and i didnt see it when i posted this.

entertainment weekly gave it a C-.

but at least from fredfa's thread Maureen Ryan of Chicago Tribune liked it.

I am reasonably confident that it will be true HD because it's a brand new made for TV movie. Further, my TiVo's program guide indicates that it will be in HD.

yea, ill check it out tonight. Good time for them to put it on, especially when everything else isn't new on tv.

commercial time.
this is a pretty good show except for being in sd (and the ads) on my kitchen flat panel.

? It's in HD for me.

Yea, I was watching it in HD all night. I liked it. It was interesting, and I wanna know whats gonna happen tomorrow night.

I enjoyed the first part. It has been a long time since I have watched the original movie, but this one feels just as good. Nicely updated to the current world of terrorism and nanotechnology. I have set my DVR to record part 2 in case I forget by tomorrow.

Duane

Is there a part 1 encore or if not where can i find it online please...?!!?!?!

Brutal as in Terrible? or Brutal as in Great?


Part one is brutal. This may be spoilerish but it's probably the only info that will get people interested.

They show a dude getting shot in the face, with blood exploding. A couple of execution style headshots too. And the number one in, way more glory than is allowed on TV. A guy cutting off his own head with a chain saw.:eek: It was pretty wicked.

It totally stole all the thunder from M. Night new movie. Unless he can top that. I think M. Night stole his story from Chriton.

I loved the original movie.

Talk about a group of untalented actors.
Ben Bratt and Ricky, not a good sign.

I'm halfway through and I'm thinking of quiting.

PArt 1 is replayed tonight at 1AM. PArt 1 and two(together) is on tomorow at 7PM and at 11PM so it's listed as fours hours in the guide.

PArt 1 is also on at 7AM tomorrow and 1PM. Parts one and two are played together on Tuesday at 7PM, 11PM, and 3AM on Wednesday

Those times I gave are Eastern Daylight Time.

And the number one in, way more glory than is allowed on TV. A guy cutting off his own head with a chain saw.:eek: It was pretty wicked.



Yeah, I found that one hard to believe. I don't think you could swing the chainsaw hard enough and fast enough to get a clean 'head flying off' like that. I think this would be a fun topic for the Mythbusters to explore.

Duane

I think all you need to do is have pressure on it, won't hand still clench it after death? Plus the virus from (it involves time doesn't it? it's really obvious), could have some effect. I can't believe they didn't cut the scene to show less.

Interestingly enough tonights showing of Enterprise on HDnet referenced the original Andromeda Strain.

It's interesting. My Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR on Comcast in Houston shows the show running for 4 hours starting at 6pm CDT Tuesday, while my Motorola SD box shows Part 1 at 6pm CDT and Part 2 at 8pm CDT.

A friend in Kansas City shows a similar disparity between his 8300HD on Time Warner and his SD TiVo.

same here. And thanks to the up/downgrade to Navigator I can't schedule a manual recording for just the 9pm slot so I'll have to record the full four hours.

I actually enjoyed the first part, and the dvd will be released next Tuesday.

Part 1 was awesome!
Looking forward to tonights part 2.
Broadcasted in HD.

Anyone encounter freezing, blocking artifacts, and audio glitches near the end (~35 mins) of part one? Might be just a local NYC TWC issue, but it was bad here, and a STB cold boot didn't help. Such glitches are very rare here on any channel. (We don't have an A&E HD signal yet, at least from my NYC head end.) -- John

What does the DVD offer over the presentation last night? The DVD obviously isn't in HD. I'll take the broadcast HD version over an SD DVD. My only complaint about the HD broadcast last night was that it was only in DD 2.0 instead of DD 5.1

Didn't see any glitches at all on A&E HD with FIOS on Long Island.

How was the quality? Was A&E showing some true HD?

i thought it looked great (yes, it's HD).
story was a bit slow but it's building and i think tonight's conclusion will be good.
fyi, last night's showing was labeled as Part 1. Tonight's is not similarly labeled but in the description, it says that it is the "conclusion" to the two-parter.

Christa Miller...holy botox batman! She's had the same slightly surprised expression on her face all through part 1.

