Category: Uncategorized

Today’s quick review: Greenland. A comet hurtles past the Earth, raining debris into the atmosphere and causing a series of massive impacts across the globe. John Garrity (Gerard Butler), his wife Allison (Morena Baccarin), and their son Nathan (Roger Dale Floyd) are among the few chosen for spots in a government shelter. But when the family is separated in the chaos, John, Allison, and Nathan must each find their own way to safety.

Greenland is a disaster thriller about a family facing the end of the world. As society crumbles around them, John and his family try to make it to Greenland and a government shelter that could be their only hope of survival. Greenland features a strong mix of large-scale calamity and personal drama. Smooth escalation and high tension throughout make it a worthwhile watch in spite of a few imperfections.

Greenland excels at depicting the human side of calamity. From the moment the comet becomes public knowledge, panic seeps into everyone’s actions. The attempts by the government to ensure an orderly evacaution soon break down, and the Garrity family is forced to rely on strangers, some helpful and others dangerous. Finally, while Greenland has a sizable special effects budget, the emphasis is always on the characters.

Still, by virtue of its choices, Greenland will not be for everyone. It lacks the can-do attitude of movies like Armageddon or Moonfall, opting for the tension and pessimism characteristic of the darker side of the disaster genre. The challenges the Garrity family faces are often brutal, showing the best and worst in humanity. Even beyond its drama, some viewers will not like the details of its character work or the way its plot plays out.

Greenland is a solid pick when you’re in the mood for a serious thriller with high stakes. The execution is capable, the conflicts are chosen well, and the characters’ struggles are worth following from start to finish. Just steer clear if you’re looking for something upbeat.

For a disaster thriller in the same vein, try Deep Impact. For a less realistic disaster movie starring Gerard Butler, try Geostorm. For a bleaker and more sinsiter story about the breakdown of society in the face of a catastrophe, try The Mist. For a sci-fi disaster movie with similar plot mechanics, try War of the Worlds. For a more ridiculous disaster movie with a heavier dose of sci-fi, try Moonfall.

[6.4 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7737786/). I give it a 6.5 to 7.0 for a straightforward plot with effective drama.

Today’s quick review: Geostorm. Years ago, Jake Lawson (Gerard Butler) led the construction of a satellite network that brought the Earth’s erratic climate under control. Now his brother Max (Jim Sturgess), the new head of the program, calls Jake back in to investigate a series of malfunctions that are causing weather disasters across the Earth, leading to a chain reaction that could engulf the entire globe in a giant storm.

Geostorm is a sci-fi disaster thriller about a weather control system gone haywire. While Jake searches for the technical cause of the error aboard the International Space Station, his brother Max unravels a political conspiracy within the White House. Geostorm has potential as a disaster movie with a heavier emphasis on science fiction and a stronger element of mystery. However, a handful of different issues hold it back.

Geostorm never makes any major mistakes, but the small ones add up quickly. The plot requires a more elaborate setup than other disaster movies, slowing down the action and stretching the suspension of disbelief. The logic of the plot has holes that only grow larger as the movie progresses. As for the characters, Jake and Max are emotionally inert, going through the motions of a catastrophe without being affected by it.

For all of its faults, Geostorm makes for a decent popcorn watch. The action is slow to start but escalates well, with a nice mixture of car chases, weather disasters, and technological malfunctions in space. The plot holes are more noticeable than in other movies but are not outside the bounds of the genre. And while the story is not groundbreaking, it has enough going on to be an interesting watch.

Geostorm is a fine pick for viewers with low expectations. Its flaws place it below the best the disaster genre has to offer, but it gets enough of the formula right to entertain, and it has a fair amount of spectacle. Just steer clear if you are hoping for a clever mystery, an emotional story, or thoughtful science fiction.

For another disaster movie about a climate catastrophe, try The Day After Tomorrow. For a more down-to-Earth Gerard Butler disaster movie, try Greenland. For a disaster movie with even looser science and wilder speculation, try Moonfall. For a dark satire with similar ecological themes, try Snowpiercer. For a diaster movie set in space with a lot more heart, try Armageddon.

[5.3 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1981128/). I give it a 6.0 to 6.5 for an adequate setup, weak plot logic, and some execution issues.

