I respect them for remembering one of the greatest films ever made on the subject of cold war paranoia and I would hope that seeing last night's version would move some younger viewers to seek out Lumet's brilliant original but it all seemed so strange to me. And for the record, Richard Dreyfuss' president didn't hold a candle to Hank Fonda's sincere and agitated portrayal.

I think that last night's show was an ambitious and gutsy undertaking and it mostly succeeds... but I can't help but compare.

Truthfully, I did watch the last hour. Caught the new X-Files first -- which was very good, written and directed by Gillian.

I didn't have anything else to do while I worked on my hobby, so I switched over to Fail Safe.

I won't go into my rant about why they keep TELLING THE SAME STORIES OVER AND OVER AGAIN that I got into when we talked about the "Planet of the Apes" remake. It's all been said before.

Yada Yada Yada.

Deja Deja Vu.

At one point the Russian Premier hangs up, then tells a puzzled looking President that he'll call him when he's safely out of Moscow.

And after the bomb hits New York there's a lot of intentional silence in each scene. But the in the briefing room, the old balding gent starts to say a line (you can see his hand open, then close), but waits a while longer (then you get the same hand gesture, this time with a line behind it).

About the lack of a soundtrack, did anybody else notice the minimal hawking as the end credits rolled? Oh, there were a few lines, but not like you'd get if there were music playing.

I'll stop ranting :^{(

Don't have cable, just broadcast.

Was surprised it was done in B&W, and that Clooney would want to do it at all ... he must be trying to prove something, and more power to him. I mention this because if you look at blooper reels of, for instance, FROM DUSK TILL DAWN -- a movie in which he's ultimately very good -- he's flubbing his lines CONSTANTLY. (I wondered if the very assembly of the reel wasn't some kind of submerged revenge against him.) I'd have been TERRIFIED either BEING him or WORKING WITH HIM on a live production on the evidence of that (although the ER episode did go smoothly.)

Additionally, as far as Lumet basically carbon-copying his original ... it's been said he carbon-copied Franklin J. Schaffner's original TV version of 12 ANGRY MEN when he made the theatrical version (they came up together on all the same live TV shows).

Why not, Lumet's basically been making the same movie over and over again for at least twenty years (less the odd gimme-the-money job like that Rebecca DeMornay/Don Johnson thriller.)

I LOVE the original movie. The acting, direction, writing, set design, lighting, etc. were all superb.

But the missing part about Black's dreams of the bullfight and matador and it's subconscious meaning to him should have been left in...perhaps it was the difficulty of recreating his dream in a live production that was the culprit.

(Those of you who have yet to see Mr. Soderbergh's 1993 masterpiece KING OF THE HILL, consider yourself advised. I may not wish to speak to you if you've come back here not having seen it.)

Of such weird-ass odds-and-ends is the history of the flicks ever, ever made.