Recently watched the original "Andromeda Strain" movie on DVD. Certainly the miniseries won't be as intense as that, I would think. That movie would be PG-13 today, for something like "Gruesome Imagery and Nudity" -- but it was G when it was released.

I thought it was surprisingly good. By modern standards the story is no more than a routine sci-fi thriller, but the production values are outstanding. The film looks great and the performances range from very good to outstanding. I have particularly enjoyed Andre Braugher as the evil General Mancheck. His terrific performance reminded me how great he was as Detective Frank Pembelton in Homicide: Life on the Street, back in the '90s.

I am looking forward to the conclusion.

I've seen the original movie and now Part I of this version.

I think that this current version is rather well done. The HD helps. I agree that in this day and age it is strange to be in 2.0.

Anyone encounter freezing, blocking artifacts, and audio glitches near the end (~35 mins) of part one? Might be just a local NYC TWC issue, but it was bad here, and a STB cold boot didn't help. Such glitches are very rare here on any channel. (We don't have an A&E HD signal yet, at least from my NYC head end.) -- John

A&E HD presentation was very good right up to the end (watching via DirecTV).

I agree that in this day and age it is strange to be in 2.0.
I was relieved to learn that the soundtrack really is 2.0, not 5.1. Because it was a brand new miniseries, I had feared that either my TiVo S3 or my Yamaha HD receiver was hinky.

I was relieved to learn that the soundtrack really is 2.0, not 5.1. Because it was a brand new miniseries, I had feared that either my TiVo S3 or my Yamaha HD receiver was hinky.

Not sure why A&E only does 2.0. I may be wrong, but I don't remember ever hearing a 5.1 broadcast from them.

Three (3) threads on this! Combine into one :p
I chose this thread since it was created first, and with the most posts.

" Andromeda Strain (2008) on A&E HD"
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1033357

"When is Part 2 of Andromeda Strain?"
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1031866

""The Andromeda Strain" (2008) A&E-Mon. Part 1/Tue. Part 2"
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1033150

Tonight is going to be rockin!
Before the show, I am going to reply part 1 for a friend.

I was relieved to learn that the soundtrack really is 2.0, not 5.1. Because it was a brand new miniseries, I had feared that either my TiVo S3 or my Yamaha HD receiver was hinky.

It's in 5.1 not 2.0 A&E HD can not pass 5.1 right now.

What does the DVD offer over the presentation last night? The DVD obviously isn't in HD. I'll take the broadcast HD version over an SD DVD. My only complaint about the HD broadcast last night was that it was only in DD 2.0 instead of DD 5.1

what if its blu-ray ?

Gotta say this mini series was a mess. I enjoyed it but it had a high number of LOL badly thought out/written parts.

The original remains king.

This mini-series is a dog compared to the original. I thought the space station at the end was going to explode or fall apart as the "camera" was pulling out because Andromeda had broken free. Anyone notice that 2 huge hurricanes were right over Florida and Texas? That's not funny. Hurricane Season is just around the corner.

And why did Tsi die after he cut off the thumb? Was the water contaminated?

They said during part 1 when they were first entering the facility that it had a water-cooled nuclear reactor at the bottom to provide power. Then later someone made a comment about swimming in it and the response was the high radiation level would make the swim very short.

Duane

Ahhh, thanks Duane.

You know it's 2008, on a cable network and they have to bleep some very common words? Give me a break.

They certainly changed the plot a lot, but it did resemble the original in parts - from what I can remember from 20+ years ago.

I can't believe how sharp the drop off was with this mini-series.

It goes from a guy chopping off his own head with a chain-saw(awesome), to a thumb flying in the air(lame, I laughed my ass off at this part and couldn't stop).

When is UniHD showing the original. And did they drop the story line of the baby from the beginning of the show?

And what was with the 28weeks later bootleg music they played whenever someone was 'infected'? Talk about a lack of creativity. That's what really got me.

I just got done with this show, and I must say it was a total disaster. In attempting to sound like scientists, whenever the group got together in the briefing room, they sounded like robots reading words so long they had no clue what they were talking about. Bad cgi for the F-16 cockpit scene, and the flying thumb was ridiculous!

