The Thing: Too bad it couldn't have cloned itself into a better film!

After an alien spacecraft is discovered in Antarctica, a team of scientists is dispatched to investigate it. However when the alien life form which was on board the craft is accidentally unthawed, the scientists must find a way to not only stay alive, but defeat the evil visitor.

There is little question that fans of John Carpenter's The Thing (for which this film is a prequel) are not going to be as enthusiastic with director Matthijis van Heijningen Jr.'s take. Carpenter's film was built on the tension and paranoia inherent in the story (who can you trust if the alien can clone itself into anyone?). He seized upon that to create a classic sci-fi thriller with a solid story, terrific acting and amazing special effects. This new "Thing" had its moments of tension and thrills, but never took enough time to utilize the stories' source material (the film is based upon a short story called, "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell Jr.) and make the film the kind of intense thrill ride that Carpenter's was. Instead, Heijningen Jr. focused more on the violence inflicted by the alien and all of the cool new ways he could show it via CGI as opposed to the practical effects used in the original. The results, however, were less than remarkable and the alien looked like something one would see in a SyFy channel movie, not a big budget studio film. The acting by the cast also did little to help the film, although one wishes that more development would have gone into Mary Elizabeth Winstead's character Kate. She was the only one of the cast that felt believable and it seemed as though the filmmakers were trying to make her Ripley-esque (Ripley is the heroine played by Sigourney Weaver in the "Alien" film series), by giving her a flame-thrower at the climax of the film and asking her to be a woman of action, not a shrinking violet that needed to be saved by a man. Alas there was little to no depth to her and when the film ended, it was easy to feel indifferent as to the fate of Kate.

The newest version of The Thing had a lot to live up to given the reverence that the original carries amongst fans and critics, unfortunately it failed to match the original in any way and was an underwhelming experience.

Grade: C-

Whiteout: One bland thriller

Maybe it's the Midwesterner in me but I've always enjoyed films that take place in isolated frozen places like the Artic (or maybe it's my undying love for the scenes on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back that would account for this!). Something about that icy environment lends itself to creating the perfect backdrop for an intergalatic throwdown or a thriller (see John Carpenter's The Thing) which is why I was excited to watch Whiteout.

U.S. Marshall Carrie Stetko is trying to put her life back together after she was betrayed by her old partner. But when the body of a geologists is found near the Antarctic research facility she is stationed at she must face her demons in order to catch the killer.

On paper the film seemed like a slam dunk to be at least somewhat entertaining. There was a beautiful lead, an exotic loaction and a mystery as to why there was a dead geologists in the middle of an ice field. Unfortunately, Whiteout failed to utilize any of these things in order to be remotely intriguing and was nothing more than a bland, by-the-numbers thriller. If the filmmakers would have taken the time to develop Carrie's character arc, perhaps the audience would have been able to take more of an interest as she attempted to put the clues together and figure out just what was happening. Instead, she was saddled with the usual trappings facing a female protagonists in a thriller, and even those standard plot trappings were stale and insipid. Burdened by the lack of character development, a dynamic story or even lively dialogue Whiteout seemed like more of a chore to watch than anything.

Grade: D