# The Andromeda Strain - Redux



## LarryFlowers (Sep 22, 2006)

In 1971, I saw a great scifi film called "The Andromeda Strain". It was made at a time when Viet Nam was in its final throes and man had been to the moon and returned to the isolation of the Lunar Receiving Lab.

The movie, directed by Robert Wise, was based on the Michael Chriton book and was exciting and frightening at the same time.

A&E will present a new version of the movie as a 2 part miniseries beginning Monday May 26th 9PM ET and concluding the following evening.

Ridley Scott is the executive producer and the premise of the movie is the same: a satellite falls to Earth near the town of Piedmont and lets loose a contaminant that kills everyone in the town except for an old boozer and a crying baby.

I always thought the original, though great in its own right (and 130 minutes long) could have benefited from a longer telling.

The new film gets two evenings and that, added to todays filmmakers technological advantages, may produce a worthwhile alternative to the first full week of nothing but network re-runs.


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## ajc68 (Jan 23, 2008)

I'm a fan of the original movie and was looking forward to this mini-series. Unfortunately, Entertainment Weekly just panned it giving it a C- saying “Despite the eerie premise, the cluttered remake mires itself in lab work, inane backstory, and bureaucracy.”

I will keep and open mind and check it out. I’m really rooting for this to be good.


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## JM Anthony (Nov 16, 2003)

I'll be interested in seeing the remake, regardless of the reviews. I too was a big fan of the original and thought it was an intelligent, well done flick.

John


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

I was planning on watching this but I, too, am leary of the result. The first film is a hard science classic. Few sci-fi films are as well written as it. The Andromeda Strain was also directed by Robert Wise, who did The Day The Earth Stood Still and Star Trek: The Motion Picture. He was an accomplished science fiction director, not to say Ridley Scott isn't. There's just a lot of difference an executive producer and a director have upon a film.

We'll see.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Having recently rewatched the original on HDNet Movies, I was surprised at how suspenseful and menacing it was even after all these years. Because it used real computers at the time, it seems very authentic as well. I didn't catch the showing last night but I will probably see if I can catch it in a second showing.


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## Sirshagg (Dec 30, 2006)

Stuart Sweet said:


> Having recently rewatched the original on HDNet Movies, I was surprised at how suspenseful and menacing it was even after all these years. Because it used real computers at the time, it seems very authentic as well. I didn't catch the showing last night but I will probably see if I can catch it in a second showing.


You can catch all four hours this evening.


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## BubblePuppy (Nov 3, 2006)

Carl Spock said:


> I was planning on watching this but I, too, am leary of the result. The first film is a hard science classic. Few sci-fi films are as well written as it. The Andromeda Strain was also directed by Robert Wise, who did The Day The Earth Stood Still and *Star Trek: The Motion Picture*.
> We'll see.


Sorry but that had the most boring, long sequence, I can remember.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Sirshagg said:


> You can catch all four hours this evening.


Done, and done. Gotta love DIRECTV DVR Scheduler.


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## Nick (Apr 23, 2002)

Sirshagg said:


> You can catch all four hours this evening.


Thanks for the heads-up. Have A&E HD on Comcast here, and just set a timer.


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