Good stuff. I enjoyed both parts.
Christa Miller...holy botox batman! She's had the same slightly surprised expression on her face all through part 1.
Yeah, Miller is hot. :eek:

They seemed to have tossed too many things into the hopper...worm holes, nanotech, NSA conspiracy, Andromeda mutation sweeping like wind through vegetation...etc. Believe nanotech was a separate novel by Andromeda's author, but don't know if Crichton had any input to this confusing script. Producers had too much time to fill compared to the original. It was interesting to compare the fictional technology differences between the two productions, such as the overwhelmed lab computer that crashed in the original '71 film version versus the Star-Trek-like computer that performed perfectly with complex spoken requests.

Don't have A&E HD quite yet, but some scenes suggested impressive captured resolution even with my digital-cable SD upconverted to 1080i--like the desert vistas (distant vegetation, etc.) when the TV correspondent was escaping near the end of Part 2. Suspect Blu-ray images would be exceptional. Notice from imdb.com this was shot with a ~3k D-20 (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424600/technical) digital-cinema camera rather than film, so perhaps the elimination of a film-to-digital stage aided final effective resolution. -- John

Topics merged.

I think this mini series kind of to short it should have been three part. The second part made me feel they are rushing to end it.

This version was hilarious, and the flying thumb at the end actually had me laughing out loud. As far as telling the story from the novel, it was a mess.

You know it's 2008, on a cable network and they have to bleep some very common words? Give me a break.
I don't recall any bleeped words, in fact I explicitly remember hearing one barely 3 minutes in (the two army soldiers who are searching for the satellite.)

And did they drop the story line of the baby from the beginning of the show?
They baby storyline was identical to the original; the baby's crying saved its life.

That movie [the original] would be PG-13 today, for something like "Gruesome Imagery and Nudity" -- but it was G when it was released.
This one was no lame duck, either. Suicides, heads chopped off, numerous people shot in the face (I think nearly everyone who was shot was shot in the face!). Also, there was some Christa Miller side-boob in the decontamination scene.

It's in 5.1 not 2.0 A&E HD can not pass 5.1 right now.
Thanks, I hadn’t realized that.

I think this mini series kind of to short it should have been three part. The second part made me feel they are rushing to end it.
Not only did I not think the show was rushed, I was driven to distraction by Our Hero’s struggle to get to the nuclear detonation override panel to finally end.

Despite my quibble over pacing, I thought this miniseries was a lot of fun. It turned out to have been a well spent 4 hours, less commercials, of course, (thanks, TiVo). :)

i had a tough time believing christa miller's character. she niether acted, talked or looked like a scientist. bad casting in a poorly written script.

I would guess that the only aspect of Mr. Crichton's involvement in this re-make was to quickly cash his royalty check.

I just want one of those tracking lasers used in the original movie to kill rats..
I think it would be great for squirrel control out in the yard.

This version was hilarious, and the flying thumb at the end actually had me laughing out loud. As far as telling the story from the novel, it was a mess.

It was a mess. Seemed kind of amateurish to me and more than a bit silly.

Wow. If you have recorded this and haven't watched it yet, do yourself a favour and DO NOT BOTHER WATCHING this garbage. The science was baseless, way too many plot inconsistencies, wooden acting, terrible casting, and the CGI was dreadful.

I tried watching Sunday night but DirecTV for me was huge audio dropouts and eventually pixilation city. Little did I know that DirecTV was trying to do me a favor:D I re-recorded the show and watched it last night, total disappointment.

I tried watching Sunday night but DirecTV for me was huge audio dropouts and eventually pixilation city.
Interesting. Via NYC's TW Cable I got very bad audio/video breaks during last ~40 minutes of part 1.

Someone earlier above (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=13956863&postcount=39) found part 1 okay, without glitches, via DirecTV. Maybe local weather differences for DBS. -- John

It should have been titled: Andromeda Stain.

Interesting. Via NYC's TW Cable I got very bad audio/video breaks during last ~40 minutes of part 1.

