U.F.O - A bad film, but not quite as bad as some would make out

If you check out the other reviews of UFO, it would seem a fair percentage of viewers have given it a critical 1/10, meaning it's probably the worst film ever made. Is it? No, it's not, but that doesn't mean it's particularly good, either.

In fact, when it began, I quite liked it. The characters were nice and the banter between them realistic and amusing. However, the fact is that the idea far exceeds the budget. The titular `UFOs' only make two appearances in the first hour, leaving much of the setting in people's living rooms. The story focuses on the effects on the everyday population at seeing giant UFOs hovering above the cities (when you start to see a bit more of the aliens near the end, there's a definite resemblance to the Skyline monsters). The director tries to make up for this by long rambling scenes which don't really go anywhere, plus (attempted) `cool' camera angles where the camera rotates around people and is placed at funny angles. However, when the setting is simply someone's kitchen, it's about as stylish as waving a camcorder around in your Nan's house.

Many people have criticised the acting talent on display here. It didn't bother me that much. Sean (son of Pierce) Brosnan is the star and puts in a good performance and everyone seemed to play their parts accordingly (what else do you want/expect in a low budget B-movie?).

Perhaps what most people hate about this film is the way it's advertised (and ignore the not-so-subtle posters for `Airborne' by the same director). If you look at the UK artwork to support it, you may be duped into thinking it's some sort of Independence Day style action romp, starring Jean Claude Van Damme. However, the `muscles from Brussels' is only in it for about ten minutes and his part is little more than a cameo (some of which he doesn't even feature in the same shot as other actors, making it look like he filmed his scenes on his own somewhere in Hollywood).

I can't really recommend this film, even though it's not quite as bad as some are making it out to be. If you like B-movies, then there's better about. Sadly, what could have been a decent little B-movie never had the right budget to really live up to its promise.

4/10 You can watch this film while you're doing the ironing (you'll still get the general gist of it)