Skyline (15) ***
Directed by: The Brothers Strause
Starring: Eric Balfour, Donald Faison, Scottie Thompson
The pre-publicity promised vast, Independence Day-like spectacle, but this reined-in alien-invasion feature instead appears a canny piece of bet-hedging from the Strause brothers, being a functional B-movie that might someday be retooled as a pilot for the SyFy channel. A group of well-to-do twentysomethings gathered in L.A. to discuss a business venture are distracted from their margaritas by bright blue lights descending from the sky – an advance party, it turns out, for alien crafts who come to hoover up unfortunate earthlings, and unleash several kinds of tenticular mayhem.
The look owes much to Cloverfield and District 9, but the Strauses make nice use of the between-seasons TV talent available to them. Scrubs’ Faison is the cocky producer who finds his Ferrari no help in the circumstances; 24’s Balfour the out-of-towner facing up to increased responsibilities; best of all, Dexter’s foursquare David Zayas is the concierge who comes through whenever the kids are in danger of losing their heads. There’s no time for subtexts – the aliens, like the film, could do with a mite more personality – but it has a couple of genuine surprises, and few pretensions about delivering an efficient, popcorn-worthy entertainment.
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