The Andromeda Strain

The Andromeda Strain
by Robert Wise

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DVD details

Actor: Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson, Kate Reid, Paula Kelly
Director: Robert Wise
Brand: Universal
Cinematographer: Richard H. Kline
Producer: Robert Wise
Editor: John W. Holmes
Editor: Stuart Gilmore
Writer: Michael Crichton
Writer: Nelson Gidding
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 131 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-04-01
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Studio: Universal Studios

DVD Reviews of The Andromeda Strain

DVD Review: Still a strong movie
Summary: 5 Stars

Still a heart pounding tensely played out what-if sci-fi drama. Have always enjoyed it, always will!

DVD Review: Have not received yet
Summary: 1 Stars

Have not received my copy as of date. Kinda like to know where it is?

DVD Review: The Odd Man and Computers
Summary: 4 Stars

This is a 1971 film based on a 1969 book with the same name. Together, they established Michael Crichton's reputation as a talented writer of techno-thrillers. His success culminated in his immensely successful Jurassic Park.

The plot is excellent and reflects Crichton's education as a physician. A returning spacecraft has brought back to earth a deadly organism, and a race begins to understand how it functions before it spreads to the rest of humanity.

I found the "odd man hypothesis" particularly intriguing. If you needed someone to make a decision that might require them to die to save humanity from a deadly plague, what sort of person should you select? For this tale, Crichton manufactured scientific research claiming that your best choice was the "odd man"--an unmarried man. Personally, I suspect you'd have to be careful to select the right sort of man.

Coming along after the 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, this film helped to pioneer special effects in movies. In fact, the circular hallways of the underground laboratory in it reminded me of those in 2001. Here, however, the computers are impersonal and benign. In fact, to modern eyes, they seem distinctly primitive, displaying green text on terminals and printing to teletypes. You're getting a glimpse into the past. I worked with minicomputers in 1968, and that's how they looked. Don't laugh. In thirty years or less, our computers will seem equally primitive.

--Michael W. Perry, [...]

DVD Review: Not as good as I had hoped.
Summary: 3 Stars

"The Andromeda Strain" was a good movie, but not as good as I had hoped. SPOILER WARNING! I can't find any way to describe the plot situation without some amount of a spoiler. An alien infection makes it to Earth and kills a number of people. Luckily, it arrived in a very isolated place. The sample is taken to a special isolation lab, where scientists try to find a way of killing the infection. There is some marching around by scientists in isolation suits and tense music/sound effects and lots of interior views of the antiseptic lab where the antiseptic work continues. Finally, the infection escapes! However, luck interferes.

It deserves more than a one star deduction for being boring and antiseptic. It deserves at least another star deducted for a contrived plot and boring conversations. I leave it with 3-stars only because the film does pose some pertinent questions about what to do in such a situation. All this, from Michael Crichton, an SF writer, who (Ibelieve) never got listed as an SF writer.

And, Oh yes, the acting is wooden, at the best.

DVD Review: great movie
Summary: 5 Stars

A U.S. Army satellite (Scoop VII) falls to earth near Piedmont, New Mexico. The recovery team experiences difficulties as it becomes clear that the satellite has performed its intended function all too well, and has brought back something from space. A team of scientists is assembled in a high-tech, underground facility to identify and defeat the "enemy" before it is too late. Written by Bruce Janson {bruce@cs.su.oz.au}

When the capsule of the Scoop Mission returns to Earth and lands in the small town of Piedmont, it brings a mutant living being and all the population, except a crying baby and an old man with ulcer, dies with clotted blood. A team of five scientists - the leader Dr. Jeremy Stone, Dr. Charles Dutton, Dr. Mark Hall, Dr. Ruth Leavitt and Dr. Kirkie - are summoned and gathered together in the top secret Wildfire facility. Fighting against time, they try to understand the reason why the old man and the baby survived and research an antidote to Andromeda, the ultimate biological weapon. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Description of The Andromeda Strain

Scientists rush to isolate an alien germ brought back by a space probe.From the michael crichton novel. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 04/01/2003 Starring: James Olson Arthur Hill Run time: 131 minutes Rating: G Director: Robert Wise

The best-selling novel by Michael Crichton was faithfully adapted for this taut 1971 thriller, about a team of scientists racing against time to destroy a deadly alien virus that threatens to wipe out life on Earth. As usual with any Crichton-based movie, the emphasis is on an exciting clash between nature and science, beginning when virologists discover the outer-space virus in a tiny town full of corpses. Projecting total contamination, the scientists isolate the deadly strain in a massive, high-tech underground lab facility, which is rigged for nuclear destruction if the virus is not successfully controlled. The movie spends a great deal of time covering the scientific procedures of the high-pressure investigation, and the rising tensions between scientists who have been forced to work in claustrophobic conditions. It's all very fascinating if you're interested in scientific method and technological advances, although the film is obviously dated in many of its details. It's more effective as a thriller in which tension is derived not only from the deadly threat of the virus, but from the escalating fear and anxiety among the small group of people who've been assigned to save the human race. The basic premise is still captivating; it's easy to see how this became the foundation of Crichton's science-thriller empire. --Jeff Shannon

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