Someone earlier above (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=13956863&postcount=39) found part 1 okay, without glitches, via DirecTV. Maybe local weather differences for DBS. -- JohnMaybe weather or SD viewer. I was watching on the HR20-100. Mine went crazy after the 1st hour on part 1.

Holy crap, that was bad. Who funded this garbage, the E.L.F. ?

We actually enjoyed the first half immensely... having read the book and watched the original repeatedly, it was a fun take on it... until the second half. Good god did this show tank in part two.

The thumb tossing and the can't find the panel was so lame... was he blinded or something? if he was how did he catch the finger then, imagine if they have cut the left thumb instead of the right.. LOL

So two seemenly strong man fall some feet into a water pool and both die.. mmm

The black lady deserved to die more, she creating the risk and ultimately risking man kind to save her family? so dumb..

The ultimate goof of, the virus kinda kills the plants, but the anti-virus revives them.. I was like whuuut?

Well it was entertaining and almost 4 hours...

The thumb tossing and the can't find the panel was so lame... was he blinded or something? if he was how did he catch the finger then, imagine if they have cut the left thumb instead of the right.. LOL
Yes, he was blinded by a steam pipe after he caught the thumb. Also, he fell out of the rafters, which probably hurt.


So two seemenly strong man fall some feet into a water pool and both die.. mmm
The water was in a coolant pool for the radiation. They specifically mention it in the begining of the movie as being lethal.


The black lady deserved to die more, she creating the risk and ultimately risking man kind to save her family? so dumb..
I was under the impression that she had one sample left, was deciding whether to destroy it or not, and while she was deciding, Andromeda started to melt the container.

We actually enjoyed the first half immensely... having read the book and watched the original repeatedly, it was a fun take on it... until the second half. Good god did this show tank in part two.


In hindsight, I'd agree with that. We were looking forward to the second part, so the first part must have been decent.

The thumb was ridiculous, as was all the debris falling and the steam pipe blowing in his eyes. This was a hardened facility that wasn't subjected to any trauma whatsoever. Why was everything falling apart the minute it went into self destruct? Is it some sort of progressive self-destruct that begins to break down the facility immediately and the countdown clock just lets you know when the destruction will be complete? :rolleyes:

The most realistic part was Ricky Schroeder telling us for no apparent reason that he was gay. Guess the producers got to mark off another category on the demographic checklist, and the rest of us had our long held suspicions verified. ;)

After thinking about it ...
If the Future "us" were so advanced as to send a message thru time, & were so advanced in nano tech ect ....

A) - Why such a cryptic message, on a subatomic level, that needed to be deciphered to Binary, then ASCII, then English!!
They could have sent/engineered the message in Plain text, easy to see under a microscope, or some other way ...
B) - Why send the deadly alien virus back to potentially destroy your own past at all .. Since apparently even a teenager who opens the retrieval sattelitte is capable of unleashing it ... Just send the messages.
C) - The whole end with the symbol & the "73864" was very unclear ...
If , sometime in the future, they got the Virus from that canister, they would already know about the events leading up to it's placement, & that their "message" didn't stop the inferno microbe from becomming extinct...
& regardless, what was the purpose of putting just the symbol & canister number in the message anyway, couldn't they ASCII out more detail ...

I only caught parts of this show, but couldn't believe the level of violence they got away with.

I have no problem with gore, but was surprised it had a PG rating. I've never seen a PG movie with graphic head shots, etc. Ten years ago, SPAWN had to have the sound of a neck snap removed to avoid an R rating. I guess the CSI shows have pushed the acceptable limits.

Art

73864 could be l33t for LEBGA, whatever that means..lol

Oh yeah now I remember the coolant for the nuke core... shouldn't they freeze on contact, well it was fiction lol

I only caught parts of this show, but couldn't believe the level of violence they got away with.

I have no problem with gore, but was surprised it had a PG rating. I've never seen a PG movie with graphic head shots, etc. Ten years ago, SPAWN had to have the sound of a neck snap removed to avoid an R rating. I guess the CSI shows have pushed the acceptable limits.

Art

The culpability of a paid subscription network vs. a broadcast network is dramatically different. The ratings should be consistent across the board, but a cablenet can manipulate the ratings without much fear of repercussions.

