EDGE San Francisco

Movies aimed at children usually do pretty well, when you add a comedic touch and aliens to the mix, kids will flock to it unless it opens in mid summer amidst all the other loud annoying movies, "Aliens In The Attic" made that critical mistake and may pay for it with a loss of viewership. That’s a shame, because this movie is cute and would be enjoyed by almost every adult that comes along with their children. The aliens are not scary, nor is there any nudity or foul language, perfect for every child, as long as their not watching some mind numbing action flick.


The Pearson Family take a long needed vacation to their summer home where an advance scouting party of aliens have crashed landed. Stuart (Kevin Nealon) and Nina Pearson (Gillian Vigman) have brought their entire family on the getaway, including Nana Rose (Doris Roberts) their oldest son, Tom (Carter Jenkins) and daughter Bethany (Ashley Tisdale) coming for the ride is Uncle Nathan (Andy Richter) and his son Jake (Austin Robert Butler). The youngest children include twin boys, Art (Henri Young) and Lee (Regan Young) and Hannah (Ashley Boettcher) and last is Ricky (Robert Hoffman) Bethany’s unwelcome boyfriend.


Clouds form around the summer house and the Pearson family thinks they are watching a light show of some kind, this turns out to be alien spacecraft crashing into the attic. Inside the craft are four members of an advance scouting party set out to find a beacon that will bring the rest of the alien species to Earth, with the intention of taking it over. Inside the craft are Skip (J.K. Simmons), the tough commander, Tazer (Thomas Haden Church), the warrior of the group, Razor (Kari Wahlgren), a lethal female soldier; and Sparks (Josh Peck) a four-armed techie, who is the only non-threatening alien intruder.


After a paint ball mishap Tom is told he must make amends with Ricky, Ricky looking to cause trouble tells Stuart that he and Tom will go up to the attic to look at what is wrong with the antennae, what neither know is that the alien craft has crashed into it. Jake comes up to see what is taking them so long and they find the alien group, at first the group tries to persuade the boys they are friendly but soon give up. The boys just make it back into the house, Ricky isn’t so lucky and is hit with a device that allows the aliens to control the persons body. Left to their own devices, the kids unleash their imaginations, creating makeshift weapons, like piping rigged as a home made potato spud gun. They even learn to use the mind controller, taking control of Ricky and turning him against the aliens. A touching friendship is struck up between Hannah and Sparks, the friendly alien. Who unlike his alien cohorts, Sparks has no stomach for battle; he just wants to return home to his Zirkonian family.


Nana Rose comes under the spell of the alien mind control device, which gives her super-human powers. She comes to the kids’ rescue -and into a battle with Ricky, who is again under alien control. Nana Rose gives Ricky a huge jolt causing the alien plug to dislodge. The kids think they have the situation under control but soon find out that the device that Skip is using can make him larger then the humans can battle alone. Sparks helps the kids defeat Skip and at the end of the day the earth is saved because the kids set aside their family differences and their determination and strength are enough to defeat Skip, and send the incoming space craft fleeing back to their planet.


I give Aliens In The Attic a 3 and on my avoidance scale a 0, this is a good enough movie for the entire family, the young ones will really love the alien creatures and mom and dad won’t have to worry about anything happening on screen that may be to mature for the younger kids, there is nothing at all like that here, this is truly a family film so take the family and see it before it is buried under the summer blockbusters.


Aliens In The Attic is rated PG for Action Violence, Some Suggestive Humor and Language
Running time is 1 hr. 26 mins.