Of course I haven’t seen The Island yet, but the storyline sounds as though the whole this was ripped-off from the film Parts: The Clonus Horror.
For those of you who never saw the timeless classic that was Clonus, I refer you to Mystery Science Theater 3000 as they mocked the movie a few years ago. It’s about a society where the residents live blissful, if controlled lives awaiting some sort of mysterious salvation which involves them being removed from the group. One of the people in this society gets wise to the existence of the outside world when he finds a can of Old Milwaukee. Thankfully, the can was empty. Eventually, he and a female accomplice escape to the outside world, they get chased around and they discover that they are clones that were bred to be replacement parts for folks in the outside world.
I guess no credit is being given to the earlier film. Maybe they don’t want to admit they blew a hundred mil and change on a remake of an MST3K flick.
I’m sure that it’s an official remake. It is clearly exactly the same plot, and there’s a line in the trailer (spoilers, I guess) while Ewan MacGregor and Scarlett Johansen are having sex where he says “Why haven’t we ever done this before?” In Clonus, the answer was because they were being fed sex drive repressing drugs. Presumably the same thing is happeneing in this movie, because why else would he ask the question?
I do think the next line “That tongue thing is amazing!” is quite funny.
According to early reviews, the clones were forbidden from any intimate contact and were strictly re-educated as to what is and is not acceptable. It seems like one big metaphor for Bob Jones University, but I’m not sure how the cloning or hoverbike parts fit in.
That’s a truly moronic premise. When I saw the trailer for this movie, I turned to my girlfriend and said, “I hope Michael Bay dies.” She tut-tutted, so I added, “All right, painlessly.”
When I saw “parts: the clonus horror,” I thought to myself, “Self, this is an interesting concept. It’s a shame this movie is so awful, but I’ll bet an interesting and entertaining movie could be made using this premise.”
Based purely on the previews, I’m not convinced that “The Island” is that movie.
I don’t care what the dialogue says, the concepts “Scarlett Johansson” and “sex drive repressing” DON’T GO TOGETHER! That’s almost as great a crime against nature as “directed by Michael Bay.” Props to vibrotronica.
This is also the first movie Bay has directed without Jerry Bruckheimer producing. This is a little like that joke I hear so often on this board about Lambchop telling Shari Lewis to go fuck herself.
