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Aliens in the Attic (2009)

The remotes did the trick — Written by Freudianspud on 12.02.2010

In the series "Films no one else really wants to write about", I bring you Aliens in the Attic. To be honest, the only reason I saw this film is because of the trailer, which had a bit that had me spraying my drink all over myself. But I'll get to that later.

Aliens in the Attic is a film for kids, there's no doubt about that. The story goes that a couple of tiny aliens crash land into a house on earth and a bunch of kids who happen to be on vacation in that house have to stop them before there's a full blown invasion. No surprises there, of course.
There's one thing that makes the whole thing worth your while though. The Remotes.
The aliens are armed with a weapon that shoots small darts. Those darts, which conveniently only work on adults, allow the aliens to control the human that was shot. You can see where this is going.

If you guessed "The aliens take over the household with said darts", you guessed wrong. Instead, they hit the obnoxious boyfriend that was hanging around. After that, the kids get a hold of the Remote and of course, hilarity ensues. Now, I know it's a cheap shot, having a guy smack himself in the face over and over again, but it's the way the whole remote-thing is played out. For instance, there's an on/off button, and when it's turned off, the "zombie" snaps back to reality, but has no recollection of what has happened. Also, when the zombie is in use (or paused) he gets a brilliant expression of bliss on his face which had me cracking up every single time. That alone is worth seeing the film. In fact, pay special mind to the end titles. The Remote makes a reappearance which is even more hilarious than any other scenes involving this gadget.

It also helped that the aliens look pretty decent. The CGI is nicely done and actually interacts with the surroundings smoothly. Even while paying close attention to it, I couldn't find any Garfieldesque screw-ups. You know, that part where Jon's hand actually disappears into Garfield. That didn't happen in Aliens in the Attic.

In short, it's for the kids, but I had fun watching it. A lot of that credit goes to the remote control sequences, but the story wasn't half bad and there's some decent acting going on. If you like films that remind you of Jumanji or Zathura (which is actually pretty much Jumanji in Space), or if you're just fond of tiny aliens and battles that take a hint from Small Soldiers, then Aliens in the Attic is a fun film to see.
Also, it helped me solve a couple of snapshots, so if not for entertainment values, you could always use it to crank up your score.

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Aliens in the Attic Reviews

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