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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Year:	2010
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Colin Strause, Greg Strause
Genre:	Alien invasion silliness
Starring:	Eric Balfour, Scottie Thompson, Brittany Daniel,Crystal Reed, Donald Faison, David Zayas, Neil Hopkins
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1564585/
Tagline:	Don't look up.
Favourite line:	I hate L.A.

Getting some pretty rough reviews this one, unfairly in my humble one.

The plot:
A small group of people are sleeping off a party in a swanky L.A. penthouse, when strange lights beam down from the sky. Anyone who looks at the light becomes transfixed, and can't resist the urge to walk towards it. As their faces alter and eyes transform suddenly they are sucked into the light.
The following day, a fresh menace, as huge spacecraft descend from the heavens, again beaming the strange light, but this time we see thousands of people sucked up through the beam of light into the belly of the beast. What's more, smaller craft break off from the motherships, in search of any humans that may have escaped their light beam and, down on the ground, gigantic monsters roam.

Schlocky, cliched and utterly ridiculous?
Why yes indeed, but it is also riotously entertaining and manages to be pretty damn tense in places too.
Apparently, this was shot for the paltry sum of $10 million, loose change for most sci-fi special effects movies but, for the most part, you really can't see much difference. Sure, the odd bit of overlay looks a bit ropey, but it certainly does nothing to detract from the spectacle.
Managing to be both epic and looming in terms of the visuals, story wise this is stripped right down as, for much of the movie, it is not clear if the rest of the planet is affected, or just the one city, the focus instead on the travails of Our Heroes.
Certainly flawed, certainly a mish-mash of dozens of other movies we've seen before, and they blow it big time in the last five minutes, yet this is still an engagingly enjoyable sci-fi actioner.