Review: Aliens in the Attic (Remember when family movies used to be good?)

Remember when family movies used to be good? I can’t even think of a great family movie in recent months or even years. Ok, the "Harry Potter" movies and a stand-out here and there, like "Up" or "Kung Fu Panda." But most family movies fall in the mediocre category, the kind you either forget about the next day or don’t even see at all.

Such is the case with "Aliens in the Attic," an ok movie, in general, but nothing that makes you go home and call your friends and tell them to get to the movie theater right now! Sometimes you get the feeling some of these movies are made solely to create little creatures that can be sold in the kids’ meals at Burger King.

The story centers around a vacationing family that includes parents Stuart and Nina Pearson (Kevin Nealon and Gillian Vigman), Uncle Nathan (Andy Richter), grandma Rose (Doris Roberts), and kids Tom (Carter Jenkins), Bethany (Ashley Tisdale), Jake (Austin Butler), Hannah (Ashley Boettcher), and twins Art and Lee (Henri Young and Regan Young).

Before I go any further, I must give a shout-out to Carter Jenkins. I’ve been a fan of his since his roles in the short-lived TV shows "Surface" and "Viva Laughlin." He’s growing up now, but showed his acting chops early on with those roles. And I hope he gets better roles than this movie!

So the family goes on vacation to an old cottage in the country, and not long after they arrive, the kids discover some other visitors living in the attic – aliens. Apparently, they’ve come to earth to take over the planet or some such thing. The usual storyline involving aliens. Only they really aren’t that organized, and there’s a toddler alien who makes friends with the youngest Pearson kid, Hannah.

I saw this movie with my 12-year-old daughter, and while we both agreed the little alien was cute, the movie as a whole didn’t make it for us. The characters are one dimensional and stereotypical – brainy kid, ditzy teen, sweet little one, twins tied to their hand-held games.

And it’s hard for me to see Kevin Nealon as the dad in a family movie when I’m used to seeing him as the slacker pothead on "Weeds." It really wasn’t great casting, in my mind. Doris Roberts is fine as the grandma, and gets to do some fun stunts when the aliens inject an energy wave into her that causes her to be remote controlled by a device. Same goes for Bethany’s dumb athlete boyfriend, Ricky (Robert Hoffman). Again with the stereotypes.

I guess this wouldn’t be a bad movie to see on DVD, if you didn’t have anything else going on that day. And I did think the old house was pretty cool.

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