bisho902

Intelligent sci-fi is always welcome. But other than a handful of interesting points this joyless exercise just drags along until an ending which should have been far more powerful instead of merely being anti-climatic. I saw it in the theater with friends and when discussing it afterwards I asked "would anyone bother watching this again?". The answer was no.

It's bad. SO bad. The acting is atrocious. Which makes it all unintentionally hilarious.

...and then there's this, which is so bad it's a complete embarrassment. Like, so embarrassing it will make you wince. I'm not kidding. They use green screens for backdrops that look like high school amateur productions. The dialogue is stilted, and even a vet like Donna Mills can't save herself in this mess. Really, she's more than a few steps above has-beens like Antonio Sabato Jr. and deserves better.

So I watched the trailer on YouTube. I've gotta say, it looks ghastly.

I hardly ever review movies, but I had to write something because it is beyond me that people have given this great reviews. It's SO corny. The script has people uttering stupid, almost laughable things. But by far the worst part is that everyone spends their time screaming at one another to the point you wish the aliens would obliterate them. Save yourself! Avoid this crap.

First of all, it's kinda boring. The characters spend a lot of time screaming at each other and it takes over an hour for things to really get rolling. Even then, it's hard to make out because it's so dark; and with the face cams, you spend most of the movie staring up people's nostrils. I give them a 5 for trying, and that's honestly being generous.

Generally plot-less, awful mess of a movie in which most of it seems to have been shot in the worst lighting imaginable. And scenes shot in the pouring rain makes it harder to focus on what exactly is going on.

Now I love bad horror as much as the next person, but the people who created this mess REALLY crossed a line when they had the Alien attack -- get ready for it -- a maternity ward! Seeing terrified end-term women screaming in terror as an Alien shoved its eggs down the throat of a woman close to giving birth ...UGH. One of the most repulsive things I have ever seen.

This movie is an attempt to take the ideas of others, crank up the gross factor, and ultimately get your money. Don't fall for it. This is trash made by 2nd rate filmmakers totally lacking in imagination or class.

Yes, there are scientific inconsistencies with this cleverly paced, highly entertaining movie. However, the majority of criticisms are based on things WE know; not on things that the aliens may (or may not) know. Maybe the aliens can't stand something chemical in TREATED water. Did anyone consider the fact that fluoride may be the deadly component? Perhaps they've never even SEEN a wooden door before, let alone housing such as ours; and tend not to break doors down because they don't know what lies beyond them. And we have no idea what they may actually want human bodies for ...so what if humans are made out of water, perhaps they extract enzymes or something.

Taking these things into consideration, it's a bit easier to suspend one's disbelief. Plus, I'm an atheist and even I didn't mind the spiritual tie-in to the movie's plot line. After all, spirituality is supposed to have meaning to those who believe it, and this movie merely affirms such.

I found the movie to be alternately frightening and humorous; open your mind and you will too!

What is it with Americans and their hang-up with religious gobbledy-gook? To think this was a best-selling novel is incredible, but to pull it off as a movie you really need good acting and a script that delivers. In this case, all the good actors have gone to heaven and we're left with Kirk Cameron as a CNN-type journalist(!) trying to discover why a lot of people have simply disappeared. Oh yeah, there's a subplot about an evil world conspiracy and famine, or something. The good news is that this is done so cheaply, and with such inane dialogue, that it has sheer entertainment value in all of its unintended laughs. Not recommended for anyone with a 3-digit IQ.

Ladder 49 is a strange experience. It's like something that was directed by two different people. The first half is a lot of irritating hetero-macho Irish Catholic "aww, you guys!" stuff ...and then it suddenly changes styles completely and becomes a really good look at the risks and sacrifices firemen take. It makes them heroes without false nobility and portrays the horrendous situations they find themselves in, all in the name of saving lives, pure and simple. (Not to mention the fears their families have to go through) So it was okay, once you get past the shock that Joaquin has gotten fat. Of special note is the DVD documentary on real firemen. This is a worthy addition that helps you appreciate what these people do for all of us.

Finding Neverland -- beautiful. Sentimental. And mostly fiction, since the real story of JM Barrie and the Llewellyn-Davies boys was quite sad -- actually, the movie is almost total fiction, since the boys' father is already dead in the movie when JM Barrie comes along (not), and the mother is kinda in love with Barrie (which she wasn't), the grandmother was already long dead but plays a key role in the film ...the mother leaves it in her will that Barrie is to care for the boys, when in fact Barrie forged her will, striking out the nurse Jenny and changing it to his name, "Jimmy" ...and it's also sad because the movie doesn't tell you what happened to most of the boys years later: one died in WW1, one committed suicide in a drowning pact with his gay lover at Oxford, Peter was stunned to be cut out of Barrie's will and became an embittered alcoholic who threw himself under a train in 1960 ... and no mention of the girl who inspired "Wendy", who died at the age of 6.

It's astonishing that some people saw this as art. We saw it as a poorly filmed (shaky hand-held camera and all), (generally) badly acted, unscripted mess that seemed more like a high school film project with the kids experimenting in black & white film making. Injecting mounds of poetry in place of a story does not an art film make. When we watched this in the theatre, people were starting to have fits of the giggles (us included) at the endless stupidity of this self-indulgent, meandering mess. And believe me, it does seem endless. Had we finished our candy and popcorn, we too would have walked out of the theatre with the other two dozen people who packed up and left looking for something more interesting to do!