linsux

(2012-04-29 02:31:53)

Women, love, guns... but where are visitors?

The movie has an interesting beginning, claiming it's based on a truestory. Story, however, either isn't screen-played well, or, some bigparts of "the story" were actually missing (or, shall I say too muchdramatized). The story is about an event (some light spotting) in USAand some awkward chain of events that a man (Richard) has undergone.More than half of the movie is NOT about the promised story; it's abouta dramatic (!) events where people don't behave dramatic enough and youlose all your concentration. Acting was not reflecting chain of eventsin the movie and you see people behave in such a strange way as if theyforgot about what has happened just a few seconds ago.It all boils down to this; this screenplay makes the story groundless;I don't know whether it was real, but my impression is simply "waste oftime".

mastermaninblack

(2012-04-28 16:17:05)

great movie

This starts slow but builds tension gradually so you are wondering whatis going to happen at the end. The girls alone are enough to hold yourinterest for a time. Some of the special effects were a bit cheesy,(pardon the pun), but unless you have actually been on an alienspacecraft how would you know what it would be like ! Use yourimagination. It was better than using an old star trek set ! I mustresearch this to see if there was an actual abduction reported. We haveall heard of the Phoenix lights but I was not aware of any incidentspertaining to the event. The blurb states the story is based onhypno-therapy session transcripts which points to somebody having apretty frightening experience either real or imagined. If you like UFOstuff then you will like this movie.

(2012-04-28 01:15:04)

Great movie-gets you thinking-could the lights really be aliens

I loved that the movie was based on an actual event. It lends the movie credibility which very few Sci-fi/horror films have. It's a must see for all sci-fi/horror movie fans.

SnakesOnAnAfricanPlain

(2012-04-27 18:12:20)

Night Skies (2007)

As much as I hate to admit it, aliens creep me out. It's probably thesimplistic form they usually take, their silence, and yet knowing howintelligent they are. Even a low budget, shoddily acted bit of hokumlike Night Skies, has enough to unsettle me for the most part. A lot ofit is in the amateur leagues, but the director certainly has an eye forsticking stuff in the background. It gets even creepier when we seethings that the characters don't. It's a shame that there's such abombastic musical score to ruin a lot of the intensity. It's tolerablewhen it keeps itself simple, but when it goes aliens overboard it losesthe mystery.

ElijahCSkuggs

(2012-04-22 09:20:17)

Aliens hate windows.

Lately, I've been on sort of an alien movie binge. I've been trying towatch as many real-life alien sort of flicks as I can. Some have beenokay, and some have been just plain old weak. And I must say this onedefinitely belongs in the latter category.Night Skies is the supposed true story of an alien encounter during thefamous Phoenix Lights UFO phenomenon in 1996. Toss in a pretty muchuseless side-story with a bunch of young lovelies and you have themakings of a pretty weak movie.How weak is up to you. Right from the get go, for me, the acting andwriting, felt like a slap in the face. The back and forth between theyoung adults was eye-rollingly weak. Night Skies didn't deliver reallyanything note worthy besides in the special effects department. Andthat also still felt ScfI Originial-like. It honestly felt like theonly real reason they made this movie was because of the gooey stuffyou see ALL OVER THE PLACE at the end of the film. "Wow, this stuff isgross, doesn't it remind you of that stuff in Fire in the Sky?" Eventhough there's a crowd for everything, I still become surprised whenpeople vote a movie like this a 10 and say nothing but good thingsabout it. Maybe they're just overly optimistic people? Maybe I'm just adude that sees the glass half empty. I think it's a combination of thatand probably just not seeing that many flicks.Night Skies isn't the worst movie in the world, but it's certainlynothing recommendable. I'd really only rec this flick out if there wereother people out there who also want to see all the alien abductionmovies there is. Lots of bad acting, really bad writing, weakdirecting, mixed with alright effects and loads of exploding windows,plus a moderately grim finale, you could do worse, but I'd recommendthis as a party movie instead as a serious sit-down.

