Reviews

Despite what others have stated, it does have religious overtones. It just do not mean this is a movie about the Book of Revelation as the plot. In the opening scene the movie references a passage Rev 1:7. At its core, it is just another lower budget apocalypse movie with a teaser of religion to keep some watching (may not work for all) to see how it ends.

It was slow and repetitive and seemed silly that one could simply hide in a pipe, under a tree, or in a house to escape being zapped.

The ending was not very satisfying in any sense of completion like what was going on in the church which is likely why some do not think it was a religious movie. Were they saved? This leads to the he nebulous why? There was no real conclusive ending.

The movie started well but found the final phase as disappointing. We learn the creatures cannot kill but need others to kill but they did kill the mother so that seems inconsistent.

Of course, the whole premise worked by having a nut job dad (not uncommon as one would think) to drive the violence along with the remainder of a dysfunctional family,. Many were likely glad when some characters were killed off. The creatures could have performed the final scenes as soon as the first person died.

As an aside, this movie was made when CRT TV's had been replaced with LCDs. I guess they were not sinister enoigh.

Oh well. It was good for a while. It just lacked a more creative ending.

The movie evolves around the people in a small town reacting to the Orson Wells War of the Worlds broadcast that led to mass hysteria.

It comes across like one of the Twilight Zone episode character study of people under stress. It comes across as a TV production. It tries to tackle some issues like God and meaning of life since death may be imminent. This results in various parallel stories by various characters.

It is definitely missing tension, a little slow, and no real dramatic conclusion. Delivery. The production had a sterile feel.

The plot in the movie not much different than other Vietnam war movies. You have soldiers in combat where some do not want to be there so there are discipline challenges. The platoon has the usual cast of characters for Vietnam - gung ho career types to druggies to green FNGs like the LT that add the personal tension beyond the actual combat sequences. The acting was decent. It was not overly dramatic in stone but more a reality presentation,

Of course attacks on firebases were common in Vietnam and the movie works better to me than something like the preachy Green Beret or the angry The Siege of Firebase Gloria. It was interesting that the LT and Platoon sergeant fully recovered from their wounds.

It does come across as a lower budget movie but it does a lot for what it did have. The look and feel lended a realistic feel. The soundtrack was annoying.

I checked the film location and it was filmed in South Africa so that may explain why they did not show the faces of many of the extras in the village as they always ha their head down under the conical hats.

Now what I consider aspects not consistent with proper military operations. First the firebase was not at the crest of the hill and even worse adjoining a village. There was no way to prevent civilian casualties - intentional or not.

Firebase defense primarily depended on mortar and artillery as the primary since can be fired almost immediately then supported by air that can take time. They did not call in artillery or for a lot of illumination, after being attacked. On a real firebase of this size, the LT, his RTO, and sometimes the medic usually co-habituated to share radio watch with the company and battalion. On patrol, there was a lack of ammo bandoliers on the soldiers and others carrying M60 ammo that would sustain all that rifle fire,

What was stated as a story of John Ripley and Le Ba Binh and their fight during the war was little about the actual acts.

I had hoped it was a deep story of the 1972 offensive that had not been covered much but other than some of Ripley's heroics on the Dong Ha Bridge mentioned by interviewees little more was stated.

It jumped and spent most of the time in post Easter Offensive with Ripley watching TV showing clips of antiwar clips (Fonda. Kerry) and long scenes of Le Ba Binh in re-education camps after fall of South Vietnam.

In some selected clips, the whole story was not given. For example, when Vietnam was split, the south was supposed to have elections (did not). Diem was not a saint (Reagan clip), that all the South Vietnamese wanted the US there or even the Thieu government.

What was missing was any real mention of Johnson's refusal to expand the war, the false projections (media got this right) we were winning, and Nixon administration handling the peace deal so not a balanced account.

The look and feel of the dramatic sequences was more of a reality show.

I finally watched the original version to see if it was how I remembered it. I was disappointed. The primary issues I had were characters doing stupid things such as opening the door when common sense said you shouldn't. For the story, it would have worked just as well to let them enter the room and then kill them rather than just open the door and call out or turn around. Then there was the scene with Jamie Leigh Curtis at the Medical Examiner who had to be in the room while the other characters conversed outside the room. The second issue was the lighting of the scenes. Some scenes like with interiors with Janet Leigh were brightly lit like some sitcom and gave the movie a TY feel and then there were scenes where in one shot it full sun and then supposedly in another direction it was dark. There was a lot more that could have been done. I was hoping the fog would go after the crowd near the monument but no such luck. I do not see how this is groundbreaking especially in the year 1980.

I am not sure if this was the prototype of the modern ensemble cast disaster movie but it has all the elements. We have some event or possible fatal event looming with many people involved. During this period the cast are all going through personal dramas. This drama is what determines the padding in the movie.

I thought the movie was overlong and overacted but common in 50's movie.

For those that thought it was a good story about professionalism in aviation, the pilot and navigator lost it. The crew also proceeded to try to land when everything said they would not make it.

The last version I saw was in vivid color so this made it more interesting to me. It would look "big" on a movie screen.

I guess John Wayne played the copilot so he could knock some sense in the pilot rather than the other way around

Note: Once you see the movie "Airplane" you will see even many aspects different - passenger applying lipstick. Robert Stack dialogue, personal drama. stewardess that worries about marriage. etc.

I accept the concept but the result was not revealed. It follows other post disaster movie plots where a family tries to reunite, find something. or get somewhere. This had all.

It was not the science that seemed flawed but the believability that there were so few people around. Then we had ending where they had to escape ground zero but just a few miles away it was safe. The movie then abruptly ends without anything...did the Earth stop moving away from the sun, did it alter the tilt axis, etc. It was like part 1 of a 2 part mini-series.

This was maybe a 2hr movie max. The fundamental problem was the script. The concept was not bad and could have been a decent Outer Limits type episode.

The actors did the best they could given the lines they were asked to deliver. It ended up being a dual buddy picture as 2 2 person teams researched. They threw in some personal family situations to supposedly build character that padded the film.

Another padding was when they added the parallel sequence so a key character in the plot did die after all and then retrace events,.

The silliest part was at the end where we see long rows of people at consoles with sunglasses and headphones typing as if they are controlling the device.

As far I can tell, Lou Diamond Phillip's role contribution to the actual main plot was the fast boat.. He goes through some of the parallel time shifts that adding screen time but other than being at the lab at the right time and having a boat, the role was totally not needed. This could have been removed completed.