Today’s quick review: Independence Daysaster. On the Fourth of July, alien drilling machines erupt all over Earth, causing untold devastation. When President Sam Garsette (Tom Everett Scott) crashes in his hometown, his militant vice president Dennis Brubaker (Garwin Sanford) is left in charge. Meanwhile, Sam’s brother Pete (Ryan Merriman) teams up with Celia Leyman (Emily Holmes), a SETI scientist, to look for a way to stop the invasion.

Independence Daysaster is a budget sci-fi action movie about an alien invasion. The movie follows three groups of people as they respond to the attack: the stranded president as he tries to get back in contact with the rest of the government, the vice president as he throws everything he can at the aliens, and the president’s brother as he guides a group of teenagers to safety and helps an alien expert make a pivotal discovery.

Independence Daysaster acquits itself well for a budget movie. The story has the right scope, just large enough to be cataclysmic but still focused on a relatively small number of people. The plot progresses nicely, while the alien drones give the characters something to investigate. Finally, Independence Daysaster remembers to make its characters human, giving them moments to react to the loss and destruction going on around them.

Unfortunately, Independence Daysaster is still limited by its budget. The CGI is weak and takes center stage for a few pivotal scenes. The plot is adequate but not groundbreaking, with a tendency to gloss over tough problems with convenient pseudoscience. The character arcs are better than in other budget offerings, but they are still underdeveloped. And while the progression works well overall, it’s still abrupt in places.

Independence Daysaster is a credible effort that makes decent use of its budget, and its more watchable than some of its peers. However, its limits in terms of budget and writing put it well behind what the best of the sci-fi genre has to offer, meaning it is only a worthwhile pick for lenient viewers. Give it a shot if you’re curious, but most viewers will want to look elsewhere.

For a big-budget sci-fi movie with a similar name and a very similar premise, try Independence Day. For a sci-fi movie with a similar budget, a similar name, and a more optimistic take on a vice president stepping up, try Independents’ Day. For one with even lower production values, try Independence Wars: Insurgence.

[3.4 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2645670/). I give it a 4.5 for basic competence that can only take it so far.

Today’s quick review: Independence Wars: Insurgence. When an alien ship appears over California and broadcasts a signal that starts turning people into zombies, Bruce Kramer (Brian Lally) coordinates the government’s response from a nearby base. Meanwhile, his daughters Kelly (Marlene Mc’Cohen) and Sara (Kinga Rosen) fight their way to safety alongside Kyle (Toby Maka), Kelly’s boyfriend, and Roxy (Genna Mc’Cohen), Sara’s girlfriend.

Independence Wars: Insurgence is a budget sci-fi action movie about an alien invasion. Independence Wars tries to put a zombie twist on the genre, giving the civilians something to do by having the aliens turn ordinary people into bloodthirsty monsters. Unfortunately, the movie never finds anything interesting to do with this premise. Instead, it falls prey to unlikable characters, weak acting, and a half-baked plot.

Independence Wars has a hard time conveying a sense of scale. Nearly every discovery in the movie is made in Kramer’s bunker, delivered in the same tone by the same three scientists and technicians. The world outside the bunker hardly receives any more development. California is almost entirely deserted, and the only threats Kelly, Kyle, Sara, and Roxy face are ones that come from taking needless risks around the infected.

More importantly, Independence Wars does a poor job with its characters and its overall presentation. The main characters are flat, the supporting characters are irritating, and none of the acting feels sincere. The zombie gives the movie an opportunity for real drama as characters are forced to make hard choices and say goodbye to loved ones, but Independence Wars brushes those moments off in favor of weak quips and misplaced humor.

All in all, Independence Wars: Insurgence is a movie with very little to offer. The alien zombie premise, while contrived, could have been exciting in the right hands. However, the movie squanders that potential. It bites off more than it can chew in terms of the scale of the invasion, and it fails to make up for it with either the characters or the story. Most viewers will want to give it a miss.

For a bigger budget movie with a similar name and premise, check out Independence Day. For a movie with a similar name and premise and only a slightly bigger budget, try Independents’ Day. For a more horror-oriented budget sci-fi movie about aliens revisiting Earth, try The Recall. For a budget alien invasion movie in a similar vein, try Horizon, Alien Uprising, or Attack of the Unknown.

[1.7 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5083736/). I give it a 3.0 for low production quality and a barely adequate story.