(2012-04-21 13:19:59)

why bad movies keep coming out to insult us?

it told you in the year of 199x, some weird phenomenons happened in the night skies of north america, the movie itself even put senator john mccain in some kinda hearing, then the lousy movie started with a scare s..tless young woman running in the dark...then a r.v. full of young men and women, joking, laughing and...then the lousy screenplay began and just turned out to be another stupid rerun or replay of a ridiculous horror movie added some horrible aliens landing on earth, kidnapped and used these captured youngsters as experiments. the cliched ugly aliens used their long fingers scratched the front and back of the human beings to check out their internal physical structures, screamings their heads off when they were used as lab mice....what a lousy story, not even worths a penny to watch albeit really made it into a brain-dead movie. stay away from it, folks, even you could rent it for free.

locoowl

(2012-04-19 17:41:45)

One of the better films in this genre

This may contain a spoiler or two, but I will try to avoid that.This movie is supposedly based on the regression-therapy records ofsomeone who experienced the "Phoenix Lights" on March 13, 1997. If youhave read the book "Communion" by Whitley Strieber then the plot willseem very familiar to you. Also if you have read the narratives frompeople who claim to have had encounters with aliens, the story mightseem familiar to you. So much for the complaints about the story beingpredictable.If the statement about where the story comes from is true, then thatwould also explain why the dialogue and the story don't seem all thatengaging. This is a true story. Ask yourself this: If someone made amovie of 3-4 hours out of your life, how interesting would it be? Howsnappy would your "lines" sound to an audience? Would the peoplewatching "your story" think the events were "predictable?" Would theythink the dialogue was "unimaginative?" For my money, the dialogue wasbelievable as was the storyline. If this is a true story, I wouldexpect it to be mundane, with ordinary conversation instead ofscintillating conversation full of artful badinage. This is supposed tobe true life, folks, not some screenwriter's fantasy! Given the above paragraph, I would say the acting was true-to-life. Howmany people do you know that are not all that great to be around? Howmany people do you meet everyday that are really engaging and you wantto know more about them? Think about it. If this is a true story, thenthe actors managed to be come off being ordinary and uninterestingcharacters, just like you might expect. True life is not "Ocean'sEleven!" I thought the special effects toward the end were very good. The alienslooked like most of the descriptions that you will find in the book"Communion," mentioned at the first part of this review. From thatstandpoint, they were believable. Real life just does not always lookas good as Hollywood movies.If this movie was indeed based on the source claimed, then it deliveredexactly what I would have expected it to deliver: an incoherent storywith a lot of holes and unanswered questions in it.

espenliland

(2012-04-19 09:05:36)

Worst movie ever

This movie sounded really intriguing to me. I love UFO movies, Iespecially love UFO documentaries and this had a documentary-ish plot,so I had high expectations before watching it.I was disappointed.I mean, I was reeeeally disappointed! Everything about this movie ishorrible. The acting is beyond pathetic, the story is so unbelievableyou have to wonder if this in fact is based upon a true story orwhether it's just a gimmick to make more money, the textbookhorror-tricks are all being used, everything is as predictable as itcan get, the characters are SO STUPID I sat there hoping they would alldie so the movie could finish.Do yourself a favor and don't rent this movie, and more importantly,don't even think about buying it. I'd rather spend $20 buying an emptyDVD.

Alex Torofiev

(2012-04-07 16:25:18)

Bad characters, nothing original

Don't thing there are spoilers in, but if you are very pedantic, theremight be something mentioned, very little and that will not affect theinhuman joy of watching the movie. But however :SPOILERS !!!11!The characters reactions are very unnatural. It must be some kind ofrare combination between terrible directing and bad acting to achieveit. Every scary-wannabe element in it is such a clichГѓВ©, we laughedduring the whole movie - you just know what will happen. It is notinteresting, nor scary, nor it has any sense in it. When one of theguys went in the forest in the middle of nowhere (without even checkingif she is back in the RV with the others, where she was of course)screaming the name of his girlfriend, looking for her, it wasimpossible not to remind me for the Pablo Francisco jokes about dumbhorror movies : "Anybody home?" A man is obviously entering a house.Scary killer's music (in this movie it was the dumb scary creatures'sound ala Grudge) "Billy?" the scary sounds again "I'm gonna get nakedand take a shower" They are so easy to kill you can strangle them witha wireless phoneAll together, the movie sucks. Don't watch it. Go to youtube and watchsome Pablo Francisco instead ;)

wrlang

(2012-04-07 10:25:20)

frantically suspenseful

Nothing's out there Night Skies is about a person who insists that heand a group of people were abducted by aliens during that big UFOsighting that happened in Arizona in March 1997. The introduction tellsyou that some people came up with stories through memory regressiontherapy. Truthfully, I wished the entire group of characters had beenabducted and never returned. The characters were a bunch of morons. Ifthis was a true story, these people should never reproduce. Other thanthat, the film was frantically suspenseful.(Ratings: Bad=1; Average=5; One of the best=10); Acting=04; Plot=04;Scenery=02; Character believability=03; Continuity=05; Dialog=05;Directing=07; Casting=08; Special effects=05; Overall Rating=04

