H.G. Er, Hard Graft? well....

Rating: 1/10 (8 January 2006)

Like the vote i gave it, this movie is truly awful.
By the end of the movie i was so annoyed, i felt like punching the TV screen. this was not a faithful adaptation of the original book - it was a complete rewrite! the only thing in common was some guys from a red planet chose to invade. if they can make better movies than this, let's invite them over....doors open fellas!
tom cruise, the average Joe. now there is miscasting. can anyone really see him playing such a character now that we know so much about his life and the other roles he plays? he fits in to a tux better than a hard hat. his ability to display emotion of any kind is severely limited. i'm very scared. can't you tell? i'm breathing in and out very fast. i'm shaking in my seat tom. please leave that sort of thing up to the special effects and editing mate. they do it a lot better. they used this 'breathing' more than once to indicate this is the scary bit. didn't work first time, didn't work the second or subsequent times.
then there's tom apparently agonising over what to do with the mad guy he gets stuck with in the basement. his inability to portray any kind of hand-wringing over his decision was as wooden as the door he closes on the room in which he commits the act.
now the children. oh, the children. they should have been used as practise for the martian heat ray very early on in the piece. save us all the bother. there's the petulant son angry at his dad, angry at the world. cliché anyone? we won't stop at one, there's more to come! sorry Steve, but been done before mate. and better.
then there's the little girl. the relationship between the siblings gets a quick explore but can't stop now...there's running to be done. and Steve, can you quit it with the young kid cliché. how many more movies do we have to see you using this? i'm surprised you didn't find time to put one in private Ryan! hang on, he was only 19 wasn't he? OK, maybe a little too old...i have to say i think that Mr Spielberg is becoming a bit of a spent force as a director.
and the ending is as exactly how the son said it would be. tom cruise dumps kids on mum. gets a laughable 'thank you' from the mum and that's it. roll credits. what? you then have to ask yourself, why did tom do all this in the first place? unlike the book there was no motivation for him to take the kids to his separated, and seeing another man, wife in the first place. why go to Boston? why not Miami? hey, if you're going to go, do it on a beach....which is where i would have rather been than stuck in front of the TV watching this gut churning refuse...