Did not Deliver

Rating: 5/10 (21 August 2002)

I had heard bad things about this movie. The first "sign" in front of the theater for this movie should be DO NOT ENTER. M. Night Shamalayn, who I will refer to in the future as Sham a Lam a ding dong, is losing his touch. His first movie was great, "The Sixth Sense". His next movie went down from there, but was no slouch "Unbreakable". However, this movie was, in a word "disappointing". Sham a Lam also makes the mistake of starring in his own movie. His acting is very "wooden". He should not do this again. Looking for some originality from Sham a Lam was something I looked forward to. He had done so well with "The Sixth Sense". The only thing I noticed was that he used a lot of shadow in his lighting. Many scenes just showed half a face. His flashlight tricks in the movie were a rip off from "Blair Witch". Mel Gibson plays a minister who has left his church for the past 6 months. He has given up on God, because his wife died in a car accident. He has two kids, about ages 8 and 4. His oldest child is a son, played by Rory Caulkin. That's right, another Caulkin - like we needed that. He looks and sounds just like McCauley (his brother, think "Home Alone"), at his age. Mel's brother is played by an actor that I loathe, Joaquin Phoenix. Although, he wasn't that bad in this movie. Crop circles are popping up all over the world, in a manner that is too fast to be a hoax. Then alien spaceships show up, sort of like in "Independence Day". No one is sure if they are here to take over, or just to observe. The aliens are only able to be detected by dogs. They are also very fast, and can jump at least 10 feet in the air. Scientists seem to believe that the crop circles are like points on a map to tell future aliens where to land. Mel and his family make a last stand at their house. They board up all their windows and try to hold out against the aliens. The main thing that I found wrong with this movie is that the pace in many parts is excruciatingly SLOW. Mel and his brother have a confrontation at the end of the movie with one of the aliens. Again, I question Sham a Lam here. The look of the alien was not original at all. For those of you that remember "Marshall, Will, and Holly - on a routine expedition" from the 70's Saturday morning television show "Land of the Lost", it is basically a Sleestak. I give this movie a 5/10.