Students
at the University of Texas-San Antonio were asked to draft a section
on plagiarizing, for the student honor code. They ended up lifting the
plagiary section from BYU’s honor code word for word, without
attribution.
Will Smith can do no cinematic wrong in my book, and I especially appreciate
him being a go-to actor when Hollywood decides to produce big-budget science
fiction movies. (E.g., Men in Black, Independence Day, and
I even liked I, Robot.)
This one is based on an old Richard Matheson novella, which has been
movied three times previously (twice American, once Spanish).
[Meanwhile the world still waits for a single decent Robert Heinlein
movie adaptation. With all due respect to Richard Matheson—and
a lot of respect is due to Richard Matheson—this is
insane.]
Anyway: the Fresh Prince plays Robert Neville, a scientist stranded in
Manhattan when a cancer cure goes horribly wrong, killing all but a
small fraction of everybody on the entire planet. Of the tiny number of survivors, nearly all are mindless
and violent, and conveniently photophobic, so they only come out at
night. Only Neville seems to be totally immune.
This gives rise to some misanthropic fantasy scenes, as Neville
explores a city that's populated by just him, his dog, and the monsters.
It's pretty good, and Will Smith acts the heck out of a role that has
him teetering on the edge of insanity. But—personal taste
here—I prefer things a little more upbeat.
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