The "goofs" section doesn't tell the whole story...

Rating: 1/10 (2 January 2004)

Never before have I seen a film with such grossly mismatched reverse angle shots - these clowns can't even handle a dialogue scene competently. Combine that with a level of implausibility that overwhelms within the first 20 minutes (gee, we not only don't evacuate the President with alien spaceships overhead and *leave his daughter to wander unsupervised around the White House*, but everyone and his dog can wander around Area 51 at will!), an oblivious disregard for it's own script (stealth bombers flying over an "evaucated" city that conveniently left all of its lights on), and what appears to be a total lack of geographic knowledge, and this is one huge, stinking, stupid mess. How anyone can like or recommend this is beyond me. Jeff Goldblum and Will Smith do get a few points for their improvisational throwaways, though those stand out as they are the only lines in the film that sound like they were spoken by human beings. (And I've since found out that at least one joke in their "spaceship sequence" was lifted from an old Warner Brothers Daffy Duck cartoon, which is probably why it stands out as good.)