A 50's style, alien invasion movie undermined with hokey family drama and childish spirituality.

Rating: Null/10 (8 January 2003)

This entertaining enough, attack-of-the-space-monsters movie has a couple of good things going for it: an appropriately catchy music score (by James Newton Howard) and some nicely staged suspense sequences. It's got a certain B-movie appeal, but the dreadful philosophics and the turgid family issues that arise are completely unnatural and overripe. Mel Gibson and family seem to have been invaded by body snatchers long before the aliens arrive to wreak havoc. A little more dark humor and a lot less preachy enlightenment would have gone a long way in making this project more enjoyable. And who's not tired of Mel Gibson playing the stalwart, fatherly-figure type.