Reviews

A completely unbelievable premise from the start; this cheesy sci-fi nonsense is brimful of unlikely events and cryptic comments which turn out to be psychic predictions of advice needed in days to come. It is impossible to be scared despite the desperate attempts to build up the suspense, as at every moment, the viewer is bombarded by the ridiculous. From the start, the violent death of Mel Gibson's wife is portrayed with more comedy than horror, as she is pinioned between a truck and a tree and with her dying words, begins seemingly to ramble incoherently, including the words "Swing away". As crop circles and aliens (cartoon-style aliens) take over the neighbourhood, the son finds a textbook which seems to somehow predict the whole episode. At last the aliens begin to retreat, for some as-yet-unknown reason, but Mel and his family have a last battle to fight in their home. The alien attempts to kill Mel's child but _fortunately_ he has an asthma attack at that very moment (wouldn't you know it) so does not breathe in the toxic fumes and therefore survives (restoring Mel's faith, which had been sadly lost by the death of his wife). Meanwhile the words of Mel's dying wife are recalled, and Merrill "swings away", splashing the alien with water and thereby killing it (very Wizard of Oz).

Absolutely ludicrous from start to finish - I rarely feel upon exiting a cinema that I have wasted valuable time from my life, but this was one such occasion.

Just watched this on daytime TV, and while it was a reasonable way to pass a lazy 1h40mins, I certainly wouldn't want to have paid to watch it. Lots of sleazy double-dealing, treachery and betrayal and high body counts. Reasonably entertaining, but not to be taken seriously! I think the worst part for me was when the grieving widow went into a reverie and we were shown a full song-length's worth of flashbacks of their happy times together, composed from a montage of clips already seen in the film so far! There were one or two twists that kept up a little interest, although in my opinion there was maybe a twist too many right at the end, which made the whole plot more unbelievable. One character appeared to have had a complete personality transplant which didn't really ring true! Decent acting performances all-round though.

The premise of the film was interesting, with the revelation that the woman who hired the detective to spy on her errant husband is not, in fact, the wife. The plot then twists around the murder victim's connection to the water company and the local farmers' plight during the drought. So far, so good; the acting is great and the two leads are believable in their respective roles. There are a few contenders for the murder suspect, although the ultimate perpetrator is fairly easily identified as the likeliest killer quite early on. Unfortunately, from about halfway through, the plot begins to drag quite dreadfully, the two leads form an unlikely and frankly unbelievable union, and the ending is both unsatisfactory and highly implausible. A promising start, but this film left me sorely disappointed.

There are good reasons why this is such a favourite movie with so many people - it's certainly the best film I've ever seen. It is a love story, and one with more genuine heart-felt empathy than most, but it also contains a lot of humour, intelligence and depth. Every time I watch the film, I notice new things and spend longer reflecting on some of the issues touched on in the film. Holly comes across superbly as the gorgeous, flirty, outrageous good-time girl who happily accepts money from men on "dates", but also manages to portray the complexities of her personality; the vulnerable little-girl-lost who runs away from problems, and wants so desperately to take care of her brother, despite being unable to take care of herself. The acting is so impeccable that it is easy to see why the two leads have fallen for each other, and yet why the obstacles between them still seem so real. There are plenty of smiles along the way, particularly during the scene with the masks, but it is always the love story that keeps you on the edge of your seat, even when you know what's coming next. The ending is, of course, famously beautiful, and makes me want to laugh, cry and jump out of taxis in the pouring rain. Admittedly, I'm a huge fan of Audrey Hepburn, but it seems clear to me that this is undoubtedly her best film. Brilliant!