Homeowner Forum / Lawn and Garden / July 2008

zxcvbob said:

The SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review gives the  mini-series 4-1/2
stars and the 1962 movie 1-1/2 stars.
http://www.moria.co.nz/

The IMDb ratings give the mini-series the edge by a fair margin
(7.8/10 vs 5.8/10), though the movie has a *lot* more votes.  (IMDb
credits the mini-series to the Australian Broadcasting Company.)
http://us.imdb.com/

I've only read the book and seen the movie (not the mini-series),
both long ago. so my memory might be faulty.

The movie left out nearly everything that made the book interesting,
and (though British-made) had a "Hollywood ending."    (The book
looked into class/socia/politicall aspects of dealing with The Crisis,
the movie was more your typical pot-boiler monster movie.)

The mini-series is said to be more faithful to mood and spirit of
the book.  (Though, like I said, I haven't seen it.)

For gardeners with an interest in classic SF, might I recommend
_Greener Than You Think_ by Joseph Ward Moore?
http://www.fantasybookspot.com/node/1111

It's an end-of-the-world story where the calamity is caused by
the unstoppable growth of --

    --  Bermuda grass!     8^)

(That's something those of you who live farther south than I
should be able to relate to!)

Book was good when I was 13. The movie was bad even then (especially
the altered ending- very different from the book). Never saw the
miniseries.

Chris

I haven't watched the old movie in twenty years but I liked it as a "bad
movie night" feature to watch with friends who like bad movies in order to
make jokes about everything stupid that happens.

The mini-series I got from netflix only about two months ago. It is
cheaply done and the triffids look like big plastic pitcher plants. Well
enough acted, sufficiently suspenseful, nothing great, but compared to the
feature film, way better than that, you won't just want to be making fun
of it.

The book of course is better than either film by far, but Wyndham's short
stories are better still.

-paghat the ratgirl