Today’s quick review: Independents’ Day. After aliens calling themselves the Orions annihilate the White House, the fate of the world falls to Vice President Meredith Raney (Fay Gauthier) and her advisors, Senator Randall Raney (Jon Wright) and General Roundtree (Sal Landi). When the Orions demand that humanity evacuate the Earth and move to another planet, the new President must decide whether or not their intentions are benevolent.

Independents’ Day is a budget sci-fi action movie about an alien invasion. Technologically outmatched by the Orions, humanity faces a choice between accepting the aliens’ demands and fighting back with everything they have. To its credit, Independents’ Day makes good use of the resources at its disposal and tells a well-paced and coherent story. However, weak acting, a generic plot, and dull action keep it from holding any real appeal.

Independents’ Day acquits itself better than the lower tier of budget sci-fi movies. The plot hangs together reasonably well, the CGI is cheap but serves its purpose, and the movie understands how to set up conflicts and see them through. The movie also revolves around an interesting sci-fi question: If aliens make contact, how will we know if they can be trusted? All of this makes Independents’ Day surprisingly watchable.

But in concrete terms, Independents’ Day has very little to offer. The few interesting parts of its story are drowned out by generic filler and an unimpressive cast. The plot takes shortcuts that undermine its credibility and sense of craft. The action works better than the action seen in some budget flicks, but there is no innovation or creativity to it. All in all, everything Independents’ Day does is done better in other movies.

Fans of budget sci-fi will find that Independents’ Day has a couple of nice traits but nothing that makes it stand out. It avoids the worst pitfalls of the genre but never does anything clever or unexpected, meaning that it misses out on the one unique opportunity budget science fiction has. This makes Independents’ Day a somewhat competent but ultimately forgettable pick, one that’s outclassed by films with more spectacle or more spirit.

For a bigger budget movie with a similar name and premise, check out Independence Day. For a more nuanced story about first contact, try Arrival. For a tale of resistance against an occupying force, try Red Dawn or Occupation.

[2.1 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5720450/). I give it a 4.0 for bland but serviceable budget sci-fi.

Today’s quick review: Alien Rising. Lisa Morgan (Amy Hathaway), an agent on leave from the DEA, gets kidnapped and taken to a top-secret government research facility on a remote island. There Colonel Stephen Cencula (Lance Henriksen) and Dr. Bainbridge (Dave Vescio) use Lisa’s residual psychic connection with her dead twin sister to communicate with an alien captured from a derelict spaceship.

Alien Rising is a budget sci-fi action movie about secret government experiments to turn a psychic alien into the ultimate weapon. Alien Rising aims to be a thriller action flick filled with mystery, spectacle, and betrayal. In spite of a credible effort with the resources at its disposal, the movie falls well short of the mark. Poor stunts and special effects, confused storytelling, and a generic plot make Alien Rising a major miss.

To its credit, Alien Rising appears to make an honest effort. Other budget titles are stingy with their action and their special effects, but Alien Rising aims big. Firefights, explosions, hand-to-hand combat, CGI aliens, and a sprawling island facility are all shown proudly without hesitation. This is not necessarily a wise decision, given that it stretches the visuals to the breaking point, but it shows a real faith in the movie’s vision.

Unfortunately, Alien Rising’s confidence cannot make up for its clumsy storytelling. Snippets of the story are coherent, but they don’t fit together as a whole. Motivations change from scene to scene, characters temporarily disappear with no explanation, and the stakes are never entirely clear. Even the frequent action scenes are no help, given their unimpressive choreography and cheap CGI.

The result is a movie with very little to fall back on. Alien Rising avoids the usual budget sci-fi trap of showing nothing interesting onscreen, but it has neither the craftsmanship nor the creativity to make up for its limitations. Ultimately, Alien Rising is a hard movie to get through, and apart from the occasional charming moment, it has nothing to offer most viewers. Steer clear.

For budget sci-fi with a better take on alien contact, check out 2036 Origin Unknown. For a smarter budget sci-fi movie about experiments in telepathy, try Listening. For a more horrific movie about unnatural experiments at a military facility, try Day of the Dead.

[3.0 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1737796/). I give it the same for earnest but badly flawed science fiction.

Today’s quick review: Exopolitics. Shortly after Tom (Maximillian Anthony) breaks up with his girlfriend Nina (Mar Alsius), the appearance of a UFO plunges the world into chaos. Before he can go look for Nina, Tom’s paranoid neighbor Karl (Ben Vinnicombe) kidnaps him to keep him out of danger. Now Tom must follow the psychic transmissions of a mysterious man (Giles Gambino) to break free, find his ex-girlfriend, and make sure she’s safe.