This should probably been TV-14, possibly TV-MA.

Good grief, if we start listing the 'stupid things' in this flick our list will get pretty long.

Take that thumb. Why did it take an iris scan to get into the facility...but it took a thumb print to disarm the nuclear self destruct?

They missed a chance to toss an EYEBALL!

I'm not a proponent for graphic violence but they took the blood splatter effects straight from some really bad video game. I guess they couldn't afford squibs and fake blood packets?

Gotta agree with those of you who enjoyed part one, but not so much part two. Part two seemed to be the main culprit of the awful video game like dialog and poor pacing.

Adpayne, like you I was surprised the amount of violence they got away with, as I mentioned it to my girl during the movie. And it was only TV-PG! Not that I'm complaining, I really enjoyed the chainsaw scene.

Meatchicken, I think the canister in space scene was showing that in the present day they have a sample of Andromeda in space that also needs to be destroyed to completely wipe out the virus. Unfortunately, Wildfire was unable to break this code.

Finally, the PQ was outstanding watching via Comcast in Seattle, WA. on a 720p lcd television. Really top notch.:)

what do you get if you take a serious, stylish, hard science thriller and remake it 30 years later.

CSI: Andromeda

I got to the wormhole and my eyes almost rolled 360°. It wasn't enough that a satellite can just come into random contact with the infinite possibilities floating through space. The nanotech guff was bad, but they couldn't stop there, they had to throw in some Sc-Fi channel Saturday night movie stuff as well.

It amazes me that even though technology has advanced dramatically since the original this version looked spectacularly unconvincing. From the ridiculous Sci-Fi flexible screens to the laboratories that examine nano-sized microbes under mood lighting. One of the best aspects of the original was that like 2001 you felt you were actually seeing something that could exist and was logical. From the color coded circular floors, to the paper suits, it felt realistic. This looked like any old set from any forensic crime show on TV. The hilarious decontamination scene looked like a shampoo commercial with it's slow motion head tossing and water droplets.

Apparently an airborne virus that turns your blood to dust and kills instantly wasn't scary enough in the current age so now people have to go crazy and start killing everyone in over the top ways to pad out the 4 hours. The producers must have forgotten that simplicity is the best solution. They must also have forgotten that people were scared out of their wits over the threat of bird flu a couple of years back as well. No crazy chainsaws necessary.

Which brings me to the other laughable part. TV standards and for that matter the general public, are idiots. You can show a guy cut his head off with a chainsaw, another one shoot himself in the head, a woman set fire to herself (don't try this at home kids!), cliched alcoholic reporter taking drugs, various murders and corpses ...

but you can't say "ass" on TV. :rolleyes:

Holy crap, get some perspective people.

And then stop remaking classic films. Unless you plan to make them better and not just weeknight commercial filler.

Eagles bombing soldiers with dead rats.

I think that says it all.

Apparently an airborne virus that turns your blood to dust and kills instantly wasn't scary enough in the current age so now people have to go crazy and start killing everyone in over the top ways to pad out the 4 hours.

I think that says it all.

True, considering the book was written in the late 60s. And I think that is a scarier discourse on the times in which we live considering in a little over a generation the unimaginable has become mainstream.

73864 could be l33t for LEBGA, whatever that means..lol

Oh yeah now I remember the coolant for the nuke core... shouldn't they freeze on contact, well it was fiction lol

i think that number is the locker/password they used for storing the andromeda on the space station.

It took me several days to get thru all four hours, but I wasn't totally disappointed (as others here appear to be). It was an interesting update to a good classic scifi movie - a take with 2008 technology vs. 1971 technology.

Interesting as some things were different -

1) The directive 7-12 actually did happen, but happened according to Andromeda's wishes after the pilot disarmed the bomb.

2) Nice nod to Hitchcock's "The Birds" in the second half.

3) Too bad about inconsistency with the swear words - they were bleeped in the first half, but then dropped both the S* bomb and the H*S* bomb (I had my closed captioning on) in the second - either have it or don't all the way thru.