(2012-04-04 16:25:57)

Hideous...don't waste your time

This STORY had potential, but was ruined by bad writing and worse acting. It had one redeeming quality....the movie begins with US Senator John McCain expressing his interest in UFOs. The time I wasted on the movie, was well worth that little tidbit of information about a potential Presidential candidate!! Thank you Director Roy Knyrim for that little heads-up!

iamingozi

(2012-04-04 00:58:41)

Well.....once is good enough

I suppose it has been my enjoyment of previous movies in this genre;Fire in the Sky, and Communion being my favorites, together with myreluctant opinion that quality in movies is just not what it was even10 years ago, that made me bring a certain amount of prejudice along asI watched this. The movie itself is supposed to be based on "fact"although in reality it was a series of regression sessions with 1witness. If you've seen Fire in the Sky, it will be slightly familiarground, except with a stark "B movie" feel.The plot seems drawn out from the beginning with a group of 20somethings traveling in a motor-home. They get lost, crash it whilenarrowly avoiding a person fixing his own truck out in the middle ofnowhere. There is little to no chemistry between any of the charactersto make one believe that 2 of the couples are even married. The aliensthemselves bounce around like paranoid speed addicts eyeballing theirneighbors, while appearing "evil". This stylized approach to makingthings look twisted, ugly, and menacing to depict evil is childish andphony. Real evil doesn't let itself be recognized. The creaturestherefore cheapen the effect the could have been possible. SPOILER!SPOILER! SPOILER! The last point I will make, and this could beconsidered the spoiler, is the scene at the beginning and it'sappearance again toward the ending. If one were to just see thebeginning, it would be natural to assume she is getting chased by analien. This is almost obvious when the reflection in an out of placeshiny hubcap shows a distorted alien creature standing behind her.Well, come to the second viewing of this scene at the end, it isn't analien, and even the reflection shows that it isn't. Why did they haveto fool the audience into thinking something completely different? Verycheap. Very cheap. If you have nothing else going on, and just feellike zoning out, watch this. Otherwise, i am sorry to say, this moviejust isn't worth it.

(2012-03-31 02:45:53)

The Hills Have UFO's!!!

This Movie was realy good. It was missing few things. Not enough to make this Horror slash Sci-Fi not a good movie. The special effects were awsome and they used some of the real shot's of UFO's that took place at that time. Not quite "Fire in the Sky" but maybe the second best thing sence. Give it shot!!!

argentinian_lady_20

(2012-03-30 10:21:24)

Not original at all

The story is a bit repetitive, we all have seen alien's movies withplastic monsters and a group of friends whose car breaks in the middleof the nothing... This one isn't different (although it's based on thetestimony of lots of witnesses who assure to have seen UFO's).I think the movie is a clichГѓВ© of all the first ET's movies but I haveto admit that in some moments I was tense and the cameraman did anexcellent job... It's a shame that the ending of the movie was sodisappointing, but the real thing is we'll never know if the Phoenixlights they swear to have seen where actually aliens... Other alienmovie to watch at midnight.

(2012-03-22 03:39:27)

Decent science fiction/horror film based on "true events"

