The story itself would be quite promising but unfortunately, the acting on offer here just doesn't pass muster, thus what could've been a really really good sci-fi movie is reduced to an unwitting comedy.
Some of the characterisations are so cliche'd as to be both annoying and laughable, eg the "alien U. F. O" debunkers working for the US government and the tv station. I think that Mr Spock would've been most annoyed (if he could feel that emotion) with the female news anchor (Jane Kaczmarek) being so obtuse when faced with enough evidence that the supposedly random "meteor impacts" were not mere happenstance but guided by an external force. Her repeated protestations that these were mere opinions/theories and not facts that the tv company would support grew to be intensely aggravating to this viewer, and normally, I'll let dishy Jane Kaczmarek annoy me, but this time, it was just too much.
As one of the professional thespians on show, it was a pretty dire performance. It was as if to be believable as a news anchor, she felt she had to drop her acting ability. The amateurs taking part were even worse.
The lack of special effects was nowhere near as damaging as the dodgy script and awful over-acting. The film "Special Bulletin" suffered the same woes where a promising story is completely ruined by eggy acting. The positive thing both films share was the decision to avoid the much too obvious "happy ending" so we get an alien invasion beyond even the US military forces in one movie, and a nuclear bomb flattening much of Charleston in the other. The ending was suitably edgy, but the getting there just didn't pass scrutiny.
Some of the characterisations are so cliche'd as to be both annoying and laughable, eg the "alien U. F. O" debunkers working for the US government and the tv station. I think that Mr Spock would've been most annoyed (if he could feel that emotion) with the female news anchor (Jane Kaczmarek) being so obtuse when faced with enough evidence that the supposedly random "meteor impacts" were not mere happenstance but guided by an external force. Her repeated protestations that these were mere opinions/theories and not facts that the tv company would support grew to be intensely aggravating to this viewer, and normally, I'll let dishy Jane Kaczmarek annoy me, but this time, it was just too much.
As one of the professional thespians on show, it was a pretty dire performance. It was as if to be believable as a news anchor, she felt she had to drop her acting ability. The amateurs taking part were even worse.
The lack of special effects was nowhere near as damaging as the dodgy script and awful over-acting. The film "Special Bulletin" suffered the same woes where a promising story is completely ruined by eggy acting. The positive thing both films share was the decision to avoid the much too obvious "happy ending" so we get an alien invasion beyond even the US military forces in one movie, and a nuclear bomb flattening much of Charleston in the other. The ending was suitably edgy, but the getting there just didn't pass scrutiny.