Director: John Krasinski
Year Released: 2018
Rating: 1.0
Guess what? The people of Earth are under attack (oh no! oh my!) by a group of aliens (oh dear! my word!), so one family consisting of Lee (Krasinski, not content to stay behind the camera) and Evelyn (Emily Blunt, his real-life wife) must try to protect their children. The 'twist' (cough cough) to this sci-fi outing (in an already over-crowded genre) is the invaders are blind, armored bugs with a super acute sense of hearing, so even the slightest noise summons them, forcing Lee and Evelyn to use American Sign Language to 'speak' to one another (their one daughter, played by Millicent Simmonds, is hearing-impaired in real life). Just like the film Cargo, which I saw weeks ago, this one lacks any context/background to even give a hint as to how this invasion came to be - and here, with the absence of traditional dialogue (shhhhh!) and character development, it's only action: ninety minutes of being hunted down by enormous bugs (it also cheaply uses a baby in peril for 'tension'). Krasinski said the movie is about 'the difficulties with being a father' - those are some deep thoughts you're having there, Jim.