Exopolitics is a psychological thriller posing as a science fiction movie. Set against the backdrop of an alien invasion, Exopolitics follows Tom on a surreal journey to reunite with Nina, the woman he foolishly threw out of his life. Exopolitics is a patchwork of ideas that fit poorly together. An unclear setup, poor pacing, unlikable characters, and the usual budget issues all contribute to an unsatisfying watch.

Exopolitics never quite decides what the audience should focus on. The opening of the movie introduces Tom and his relationship with Nina, but the sudden arrival of the UFO irrevocably jumbles the movie’s priorities. Crazed neighbors, opportunistic prostitutes, and doubting Christians all take the spotlight away from a supposed alien invasion that’s never properly explained and only rarely commented on.

All of this tips Exopolitics over into the realm of a psychological thriller, albeit not a very capable one. Tom wanders around the city in a daze, asking shady characters whether they have seen Nina and receiving cryptic responses. Even if these events are not meant to be taken literally, they are confusing and poorly communicated. None of the segments build well off the previous ones, and the finale does very little to tie them together.

Exopolitics explores an experimental type of storytelling that other movies have done far better. Those interested in seeing where a movie can go with an offbeat vision, a limited budget, and a loosely science-fictional premise may want to give it a shot for curiosity’s sake. But Exopolitics delivers none of the concrete speculation or thematic depth it needs to be a worthwhile watch, making it an easy movie to skip.

For a psychological drama that handles similar themes with more skill, check out Revolver. For a darker thriller with a similarly surreal storytelling style, try Urge. For a sci-fi movie that works in more interesting psychological elements, try A Scanner Darkly or Southland Tales. For a more direct low-budget take on an alien invasion, try Horizon, Alien Uprising, or Occupation.

[5.9 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14899034/). I give it a 3.5 for a jumbled story that largely misses the mark.

Today’s quick review: Alien: Battlefield Earth. After an alien scout ship crashes in Area 51, the alien leader (David London) reluctantly declares war on humanity to rescue his captured brethren. As hostilities escalate, the President (Ryan Michaels) ignores the pleas of General Romney (Scott Scurlock) of the Air Force, Danny Collins (Derek Nelson) of Area 51, and Neil Taylor (Cameron Bass) of NASA to make peace with the aliens.

Alien: Battlefield Earth is an experimental budget sci-fi movie that follows the tragic incident that leads to war between a benevolent alien race and the people of Earth. The movie is notable for its highly restricted budget and the creative techniques it uses to compensate for it. Although Alien: Battlefield Earth pushes the boundaries of the medium to tell its story, its efforts are largely wasted on a bland and unsatisfying vision.

Alien: Battlefield Earth makes for a baffling watch. The movie is cobbled together out of stock footage for the battles, video conferences for the humans, and CGI sequences for the aliens on their ships. The stock footage leads to battles that are short, vague, and visually inconsistent; the video conferences are let down by poor acting and ill-defined characters; and the CGI sequences just barely manage to convey what they need to.

Viewed a certain way, these visual shortcuts are an innovative attempt to overcome the usual limitations of budget productions. However, nothing can make up for the movie’s narrative shortcomings. Alien: Battlefield Earth features a linear, poorly paced, and utterly generic plot. It dithers over the question of whether the aliens and humans can find peace, padding out this one conflict with irrelevant incidents and endless repetition.

The end result is a movie with no insight and nothing to look forward to. With a better story, Alien: Battlefield Earth could have been a clever exploration of what can be achieved with a minimal budget. Instead, Alien: Battlefield Earth ends up with the debilitating combination of a bland vision and a lack of resources to realize it. Only give it a shot if you are morbidly curious.

For another sci-fi movie that goes to creative lengths to stretch a thin budget, try Space Detective. For a budget sci-fi movie with a similar format but more polish, try The Beyond. For a budget alien invasion with more live action, try Fighting the Sky, Alien Uprising, Horizon, or Attack of the Unknown. For a big-budget alien invasion movie, try Independence Day or Edge of Tomorrow.

[2.5 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14257552/). I give it the same for rock-bottom production quality let down by a flat story.

