Page 2 - 200205 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - May 2002

2 E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial E.T. - The Extra Terrestrial 2 THE ‘X’ CHRONICLES THE ‘X’ CHRONICLES NEWSPAPER NEWSPAPER Publisher and Managing Editor: Rob McConnell Special Assistant to the Publisher: Ryan A. McConnell Martin Maclean Contributing Writers: Bob Conolly Clyde Lewis Dianne Bullied Dr. Frank Stranges Dr. Fred Bell Holly Reeves - Astrology Janet McBride Jerome Clark - Travis Walton Case Julia E Swanson Kal Korff Light Force Canada Peter Howell Philip Mantle THE LITTLE ALIEN THAT W. Ritchie Benedict THE LITTLE ALIEN THAT not some geek with a can of Jolt and an attitude. Rochelle COULD You can see the difference in the most significant COULD Technical Support: addition Spielberg has made to the movie, a restored Joe Gurney and updated scene in which E.T. and Elliott (Henry Larry Garrington E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial Thomas) are mucking about in the bathroom. The Internet: E.T. figure is obviously a digital creation for at least www.checksite.ca Starring Drew Barrymore, Henry Thomas, Dee part of the scene, and it's not an improvement over Internet Hosting: Wallace Stone and Peter Coyote. Directed by the familiar shuffling puppet. The scene, however, www.mindtribes.net Steven Spielberg does add something to the movie: it establishes E.T.'s Internet Dial-Up Services: ability to feign death, something that connects nicely www.interpc.ca Rating - * * * * * with the latter part of the story. Rating - * * * * * Spielberg has resisted making too many The ‘X’ Chronicles Newspaper, ISSN1203- By PETER HOWELL other changes, mindful perhaps that there's nothing 0201, Vol. 8, No. 5 is published by The ‘X’ Media Movie Critic to be gained and much to be lost by attempting to fix Group, xmediagroup@xzone-radio.com. Please something that was never broken. He has digitally include your name, mailing address, and telephone E.T, phone home … press one if you require removed the guns of the threatening FBI agents, number with any correspondence. Copyright (c) immediate rescue, press two for our economical replacing them with walkie-talkies. The dad in 2002 The ‘X’ Media Group, all rights reserved. three-day service, and please have your Intergalactic Spielberg felt guilty about having guns in a children's Material in this publication may not be reproduced Express card number ready… movie even as we damn the tampering. But he's left by any media, electronic or otherwise in whole or in No, no, it's nothing like that, and let us all in all the swear words, including Elliott's "penis part without the permission of the Publisher. This breathe a sigh of relief. When word first spread that breath" taunt to his brother Michael (Robert publication is available on The ‘X’ Chronicles Seven Spielberg was revamping his alien-buddy McNaughton). Spielberg obviously realizes, like any Newspaper CD ROM - ISSN1499-8602 - or The heart warmer for its 20th anniversary, making it more parent, that kids are human beings, not angels. ‘X’ Chronicles Newspaper on line at politically correct and technologically "special," film The jokes and movie references all still http://www.xzone-radio.com - ISSN1499-8599. lovers the world over feared the outcome. work. The scene where E.T. meets a Halloween The Publisher’s Contact Information Is: reveler dressed as Star Wars Yoda, and starts to THE ‘X’ MEDIA GROUP, Suite 231, 210 Glendale Would Spielberg completely bowdlerize the tale follow a kindred spirit, still raises a big laugh from using digital tricks to remove the guns and swear Avenue, St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada, L2T 3Y6 words, and adding lost scenes that should have the audience. And screen writer Melissa Mathison's Tel: (905) 359-7700 or by email at remained lost? Would he want E.T. to do all kinds of screenplay can be appreciated all the more for the xmediagroup@xzone-radio.com. merry new stunts, and to encounter things not subtle way it incorporates elements from The Wizard Unsolicited submissions become the of Oz and Peter Pan, subtlety now being something exclusive property of The ‘X’ Media Group. dreamed of in 1982: cell phones, the Internet, Botox of a lost art in Hollywood. injections? It's all very poignant, too, to reflect that none of the I was prepared to pillory Spielberg, but actors in E.T. subsequently became household names perversely, I had no personal stake: E.T. had never with the exception of Drew Barrymore, the movie's FENG SHUI CALABASH been one of my favorite films. While recognizing its impish delight. You have to smile when E.T. tells FENG SHUI CALABASH worth as a children's movie, I always felt the story young Drew to "Be good!" realizing she's spent the Every year there is a was a bit too squishy to rank as great science fiction. past twenty years being anything but, her breast- negative area in a I was bothered by the thought of space aliens being baring and hell-raising antics filling many a tabloid home that may cause smart enough to travel to Earth, yet dumb enough to page. illness if it is not park their space ship next to a crowded California Such is the passage of time, but E.T. has held up cured. suburb. And if E.T. is able to make things fly, then surprisingly well through it. When the lights go why does he walk around like a stunted penguin? down, and the familiar John Williams score begins Put a Calabash in that And why didn't he just bounce back into his the adventure anew, even the most hardened cynic section of your home, spacecraft , instead of missing his ride in the first has to yield to the eternal story of a lonely little guy and another one place? who just wants love and a way home. [] beside your bed. But there is no denying the film's appeal, which 20 years' worth of second thoughts and a crisp HOW TO GET 100 MPG OF HOW TO GET 100 MPG OF You can own your new print make all the more keenly felt. There's an GASOLINE own Calabash for innocence about E.T., from it's incredibly plain GASOLINE $25 + $5 (S&H) opening credits to it's "no place like home" 95% Less Pollution & Eliminate Global CDN. philosophy, to its achingly sweet ending, that seems Warming lost from more recent movies. E.T. was released ORDER YOUR CALABASH TODAY before computers and special effects completely took www.himacresearch.com FENG SHUI NIAGARA over Hollywood, a time when a story like this needed www.get113to138mpg.com (905) 295-2666 ingenuity to make its magic, not just a few extra or email megs of hard disk space. To make the figure of E.T. Contact Bruce McBurney, Niagara Falls, dianne@vaxxine.com seem lifelike, with its big wet eyes and quizzical ON www.fengshui-niagara.com smile, you needed incredibly skilled puppeteers, and Tel: (905) 358-8541 / Fax: 358-9439