Psycho's Movie Reviews #28: Aliens In The Attic (2009)

Aliens in the Attic is a 2009 American live-action/animated comic science fiction family film directed by John Schultz and starring Carter Jenkins, Austin Butler, Ashley Tisdale, Gillian Vigman, Andy Richter, Doris Roberts, Robert Hoffman, Kevin Nealon, Tim Meadows, Henri Young, Regan Young, Josh Peck, J. K. Simmons, Kari Wahlgren and Thomas Haden Church. The plot revolves around the children in the Pearson family having to defend their vacation house against a group of aliens planning an invasion of Earth until one of the aliens betrays them and joins the Pearson children in battle.

Produced by Regency Enterprises, Aliens in the Attic was released by 20th Century Fox on July 31, 2009 and received mixed reviews from film critics but was not successful at the box office.

Plot:

A meteor shower rockets through open space. Four glowing pods are seen hiding behind the meteor shower. Suddenly the meteor shower makes a hard right and heads towards the distant planet Earth.

In a Chicago suburb, Stuart Pearson (Kevin Nealon) and his wife Nina (Gillian Vigman) head a family that includes 7-year-old Hannah (Ashley Boettcher), 17-year-old hormonal Bethany (Ashley Tisdale), who has goes on secret outings with her boyfriend Ricky Dillman (Robert Hoffman), and 15-year-old techno-geek Tom (Carter Jenkins). After arguing with Tom over hacking into his school's website to change his grades, Stuart takes the family to a holiday home. Joining them is Nathan "Nate" Pearson (Andy Richter), his 14-year-old show off son Jake (Austin Butler), identical 12-year-old gaming nerd twins Art (Henri Young) and Lee (Regan Young), and Nana Rose (Doris Roberts). Ricky also arrives unexpectedly and talks his way into staying overnight, by pretending his car has broken down so he can spend time with Bethany.

As the family settles in, storm clouds swirl around the house and the four glowing pods land on the roof. A crew of little aliens emerges, made up of Skip (J. K. Simmons), the nasty, tough commander, Tazer (Thomas Haden Church), an ugly muscle-bound soldier armed to the teeth, Razor (Kari Wahlgren), a violent female soldier, and Sparks (Josh Peck), the four-armed engineer, and the only non-threatening member. Since the aliens crashed into the satellite dish, Ricky and Tom are sent to fix it. In the attic, Ricky reveals to Tom that he lied about his car breaking down, and reveals he is actually in college and four years older than Bethany. Tom finds the satellite dish broken beyond repair. Investigating further, Tom and Jake discover the aliens. Ricky is shot with a "mind control plug", allowing the aliens to control him via a remote. The aliens, called "Zirkonians", lay claim to the planet and make Ricky attack the boys, who escape with Hannah and the twins' help. Tazer shoots them with mind control plugs, which fall off harmlessly; the devices do not work on kids.

The kids decide to protect the adults by keeping the aliens' existence a secret. Tom creates a potato gun and they repel the first alien attack from the attic. In the process, they obtain Ricky's controller and turn him against the aliens. They try to call 911, but Sheriff Doug Armstrong (Tim Meadows) doesn't believe them and sternly scolds them.

The kids orchestrate a scheme to get the adults out of the house and ambush the aliens as they try to reach the basement via the air vents, causing the gentle Sparks to become separated. He meets Hannah and they become friends. Unlike his cohorts, Sparks hates battle and wants to return to his family. He helps the kids by making weapons for them, and reveals his teammates are after a machine buried under the basement that will allow the Zirkonians to invade the planet. The kids forgot about their grandmother, and the aliens mind control her, but they obtain her controller, and she defeats Ricky in a scene reminiscent of a fighting video game. However, the aliens manage to capture Jake and Sparks, whom they need to complete their mission.

The kids finally reveal to Bethany the events taking place. The five of them rescue Jake in the basement. Ricky insults Tom and the others and breaks up with Bethany. The children attack the aliens and rescue Sparks, but Skip succeeds in using the enlarging machine, growing to 30 feet tall, and calls the Zirkonian invasion ships. They defeat him and shrink him again. Tazer and Razor (who have fallen in love) flee, while Skip is sucked into the machine, which was damaged in the process and explodes. Sparks calls off the invasion and returns home after saying goodbye. Tom and Stuart reconcile and the kids have grown closer during their adventure. Next morning at a lake, the family enjoys a day of fishing while in the distance, Skip, shrunk to an even smaller size than before, appears bent on revenge, but meets his demise when a crow grabs him.

