Maybe if they say it 62 times instead of just 59...

The DVD for The Day the Earth Stood Still is out (not a lot of people saw it during its brief blip at the theaters). Another classic 1950s "aliens coming to save us from ourselves" tale, this one has had an update from an allegory about the expanding Cold War between the U.S. and Soviets to a more explicit environmental commentary. "If the earth dies, you die," says the alien, Klaatu (played by Keanu Reeves, whose wooden acting style finally has been perfectly matched to his role) to Jennifer Connelly. "If you die, the earth survives." The aliens would like to see Earth survive. Humans, not so much.

And so, a plan is put into effect to erase (literally, with bugs that turn everything to dust) humans and their destructive civilization. But Keanu and Jennifer have a bond, so when she asks him to give humankind a break if they promise to behave better, you can guess what happens.

Earlier in the story, though, Klaatu meets with another, older one, a scout sent 70 years earlier to infiltrate the enemy (i.e. human) camp and learn the enemy's ways, who confesses to Klaatu that after all these years, he has come to love human beings. If they're to be destroyed, then the old scout will stay and be destroyed with them.

"The tragedy," he adds, "is that they knew exactly what would happen to them, but they did nothing to prevent it."

It's a green-themed remix of the mid-20th century Cold War alien warning: "You are the only species to wage war upon yourselves. Change now, while you still can." And then the soldiers put down their weapons and the lions lay down with lambs and the world is a far, far better place.

But as an environmental message, this remake has it right. No such shiny happy music-swelling stuff is gonna happen here. Regardless of any promises to change and improve, humankind will revert to purposeful ignorance as soon as the aliens fly away.

Leaving a bunch of Hollywood execs to say, "The tragedy is that we told them exactly what would happen to them. But they did nothing to prevent it."

And a Nobel Prize-winning former Vice President of the United States to say, "Yeah, tell me about it."

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