Release Date – 11/12/2010
Jarrod and Elaine are a couple who fly to Los Angeles for their friend Terry’s birthday. Terry is very successful and living the rich life in a penthouse apartment in a swanky section of the city. After a wild party, everyone is woken up by a strange blue light coming in from outside along with earthquake-like shakes. Outside, beams of light are sucking people up into what appear to be alien spaceships. Jarrod and Terry investigate to find that smaller ships are exploring the city looking for humans hiding out. So the guys and a few others leftover from the party start formulating a plan on what to do. The movie is like War of the Worlds, Cloverfield, District 9, Independence Day and The Matrix all rolled into one. It’s a shame the outcome is a big pile of crap.
Sometimes you see a person in a movie and say oh its That Guy from… whatever movie. This movie is filled with That Guy actors and actresses. Eric Balfour (That Guy from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake) plays Jarrod. He and his girlfriend Elaine (newcomer Scottie Thompson) are visiting their old friend for the first time since his success. So they are surprised when they’re spoiled with the lavish LA lifestyle. The friend is Terry, played by Donald Faison (That Guy from the TV show Scrubs). Along with his wife Candice, played by Brittany Daniel (That Chick from Joe Dirt), and a few others, they are holed up in a penthouse apartment for most of the movie. The blue light emanating from the spaceships puts people into a trance and draws them right into captivity. When Jarrod is hit with the light, he experiences a different effect than everyone else and has to deal with some changes in his body throughout the movie (District 9, anyone?). Eventually the group is joined by Oliver, played by David Zayas (That Guy from the TV show Dexter), who is the superintendent of the building. While no one in the movie was terrible, none of them did that great of a job either. Which leads me to blame the directors who are very inexperienced.
The movie was made (minus special effects) for $500,000. After all the visuals were finished, it weighed in at about $10 million. Maybe the filmmakers should have saved some of that money and hired a better screenwriter and director. The special effects are pretty cool but effects alone can’t make a movie. The Brothers Strause were the guys behind the camera and while they have done great visual effects on Avatar, 2012 and The Incredible Hulk, they have only directed one other movie. That movie was Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. Yikes. Imagine the tentacle aliens from War of the Worlds meeting the motherships of Independence Day having the people running from big monsters like Cloverfield and ending like something from The Matrix. The ending is awful by the way, but that must be seen to be believed. It’s a mish mosh of material that just doesn’t work. Alien movies are a dime a dozen and sometimes there’s a gem in a pile of shit. District 9 being one of those gems. Skyline, unfortunately, is just another stinker on the pile.
IMDB – 4.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 14%
Movie Wiseguys – 4/10
