Terrible rip-off of War of The Worlds for the politically correct

Rating: 1/10 (10 August 2002)

My wife and I love science fiction movies. We are such fanatics that we bend over backwards to find something nice in even poor examples of the genre. So today, in spite of some really bad reviews, we trecked over to our neighborhood theatre to take in the first show.
While I am a Brooklyn New York kid, my wife is the first off an American farm since 1710. This is important, because the director obviously has no knowledge whatever about farm life, even in an upscale area like Bucks County, Pa.
Essentially, this badly done rip-off of War of the Worlds takes place in a rural setting. Our alleged hero (played by Mel Gibson) is a widower who lives with his younger jock brother (played by Joaquin Phoenix) our hero's two children and two German Shephard dogs. They see crop circles, extraterrestrials, blah, blah, blah.
With that said, everything falls apart, so much so that the audience around us laughed several times at the absurdity. And we live in a very upscale neighborhood where males bend over backwards to display their feminine side to get dates with yuppie women.
In the first place, no farmer lives in a rural area without the benefit of at least a shotgun. And few if any farmers are vegetarians. And there was no livestock on this large afluent farm... not even a chicken. And farm children don't come out with remarks like "aliens are vegetarians because their brain develops better (Sorry Mr. Shyamalan. You may be a Hindu but there's no place in the cinema for preaching your vegin philosophy)."
Even the two large German Shephard dogs are passive. When they sense a threat, they p**s on the kitchen floor and attack the children they love so much. Boy, whoever wrote this rot doesn't know German Shephard's very well.
The only male image is a macho female police officer. In the entire movie, she is the only armed person. But in keeping with passive dogma, no firearm is ever drawn.
Throughout the entire movie, the men elicit expressions of cows in the pasture and never come to the defense of anyone, including the children. Even without firearms (highly unlikely in a rural Pennsylvania setting), they never pick up a kitchen knife or even a broom for defense. They just stare blankly and hug the children when threatened by aliens. Come to think of it, they clutch the children tightly, placing them as shields. Maybe they hoped their vegetarian children would grab a kitchen fork and defend their beleagured home.
There were other "progressive" cliches also, but one really sticks in my mind. A recruiting Sergeant (a Sergeant First Class to be exact) and the only soldier in the film is portreyed as a moron. And the only person enlisting in his office looks like a retarded ax murder on the run.
All in all, this film was an exercise in sucking up to every progressive special interest group. But as for science fiction, it will go down as dull, improbable and a waste of time.
This movie deserves a "0" rating for robbing the audience, but we had a good lunch afterwards so I'll give it a "1".