4) The virus wasn't actually named till midway thru the '71 version, here it gets the "Andromeda" code name from the start.

5) A lot of political intrigue and military shenanigans added that wasn't in the '71 version - a sign of our times?

6) Piedmont. In the original, in New Mexico. Here, Utah. Why the move?

I just deleted this one from the DVR after one viewing. The movie was so much better.

The ridiculous flexible briefing pads, the two-way pane-of-glass flat panel displays (for a moment I thought I was watching Bones), the nanotech, the wormhole, the time travel, the silly Hollywood paranoia about the secret military factions of government, were all unnecessary. The film created better suspense and a more believable plot with a simple scrap of paper stuck in an old-fashioned teletype mechanism.

None of it makes up for the lack of good writing. In a four-hour miniseries I expect to see some character development, and it was entirely lacking.

Overall a "C-" and a "Never View Again" for this faulty effort.

I just deleted this one from the DVR after one viewing. The movie was so much better.

The ridiculous flexible briefing pads, the two-way pane-of-glass flat panel displays (for a moment I thought I was watching Bones), the nanotech, the wormhole, the time travel, the silly Hollywood paranoia about the secret military factions of government, were all unnecessary. The film created better suspense and a more believable plot with a simple scrap of paper stuck in an old-fashioned teletype mechanism.

None of it makes up for the lack of good writing. In a four-hour miniseries I expect to see some character development, and it was entirely lacking.

Overall a "C-" and a "Never View Again" for this faulty effort.

Why were the briefing pads ridiculous? They have been working on something similar for a few years and expect something like that to be released. The pads aren't science fiction, they are based on fact.

3) Too bad about inconsistency with the swear words - they were bleeped in the first half, but then dropped both the S* bomb and the H*S* bomb (I had my closed captioning on) in the second - either have it or don't all the way thru.

Must have varied by showtimes. Neither Part 1 or 2 was bleeped on the showings I got.

Why were the briefing pads ridiculous? They have been working on something similar for a few years and expect something like that to be released.

And until they do it's science fiction because they are a long way off producing practical flexible display sytems. They've been experimenting with teleportation but that doesn't make it any less science fiction when you add it to a TV show.

What difference would it have made if they had been presented with laptops or on (gasp) paper? The only reason they put them in was to make the show look more glossy at the expense of realism. Like the wormhole.

Anybody get the Terminator feel, where they send a message from the future (where the evil military has taken over the world) to change the past. Heck it would surprise if they plan to show that it was Jeremy that send the virus to himself in the past but it was to similar to Terminator and they pulled it.

And until they do it's science fiction because they are a long way off producing practical flexible display sytems. They've been experimenting with teleportation but that doesn't make it any less science fiction when you add it to a TV show.

What difference would it have made if they had been presented with laptops or on (gasp) paper? The only reason they put them in was to make the show look more glossy at the expense of realism. Like the wormhole.


It's supposed to be a state of the art facility using modern technolgy. there is plenty of technology the government/companies are working on that we don't know about. I know sometimes Popular Science will have some articles about futuristic things and my friend will comment that they might be farther along than the magazines shows. She has a top secret clearance so she can't talk about the stuff she works on, but she definitely conveys the feeling they are farther along in some areas than the public actually knows about. I wish she could talk about some of the top secret research she does. I'm sure it would be an eye opener.

Interesting as some things were different

I think one of the things that probably screwed this one up was that they must have locked the writers in a room and said, "You're not getting out of here until you come up with plot twists so that those who have watched the movie don't know what's coming next!"

I'd agree with others that I thought the first half wasn't bad, and I suspect one reason the second half didn't work was that there were far too many irrelevant plotlines introduced to try to twist things around - and they all had to be resolved by the end of hour 4.

Although I liked the print, way too much emphasis on eye candy CGI. And while Benjamin Bratt is wooden by default, Andre Braugher can act...so there was something going on with the directing too.

It's supposed to be a state of the art facility using modern technolgy. there is plenty of technology the government/companies are working on that we don't know about.

Oh come on. Don't be ridiculous. That flexible display was pure sci-fi eye candy just as the wormhole was.

