Pointless gore, lousy acting and senseless premise

Rating: 1/10 (22 August 2009)

The 1950's original is far superior in story, acting and setting. Even the special effects still stand up today.
This movie was a typical remake, poorly thought out, useless characters and gratuitous gore. The humans are ground up like hamburger only to be defecated like shredded wheat. And the point to this fiasco? They aren't eaten, they aren't used for fuel, so these aliens just like making sausage grindings? Utter nonsense.
Tom Cruise sleeps his way through this. Dakota Fanning screams like a Banshee enough to make one cheer for the aliens to final squeeze the life out of this annoying child. The alien ships seem to always appear to come out of the ground or the sea. Why? They were to come from outer space. Hello! Is any body home??? What was Spielberg smoking when he made this?
I was thoroughly disappointed and still think the original is a classic that will remain one for many, many years to come.