Skyline: Wait for Redbox
I saw Skyline today with my friend Jeremy. At least, I think we're still friends. He didn't punch me in the throat after the movie was over.
Bad stuff had barely started happening to the cast when I realized that I liked exactly none of the characters. This made the movie much more enjoyable, because I took a certain perverse satisfaction in each of their gruesome deaths. And maybe that's what the filmmakers intended the viewing experience to be like. At any rate, the movie clears my threshold of regret by exactly one slot, and comes in at #29 for the year. The performances were competent, the effects seamless, and Los Angeles needed a good culling.
Bob Defendi summed up his dislike for the film for me later in the day. About 40 minutes in the military shows up, and our protagonists (who have yet to protag anything) look out the window at the ongoing heroics. And Bob said "that's the movie I want to watch. I want the movie about that sniper, and the guy with the bazooka."
I guess the effectiveness of the protagonists is what spells the difference between an action movie and a horror movie. Independence Day was an action movie. Skyline is a horrible movie. Oh, whoops. Typo.
Meh.