Yawn of the Year

Rating: 5/10 (30 June 2005)

You can't imagine how much I'd looked forward to this movie, and how much I'd wanted it to be good  or, at least, better than the usual Spielberg fare. Sad to say, it disappointed on all fronts. Even the special effects have all been seen before. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that the George Pal original  which didn't even have the benefit of CGI  is better than this.
If you're a Spielberg freak, though, you won't be let down. All of Steve's leitmotifs are here: the dysfunctional family, headed by a misunderstood dad; the lack of character depth; the ending that's so cheesy you can almost smell it coming. There are at least a dozen times in the movie when you think 'I've seen this scene before'  in CE3K, ET, AI, Poltergeist, and so on.
Practically the only saving grace is Tim Robbins's all too brief appearance as a brain-fried New England boondocks farmer. Anyone who thinks that Tom Cruise cuts the mustard as an actor only has to see him sizing up to Tim to realise he ain't even on the same planet. Tom's definitely the Martian here. The only question is  what made an actor of Robbins's stature take a part in such a clucker of a movie?