The Day the Earth Stood Still poster & wallpaper
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Keanu Reeves, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Kathy Bates, Jaden Smith ... see more see more... , John Cleese , Kyle Chandler , Robert Knepper , James Hong , John Rothman , Sunita Prasad , Juan Riedinger , Sam Gilroy , Tanya Champoux , Rukiya Bernard , Alisen Down , Lloyd Adams , Mousa Kraish , J.C. MacKenzie , Kurt Max Runte , Daniel Bacon , Brandon T. Jackson , David Lewis

Keanu Reeves tops this adaptation of the seminal 1951 sci-fi film The Day the Earth Stood Still with this 20th Century Fox production. Scott Derrickson (The Exorcism of Emily Rose) helms the story of ... read more read more...an alien traveler, Klaatu (Reeves), who heads to Earth along with his bodyguard robot, Gort, to deliver a warning of planetary destruction if the people of the world fail to stop laying waste to the environment. Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, and Kathy Bates co-star in the David Scarpa-penned film. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

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34% liked it

274,165 ratings

Critics

21% liked it

190 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 50 min.

Directed by: Scott Derrickson

Release Date: December 12, 2008

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DVD Release Date: April 7, 2009

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Stats: 28,586 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (28,586)

  • jmanard52
    May 23, 2009
    jmanard52
    I really have to say I liked this movie enough to not pan it like a lot of people. It wasnt horrible, had some really good special effects and had its nice preachy sci fi meaning. So overall not to bad for a couples hours of popcorn fare.
  • lewiskendell
    March 27, 2012
    lewiskendell
    "Change his mind. Not with reason, but with yourself."

    A mysterious alien presence arrives on earth, causing chaos, confusion, and many questions. Primarily, why is it here? Is this humanity's hour of judgment, or salvation?

    I really don't know how I found The Day The Earth St... read moreood Still to be bearable enough to finish. It's clunky, often boring, and heavy-handed in a way that good science fiction never is. The worst flaws are the script and dialogue, which are simply terrible. Poor Jennifer Connelly often looks like she can't believe the words that are coming out of her mouth, and the other actors don't have it any better. I like Keanu Reaves, but here he is somehow still too stiff and emotionless for a character that's SUPPOSED to be stiff and emotionless.