There's nothing top secret or classified about displays that roll up. They even throw them about in DARPA videos for proposed ideas that are many years away.

3) Too bad about inconsistency with the swear words - they were bleeped in the first half, but then dropped both the S* bomb and the H*S* bomb (I had my closed captioning on) in the second - either have it or don't all the way thru.

It was the times it was showing... Part one replayed at 7pm multiple times and bleeped out the swears that were heard during it's original 9pm showing. That's not to say they didn't play the wrong version upon subsequent showings.

All I can say though, that goodness A&E for protecting the kiddies from dirty words, but decapitation and grotesque violence?!?!!? we really have some f'ed up priorities. Although I'm not abdicating any censorship on a cable channel.

Although I'm not abdicating any censorship on a cable channel.

I agree, but that's my concern about the Rating given (TV-PG). I say show what you want, just rate it correctly. Incorrect ratings just give ammo to those who want to try and apply broadcast standards to pay cable channels.

All I can say though, that goodness A&E for protecting the kiddies from dirty words, but decapitation and grotesque violence?!?!!? we really have some f'ed up priorities. Although I'm not abdicating any censorship on a cable channel.

I'm going to grammar Nazi myself here... I meant advocating, not abdicating. Silly work stealing my concentration and getting in the way of my avsforum'ing. Although without it I wouldn't be able to afford the avs toys I love so much.

We all knew what you meant.

The thumb was ridiculous, as was all the debris falling and the steam pipe blowing in his eyes. This was a hardened facility that wasn't subjected to any trauma whatsoever. Why was everything falling apart the minute it went into self destruct? Is it some sort of progressive self-destruct that begins to break down the facility immediately and the countdown clock just lets you know when the destruction will be complete? :rolleyes:



The virus was causing the complex to disintegrate. Not that it was a good movie, mind you...I still don't get the point of the Will from "Will & Grace" guy's plotline. It went nowhere.

Oh come on. Don't be ridiculous. That flexible display was pure sci-fi eye candy just as the wormhole was.

There's nothing top secret or classified about displays that roll up. They even throw them about in DARPA videos for proposed ideas that are many years away.

I never said they were top secret. The flexible displays are being worked on according to popular science magazine. Of course they also had an article about how they were able to transport light instantanly from one point to another. Not matter yet but light which is the first step. That was science fiction not too long ago and now it's fact.
They profile alot of technolgy that a few years ago were fiction but is now fact. And it makes you wonder how many other things are top secret that we don't know about yet that are being worked on.

I agree, but that's my concern about the Rating given (TV-PG). I say show what you want, just rate it correctly. Incorrect ratings just give ammo to those who want to try and apply broadcast standards to pay cable channels.

That was my point as well. I dig random gore, but the rating was very misleading. It is odd that almost any level of violence is acceptable now, but words and nudity are still no-no's. :confused:

Art

The girl that helped out the reporter looks like Michelle Rodriguez's (Fast and Furious and Lost) younger sister.

Mentioned earlier above this miniseries was recorded with a digital-cinema camera, the Arriflex D-20. For those interested in production details, Jon Silberg's article (http://www.uemedia.net/CPC/digitalcinemamag/articles/article_17030.shtml) also outlined how other tiny and fast-frame digital-HD cameras played a role. -- John

I enjoyed this as a sci-fi popcorn flick thriller. Could have done without the whole eviroment angle seemed preachy.

That was my point as well. I dig random gore, but the rating was very misleading. It is odd that almost any level of violence is acceptable now, but words and nudity are still no-no's. :confused:

Art

Watched part of (new) Dawn of the Dead on, I think USA, last night.

Jamming a metal bar through someone's eye socket is okay and blowing off bits of skull with a sniper rifle is also fine.

But you can't say "sh*t." :rolleyes:

I would say the use of that word is probably more prevalent in families, schools and society in general than having your brains ripped out with a metal poker. And if you are watching a movie about cannibal zombies then that kind of word shouldn't be an issue.

Either way your kids shouldn't be watching it, so what's the point in bleeping out words? Audience ratings are screwed as are the priorities of the majority of families who need them.