In a mid-credits scene, Bethany and Tom take revenge on Ricky by making him look like a fool in front of his new girlfriend, using the alien remote; Bethany gleefully comments that "she is so keeping this" as Ricky screams in pain after landing on his testicles.

Production

Development:

The script was written by Mark Burton and Adam F. Goldberg. The film is co-financed by Fox and Regency while being distributed by Fox. Fox snapped up the script in March 2006. Marc Resteghini was overseeing for Fox while Kara Francis Smith shepherds for Regency. Barry Josephson was confirmed as the main producer while Thor Freudenthal was hired to direct principal production. The principal production began in March 2007. The film was originally titled They Came from Upstairs but later changed to Aliens in the Attic while the first title is instead used as the film's tag line. Ashley Tisdale's involvement in the film was confirmed in January 2008 as she was cast as Bethany Pearson. Robert Hoffman, Carter Jenkins and Austin Butler were later cast in the film. Doris Roberts was signed on to the film in February 2008. MTV confirmed that Josh Peck joined the cast as the voice of the alien Sparks. John Debney composed the original score for the film. Tisdale recorded a song titled "Switch" for the film, which is also included in her second album, Guilty Pleasure. The original motion picture soundtrack was released on August 18, 2009.

Filming:

Principal photography began at the end of January 2008 in Auckland, New Zealand. Auckland-based production company New Upstairs Productions said filming would run for 30–40 days from January 28 to April 18, 2008 with no filming in weekends. The film was set in a rambling old villa transported from Remuera to a farm in North Auckland. The main set was an old manor and they spent $700,000 restoring the house. The main shooting ended in mid-March 2008. Tisdale, Butler and Jenkins went back to the set to shoot last-minutes scenes for the film in April 2009.

Release:

The film was released on July 30, 2009, in Russia and Malaysia; July 31, 2009 in United States, Canada, and Bulgaria; August 12 in the United Kingdom; September 3, 2009 in Australia. The film's original release date was in January 2009 but it was pushed back for unknown reasons. The UK release also coincided with a charity auction for Save the Children which teamed up with eBay and 20th Century Fox where various celebrities, including several actors from the movie, sold items from their attics to raise money for the charity.

Box Office:

Aliens in the Attic was a minor box office success. In the United States, the film was distributed by 3,106 theatres and grossed $8 million its opening weekend, resulting in No. 5 in the box office. The film grossed the equivalent of US$1.3 million in Russia, US$10 million in the United Kingdom, and a total of US$57 million worldwide total.

My Review:

Best. movie. ever. I cannot even comprehend how much I enjoyed watching this movie. This movie is so amazing. Every aspect of it from the sense of humour to the cinematography was flawless, and created an amazing movie and the best way to spend an hour and a half of your life. This movie becomes addictive the longer you watch. Cheesy of course but the suspense is brilliantly done for something that initially looks more corny than cool. Loses the plot a little towards the end but by then you've been enjoying so long you no longer care.

I'm sorry but Ricky is the best character in this film; sure he's an asshole, but when he gets shot by the alien's mind control gun he turns into the best character ever! Robert Hoffman must've had the time of his life with this film. Some of the fondest memories I have is when my family and I are watching this film, my sisters would quote this film all the time {especially Ricky's lines}.

Some of the best scenes are:

1) The scene where the kids have gotten hold of the remote that controls Ricky, and they get him start doing things without even realising it.

2) My Dad's favourite scene; where mind controlled Ricky, being controlled by the alien, and mind controlled Nana, being controlled by the kids, are having a Mortal Kombat style fight in the house.

3) The mid-credit scene where Bethany and Jake are controlling Ricky, making him do stupid things, ruining his chances with another girl {I imagine they will probably continuously do this to him}.

Overall, I highly recommend you watch this film if you haven't already, you most likely have not; a 7.5/10 - this movie is criminally underrated!