    Dull subplots focusing on annoying characters somehow make an already boring movie even worse. There's really not even an memorable action or special effects scenes to make things interesting, even briefly. There's no emotion here, no excitement, nothing to engage the viewer. The Day the Earth Stood Still is just an empty experience.
  • fb1463751009
    March 8, 2012
    fb1463751009
    awful. absolutely awful...
    "Now, please; tell me why have you come to our planet?" *Keanu Reeves turns his flat and expressionless face towards the speaker* "Your planet? It is not."
    LOL OK
  • MovieGeek13
    August 10, 2011
    MovieGeek13
    Jennifer Connolly, Keanu Reeves, Jaden Smith, and Jon Hamm do whatever they can to make The Day The Earth Stood Still entertaining, but they can't do enough to cover up how poorly made this film is. Plain and simple, The Day The Earth Stood Still is a piece of crap, an epic failu... read morere on so many accounts.
    For one, the effects are atrocious. The CGI bits scream fake, especially the big machine thingy that is supposed to protect Klaatu (Reeves) and destroy the world. It's very hard to care about what happens when you're laughing at how cartoonish everything looks.
    The story makes no sense. So, Klaatu has decided that the human race must be destroyed in order for the planet Earth to continually exist. His reasoning is uninformed at best. SPOILER ALERT!!! All that it takes for him to change his mind is Jennifer Connolly hugging her son out of love. So, humans are capable of love and thus worth saving. If he had been watching humans live for as long as he claims he has, he would have realized that a long time ago and saved himself the trip, and me the wasted two hours I spent sitting through this crap.
    Also, the Kathy Bates character is a walking cliche. The ignorant, power-tripping government official who doesn't understand her enemy, and her ignorance fucks everyone over. Uh huh. Real originality on her characterization.
    Okay. I'm complaining too much. Skip this one at all costs. It's a terrible, boring, and underwhelming remake of a dated 1951 original.
  • DreamExtractor
    June 17, 2011
    DreamExtractor
    As the critics and viewers have said before, this is all visual and no plot. I will give it credit, the visuals are beautiful, and it was the only thing keeping my attention. The plot is pathetic, so many cliche moments, and I haven't seen the original but even I know it didn't... read more keep to it at all. The acting from the whole cast was weak, not horrible, but weak. Keanu Reeves was terrible, he didn't DO anything except use a deep voice. The music was okay, it seemed like half action, half horror music if you listen correctly. I love Jennifer Connelly but after this and The Dilemma im losing hope in her. If you want great visual effects and explosions, thats all this movie is.
  • StarCrossedVoyager
    May 11, 2011
    StarCrossedVoyager
    Visually and graphically much better than the original (obviously) however I feel that the fight here isn't environmentalism rather non-violence in whole. I didn't really see much about the environment except for Klaatu's "arks" but that was because he was going to destroy the ea... read morerth and didn't want to kill off our nature. Connoly did a great job.
  • TheDudeLebowski65
    May 5, 2011
    TheDudeLebowski65
    Remake of the 1951 classic film of the same name is for me a guilty pleasure. I enjoyed. The film follows the typical popcorn thrill ride formula, but has barely any substance to it. I mean the ending is a disappointing. But I didn't at all hate the film. Sure I didn't like a lot... read more of the things about it. Especially the fact that the Aliens leave at the end without any explanation. But who cares? This film's biggest strengths are of course in it's special effects and it's the reason I liked it. But the areas of which the film suffers are in the character and plot development. Some characters aren't likeable, especially Jaden Smith's character who is simply a brat. Also the plot seems to go nowhere. But like I said, this remake focuses on the visuals and not the plot. Even though I liked this film, like everyone else I thought it fell flat and the ending needed to be better. The ending was what made this film fairly average, the aliens leave without an explanation was a stupid idea. In the original the aliens have a motive to create the chaos on earth. In this remake, theres no explanation as to why the aliens create the chaos. With this remake you get an average popcorn flick that disappoints at times. But for most of the time it thrills. But be warned it's nothing compared to the original which of course is a Sci Fi classic. If only the filmmakers would have put better thoughts into the ending, the film would have been better. The ending feels like the screenwriters were getting sloppy and took the easy way out instead of creating and ending that was terrific. It could have been done, but wasn't. This remake for me is an average popcorn flick, entertaining but flawed.
  • MrMarakai
    February 18, 2011
    MrMarakai
    Science-Fiction is normally a genre that has excitement, scares, great visuals and innovative ideas. Not something that is tedious, uninteresting and excruciatingly boring.
    Astrobiologist Helen (Jennifer Connelly) is whisked away to help the government when strange goings-on ... read moreherald an alien landing. The giant sphere that settles in New York's Central Park carries an alien, Klaatu (Keanu Reeves) who comes to save the Earth - but perhaps not humanity...
    The original was done in the 1950's so a big-budget Hollywood remake was always likely to happen before long. Unfortunately, it wasn't long enough. When will they ever learn that classics are better left alone? On very rare occasions a good remake can happen, just not on this occasion. Not only is it very far from a decent retread but it's very far from being a decent film altogether. It has a tired ecological message of how we are destroying our world, which has been done better many times before. Reeves is passable in a suitably undemanding and disconnected role. Connelly is wasted and way above this, Kathy Bates and Jon Hamm have nothing to do and young Jaden Smith (son of Will) is an irritating little shit. Ain't nepotism a bitch? If we lived in a world that consistantly churned out stinkers like this, we SHOULD be eradicated as a species.
    A real tedious mess.
  • ironclad1609
    February 14, 2011
    ironclad1609
    Although I have never seen the original, it takes little imagination to believe that it's the better and spookier film. The main idea is pretty interesting after all. Here it leads to nothing more than a couple of decent disaster scenes and a lot of talking about humanity's guilt... read more with rather uninteresting characters, which is a shame considering the really decent cast. To get Keanu Reeves to play the emotionless alien is a bit too much of the obvious choice, considering his lack of mimic. Like so often in such films, the kid (Jaden Smith) is extremely irritating at times. The only reason they included him was to have a supposedly touching cemetery scene, which probably only works if you consider him super cute and don't wanna see him cry. While the film is not even boring it just seems to lead nowhere. The solution is pretty predictable and doesn't make all that much sense. That's wasting a lot of potential, in a nutshell.
  • skeletonking101
    January 6, 2011
    skeletonking101
    while it wasn't that good IT CERTAINLY WAS BETTER THAN THE PIECE OF CRAP ORIGINAL. Plus it follows alot more on action rather than just dumb talking and no action or any thing

