Gurlyndrobb While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

filippaberry84 I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Jerrie It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Wuchak Released on DVD in January, 2007, "Night Skies" is an alien encounter film based on the UFO sightings in Arizona on March 13, 1997.I was hesitant to give this film a chance because the plot was so thin, as seen in the trailer: On the night of the UFO sightings a group of youths in an RV come across a man in a broken-down truck and then, frighteningly, have an encounter with aliens.After viewing the film, the thin plot and the resulting padding is the only real negative, unless you count the low-budget, which means a very confined location and only a handful of characters. But since that's what the movie's about (a small group of people in a remote location) that's not really a problem.Other than that the film delivers with: A serious, non-campy approach. Someone likened "Night Skies" to the "Friday the 13th" franchise with the exception that Jason is substituted for aliens. Although this is pretty accurate, "Night Skies" lacks the goofy entertaining vibe of most of the "Friday the 13th" sequels. In other words, the filmmakers and cast take the material serious. What would happen if a group of youths and a stranded man really came across some scary aliens and were abducted? This film shows you.A quality cast. Jason Connery is great as the sympathetic stranger with a troubled past. Jason is Sean's son, of course, and very reminiscent of Will Patton in "The Mothman Prophecies." Also on hand is Ashley Peldon; she's petite, beautiful and likable. Her character, Molly, senses something admirable and benevolent in the stranger, despite his past struggles. This shows that the writers at least tried to give the characters depth. The only unlikable character is Matt, the clichéd arrogant "alpha male" who thinks with his crotch and fists. All the actors do their part to convey a serious, frightening situation, not that I found the movie scary (though some may), but neither was I laughing (as with most of the "Friday the 13th" flicks).Although the soundtrack isn't all that noticeable it contributes to the serious, frightening vibe of the film. There's also a decent rock/metal song played during the closing credits "Dragon" by Feersum Ennjin, Paul D'Amour's band. Paul was the original bassist for Tool during the UNDERTOW period, which featured the devastatingly honest & potent "Sober." At around the hour mark I was thinking that this would be one of those lame alien-encounter movies that fail to deliver, but the final act gives you everything you might want in a movie of this nature. I won't say anymore. Let's just say that the film doesn't wuss out on the abduction factor and the F/X are pretty good.The film was shot in California (L.A. and Santa Clarita) and runs a lean 1 hour, 23 minutes, which is good since movies like this shouldn't overstay their welcome.FINAL WORD: "Night Skies" has a thin plot, confined locations and few characters, but it takes its subject seriously, has quality actors and, generally speaking, gives the viewer what you want from an alien-encounter flick.GRADE: B-

documentaryman Awful story, awful script, awful acting, awful editing, awful direction. What's good? Surprisingly it's not badly shot and the aliens were also well done, not so surprisingly because the director comes from a background of makeup and special effects. The film would be excusable if it was his first attempt. It wasn't. he should go back to makeup and special effects. As for the story, whichever extra-terrestrial visitors might actually be flying around this planet could, and probably should, sue the filmmakers for slander. Even in the most horrific of actual abduction accounts the aliens show more compassion for the humans than the shipboard dissections without anesthetic that are thrown at us here. The purpose throughout is to shock. If you like laughing at truly bad films with a lot of hokey jolts and multi-colored latex slime this film is for you.

siderite The only thing good about this movie was that it was not following a recipe plot, so you never sort of knew what was going to happen next. However, the bad thing is that the director and the screenwriter and the actors also seemed oblivious to what was supposed to happen. In these circumstances it is hard to identify with any of the characters, making the whole point of the film moot.Bad acting, bad directing, low budget, silly rubbery monsters and so on and so on. Michael Dorn appears in a few seconds at the end and no, not as Worf, but as a policeman.Bottom line: stay away from it. Whoever says good things about this movie must have money in it.

Ben de Graaf At the time of this writing it has a 4 average rating. That's just ludicrous for a movie of such quality. I don't understand the complaints I've read about the acting in the least bit. It was all quite believable and I was actually surprised how well they managed in the strange premise of such slander-sensitive material. Instead of seeing the actors' awareness of being in a movie that's doomed from the start because of its subject matter, they have not shown this at all. What makes it extra tense is exactly the fact that the actors did such a fine job in making it possible to identify with them. I've seen a lot of thrillers based on this exact same theme, and this is BY FAR one of the best. Amazing last 15 minutes, splendid work on the visual effects. The low budget does not show.Sure, it might have some predictable elements in it, but I wasn't bothered by them one second while watching it fly by. Simply very well executed script-writing, beautiful camera-work, full of good raw tension and really scary at times, even more so thanks to the unknown documentary-like doubts it will raise in the viewer's minds.Very often bad or cheap audio gives away the mediocrity of such a movie, but not so here! Top notch quality and extremely fitting sound will help this movie gain cult-status. Hats off to the engineers and all those involved in scoring, arranging, editing and mixing for this film. For that I'm tempted to give it an 8, but I have voted 7 because in my opinion the movie should have been fifteen minutes longer, to show some more of the documented facts surrounding the true story for example.