I never said they were top secret. The flexible displays are being worked on according to popular science magazine.

You inferred that because you have a friend who works on classified government projects that the flexible displays could be in use in the military as they were shown in the show. Like I said before those displays are pure science fiction in the show. Working on prototypes now (as several major companies are doing) doesn't make them any less so. Until they are being produced for practical use they do not exist and those displays are still years away.

The same way that despite MIT have been working on 3D holographic video displays for years, the one they used to use in Bones is also ridiculous science fiction. The MIT holographic technology takes up an entire room of power sucking devices and components that can barely produce single color images.

NASA are also working on Ion engines, but adding an ion powered aircraft to a show would be pure SF.

You may as well call the movie Stealth realistic because DARPA are working on pilotless aircraft

etc..

Working on something and having a final product are two different things separated by years of development. The former does not automatically guarantee the latter.

Go back to the original Andromeda Strain. You could easily accept their level of technology even though it was fiction. It made sense in the world of the movie, even with lasers. It didn't try and push the technology purely for cosmetic reasons in throwaway scenes.

... The same way that despite MIT have been working on 3D holographic video displays for years, the one they used to use in Bones is also ridiculous science fiction. The MIT holographic technology takes up an entire room of power sucking devices and components that can barely produce single color images. ...

http://gl.ict.usc.edu/Research/3DDisplay/images/360.png
http://gl.ict.usc.edu/Research/3DDisplay/images/display.gif

http://gl.ict.usc.edu/Research/3DDisplay/

v/r,
C-F

Vaguely recall the flexible displays simulated in Andromeda. A more memorable simulation was in "Red Planet," when one explorer unrolled his flex display a few feet (ultra-wide screen), then called up Martian topography to help pinpoint the crew's location on the surface.

Last October, "Information Display," published monthly by SID.org (Society for Information Display), had a special issue with a guest editorial, "Flexible and Mobile Displays: An Exciting Time," (http://www.sidmembers.org//idonline/article.cfm?year=2007&issue=10&file=art2) summarizing that issue's four articles; full articles require membership. -- John

And even more interesting is watching CSIs. Screens that can display records from 5 different agencies plus finger prints plus pictues in 5 seconds. I bet the real cops would love that capability.

I didn't realize I had Andromeda Strain in HD in the On Demand section under TV Entertainment. I don't have A&E HD on Comcast. It's in stereo though.

I thought it was pretty bad, like something the sci fi channel would do. It looked like they were trying to start a series. I expected more from A&E; I thought they were classier. I wonder how the book is different from the old and new movies.

I thought it was pretty bad, like something the sci fi channel would do. It looked like they were trying to start a series. I expected more from A&E; I thought they were classier.

Actually, it was a SciFi project and they ended up passing it off to A&E. Ridley Scott was to direct it initially.

I wonder how the book is different from the old and new movies.

The book and Robert Wise (1971) film are close to one another. The big difference is the book had an all-male team, and the movie had one of the team members being female (I don't have my copy of the book handy to verify it, but I believe that there was 5 team members in the book, while the movie had 4).

Keep in mind that the 1971 movie was commissioned based on an unfinished draft of the book, and Crichton was literally coming up with the edge-of-your-seat climax while the movie was in production.

shooting principally with the ARRI D-20 digital camera and making use of the high-speed Vision Research Phantom and the tiny Iconix HD camera.

Arri D-20 yields the same field of view and depth of field as that of Super 35 mm film motion picture cameras.
This output is 1920x1080 pixels in either YUV 4:2:2 10 bit (via single link HD-SDI) or RGB 4:4:4 10 bit (via dual link HD-SDI). Typically, the D-20 is tethered to a Sony HDCamSR recorder.

in an early scene in which the scientists go through an extensive decontamination process involving backlit, slow-motion blasts of water. Joffin ran film through an ARRI 435 [35mm film] for the 150fps portions

the digital Vision Research Phantom HD camera for the 500fps material.

ARRI D-20 on The Andromeda Strain: Data Drives the Production of A&E's Miniseries, May 20, 2008
http://www.uemedia.net/CPC/digitalcinemamag/articles/article_17030.shtml