View All The Day the Earth Stood Still Reviews

Critic Reviews

Ben Mankiewicz
December 15, 2008
Ben Mankiewicz, At the Movies

The special effects in 1951 were hokey fun. Here, in the first half of the movie anyway, they are hokey but they aren't fun. Full Review

David Edelstein
December 15, 2008
David Edelstein, New York Magazine

The remake of that fine old fifties alien-invasion picture The Day the Earth Stood Still comes to a standstill about an hour before the Earth does in the wilds of New Jersey. Full Review

Ben Lyons
December 15, 2008
Ben Lyons, At the Movies

What a ridiculous movie. Full Review

Christopher Orr
December 12, 2008
Christopher Orr, New Republic

One can only hope that in the future [Reeves] will devote himself to playing androids, less-self-aware species of undead, stylish pieces of contemporary furniture, and other roles that do not require ... Full Review

Peter Rainer
December 12, 2008
Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor

You'll be doing yourself a huge favor if you go into this movie with lowered expectations. Full Review

Ann Hornaday
December 12, 2008
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post

Solemn, sober and efficient, The Day the Earth Stood Still gets the job done and moves on. Full Review

Joe Morgenstern
December 12, 2008
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

Where the original film was unpretentious, this version, with Keanu Reeves as Klaatu, is insufferably full of itself, an X-Files episode pumped up to pseudo-cosmic proportions. Full Review

Claudia Puig
December 12, 2008
Claudia Puig, USA Today

A good portion of this sci-fi disaster movie is unintentionally comical. And the parts that aren't funny are just plain dull. Full Review

Peter Howell
December 12, 2008
Peter Howell, Toronto Star

The only awe this movie inspires is realizing how well the original stands up, and how little we puny Earthlings have learned in the past 57 years. Full Review

Richard Schickel
December 12, 2008
Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine

... must be the worst major release in what may be the most disastrous year in recent Hollywood history. Full Review

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Facts

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    • Professor Barnhardt: It's only at the precipice that we change.
    • Helen Benson: National security? Well that just means whatever you want it to mean.
    • Klaatu: Your planet?
    • Regina Jackson: Yes, this is our planet.
    • Klaatu: No, it is not.
    • Helen Benson: Have you done your homework?
    • Jacob Benson: School's canceled on account of the aliens.
    • Helen Benson: I need to know what's happening.
    • Klaatu: This planet is dying. The human race is killing it.
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The Day the Earth... : Watch Free on TV

The Day the Earth Stood Still Trivia

  • Which Robert Wise 1951 classic features the characters Klaatu and Gort?  Answer »
  • What film had this quote: Klaatu : Your choice is simple . Join us and live in peace or pursue your present course and face obliteration. We shall be waiting for your answer .The decision rests with you "?  Answer »
  • The three words that Ash must say to retrieve the Necronomicon in "Army of Darkness" were originally featured in what movie?  Answer »
  • In "Army of Darkness", Ash (played by Bruce Campbell) must speak the phrase "Klaatu, Barata, Nikto" (or Klaatu, Verada, Nikto depending on your school of thought) to claim the book of the dead. This phrase is a homage to which 1951 Sci Fi movie?  Answer »
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