Today’s quick review: Horizon. Bristol descends into panic when an alien spaceship appears in the sky over the city. Steven (Paul Tonkin) leads a group of friends and family—including Chloe (Alicia Ancel), Nicole (Kate Davies-Speak), and Dan (Simon Pearce)—to take shelter at his parents’ farm in the countryside. But the tide turns when Edward Coleridge (Dan Winter), an alien abductee from the past, asks them to help him stop the invasion.

Horizon is a budget sci-fi adventure about a group of friends trying to prevent an alien invasion. Horizon aims big for a movie of its budget. It features a large cast of survivors, a winding plot with a few secrets to uncover, and occasional action scenes to keep things interesting. But in spite of its ambition, it is held back by its limited budget and tonally mismatched story, making it a niche pick at best.

Horizon has clear flaws. The budget is a problem throughout, manifesting in cheap stunts, unconvincing acting, and limited special effects. Horizon actually does a fair job of working around these limitations, but they are still an impediment. The movie also does a mediocre job with its cast and plot. It avoids the extreme missteps of the worst budget movies, but it still has a hard time telegraphing how all its many pieces fit together.

More importantly, Horizon feels like two stories jammed together. The first is a dark and serious tale of survival at the end of the world, while the second is a jaunty adventure to stop an alien invasion. The tone shifts jarringly when Edward enters the picture, trivializing the death and mayhem of the early part of the movie by shifting to a contrived adventure that Steven, Nicole, and the others have little reason to be involved with.

For all of these faults, the movie has some charm. Relative to its budget, Horizon handles both halves of its story well, and it only runs into trouble when it tries to graft them together. There are extra steps to the invasion that a less ambitious movie would not have bothered with. The movie also has a good sense of what to spend its budget on, scraping together just enough in the way of special effects to make its story work.

Horizon represents an honest effort that is ultimately held back by indecision over what kind of movie it wants to be. If it had committed itself to either a survival drama or a sci-fi adventure and trimmed its loose plot threads, it would have been a tidy budget offering. As it stands, it has a host of flaws that the viewer will have to look past to see its virtues. Budget sci-fi fans may want to take a peek, but others should steer clear.

For another budget alien invasion set in England, try Alien Uprising. For a sci-fi action movie about an alien invasion that has a better plot and much higher production values, try Oblivion, Edge of Tomorrow, or Independence Day.

[3.6 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10310010/). I give it a 4.5 for a credible effort that doesn’t quite pan out.

Today’s quick review: Fighting the Sky. With mysterious sounds coming from the sky and abductees appearing out of nowhere, the public consciousness turns to aliens. Lorraine Gardner (Angela Cole), an alien researcher, reunites with Roy Shaw (Roger Conners) and the rest of her old team to track the sounds to their source. Meanwhile, Valerie Paz (Jinette Faraj), a clever young girl, searches for answers of her own.

Fighting the Sky is a budget science fiction movie about five friends who connect the dots on a series of alien encounters. Fighting the Sky aims to be a tense investigation, but it misplays its hand badly. The plot barely hangs together, the cast is bland and unwieldy, and the movie never finds a way to meaningfully raise the tension. The result is a series of disjointed ideas assembled into an uninteresting and poorly executed story.

Fighting the Sky suffers badly from its budget. The acting is wooden and unconvincing. The sound quality for the dialogue is poor. The soundtrack rarely matches what is on the screen. The special effects are sparing, although they show a little more polish than the rest of the movie. Although Fighting the Sky manages to avoid any catastrophic errors, the production quality seems low even for a budget picture.

Where some movies manage to make up for similar shortcomings through good storytelling, Fighting the Sky does not. The plot is a generic story about aliens that adds nothing new to the genre, and the pacing is slow. The pieces of the puzzle do not fit together into any meaningful pattern. And to top it all off, the movie has a bad habit of starting plot threads it never finishes, leaving the ending wholly unsatisfying.

Fighting the Sky is a rough pick, even for fans of budget movies. It goes through the motions reasonably well, and there are a handful of moments where the cast seems like they are having fun. But between its uninteresting ideas and its unengaging execution, Fighting the Sky will be a miss for the majority of viewers.

For a much smarter sci-fi drama about an alien researcher, try Arrival. For a budget alien invasion with similar problems and more action, try The Recall, Attack of the Unknown, or Alien Uprising.

[3.0 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4782322/). I give it the same for low production values and a lack of creativity.