Claptrap in Space

As a publicity stunt for the current version of “The Day the Earth Stood Still” the producers of this remake of the classic 1951 sci-fi movie hired an outfit called Deep Space Communications Network to beam it in the general direction of Alpha Centauri, a triple-star system about four light years from Earth. If there is any truth to this tale (it’s really easy to say you’re going to do it to get some easy publicity but my doubt-radar is blipping madly at the moment). Anyway, the movie opened on Friday, was universally panned by all the critics and is flopping out of sight as we speak. So if it’s actually true this beam-out occurred then some space watchdog needs to follow up with an intergalactic e-mail apologizing for sending such claptrap to possible ET’s who might take umbrage at us…not for the depiction of the (rather cruel) space travelers in the movie but just the fact the movie itself is one big expensive piece of boring cheese.