Martha put a gun to my head and made me go with her to see this Tom Cruise flick. I have been burned so many times by Tom Thumb that I wanted to invest the cost of admission in beer. I offered to drop Martha off, ease into Murphy's Strip Bar and Armenian Grill for a few, and they go get her afterwards. She put her foot done, (stomping on my sore toe, by the way) and we went together. Well I have to admit that it was much better than I expected and not nearly as bad as I feared! I was a great fan of the George Pal 1950's edition, but this flick is respectible even when stacked up against the classic. The politically correct little girl deal is a little tiresome, but I gotta get used to that, I suppose.

The most interesting part of the film is contrast between the original film and this new one. Where as the public was once concerned with the threat of the USSR, a threat from the outside, and Wells was concerned with alien invaders from an outside threat. But Speilberg is not concerned with the outside world, no, his enemy comes from the ground, they are already there. Sleeping beneath the ground, sleeper cells, until the call comes to take action. Other then that, I didn't really enjoy the film. Cruise's character changes dramatically, and is far too extreme for me. The special effects were impressive, the dialouge was weak, the acting was okay and the movie as a whole is too old to be good; the story needs to be updated. Speilberg and Cruise's other collaberation was far more impressive, Minority Report, and this was a disappointment for me, and I wasn't expecting anything better then a good, quality film.

One of my favorite movies from 2005. Never was ahuge fan of Tom Cruise except for The Outsiders and Top Gun, but he was okay. Loved Dakota Fanning's performance.