_Night Skies_ was a decent enough science fiction film, though I agree with the reviewer Wayne Beckham that the movie is really more horror than science fiction. The movie claimed that it is based on true events, one event pretty well documented, the other news to me. The documented one was the March 13, 1997 sighting and filming of unidentified lights in the Arizona night sky by thousands of people, a sighting still debated by some to this day. I liked the incorporation of this event into the movie, both the use of actual footage from the sighting and the movie's well done special effects depiction of the lights as seen by the characters in the film. I also liked - and was surprised - by the inclusion in the first few moments of the movie of Senator John McCain being asked in a press conference about the lights, that was well done (and unlike the trickery used to include President Bill Clinton in the movie _Contact_, was using footage directly related to what the movie was about). The other event, not something I had heard about previously, was the story of a Gulf War veteran, stranded on a backroad in very rural Arizona and the five people in a RV who ran into him. Both vehicles disabled, the soldier and the people in the RV (a married couple, a couple that was engaged, and the sister to one of the men) at first mostly bicker about whose fault it is, try to save the life of the one of the men in the RV who was severely injured in the crash of the RV, and try to get the vehicle repaired to get him to the hospital. Soon however it becomes clear that there is something in the woods, something sinister, one that can play tricks with their minds, make them see things that aren't there, and one by one try to pick off and abduct the various members of this thrown-together group.The feeling of the film - the briefly glimpsed aliens, people and things suddenly appearing behind people, the rustling in the brush, the screaming, the running, and yes some of the blood - had more in common with a horror movie than a typical science fiction movie (not that that is a bad thing). The alien's motivations were sinister, to abduct the humans (causing maximum terror while doing it, naturally) and them probe them horrifically in their spaceship (which was suitable creepy and organic and gooey in make-up). Not a bad film I guess, I would rate is as good as some of the best of the much improved Sci Fi Saturday night movies of the week. The alien make up was pretty well done, the lights in the sky were very eerie, and I will admit it, one of the girls, the sister, was very good-looking (Ashley Peldon was the actress's name, playing the character Molly). While her character was not particularly deep she was not unpleasant to look at. Overall though the acting was adequate, nothing spectacular though not awful either. I didn't like the way the opening credits were done, a diced-up montage in almost slow motion of a horror scene from later in the movie, it made the film feel to me at least cheaper and more poorly done than it really was. Production values were not bad and if alien abduction movies are your thing (or the _X-Files_) I would say give it a look.

shido-san

(2012-03-21 16:46:52)

Making something saleable out of thin air

I watched this movie for two reasons: Jason Connery (son of Sean) andthe story of alien abduction it purported to tell.If you watched a movie for these reasons, what would you expect to see?Well, I saw the actor in what appeared to be a very low-budget movie.No semblance to Sean, sadly (the actor playing Joe did). Though, Iwould say that he did a very good job playing an American army hick. Iwas impressed with that.Much of the story was shot in the dark, among the trees, or in a verysmall area where the actors behaved claustrophobic. There was littlesignificant dialogue, nothing really worth remembering, no one waxingphilosophic at a critical juncture.. and no answers. It reminded mevery much of The Blair Witch Project without the very helpful DVDextras. Minus the shaky camera business which, let's face it, didn'timprove the viewing experience.The movie did not do a satisfactory job convincing me that the eventhappened and beyond seeing the son of Sean why would you want to seethat? Perhaps a caveat here is: if you're going to do a story about astrange event, broaden the perspective.

(2012-03-17 18:24:00)

Horror - Not Sci-Fi

This review is from: Night Skies (Widescreen Edition) (DVD) First off, the movie's not as bad other reviews may have made out. Just know what you're in for. This is a horror film - not science fiction!"Night Skies" bills itself as based on a true-story and, in a very twisted way, it is. There was in fact a whole series of unexplained lights sighted over Phoenix Arizona, ten years ago this coming March, by millions of people, virtually none of whom believed any of the official explanations (which changed four times.)There was not, however, any reports by anybody of being stranded on an outback road and being subjected to a horrific alien abduction. Unfortunately, using the (genuine) Phoenix Lights sighting as a pretext for the (fictional) abductions shown in the movie is just about the only original idea in this movie.But let me praise before I criticize - the movie starts out very effectively, beginning with a clip of Senator John McCain commenting on UFO's in general and discussing the Phoenix Lights in particular. There's also effective use of some genuine footage of the Phoenix Lights as shot by actual eyewitnesses. The lighting is very good and gives a real feeling of isolation and claustrophobia in equal parts. Marsy Blasgen's creature effects are very good - the aliens are suitably spooky and just "grey" enough to satisfy most UFOlogist types. The acting is as good as it can be, given the limitations of the characters. There's only three interesting characters, Jason Connery as Richard, A.J. Cook as Lilly, and Ashley Peldon, who plays a yummy (and all-too-brief) eye-candy part as Molly. Everyone else never really develops into anything except as caricatures placed in the script to get the body count up. Even the suggestion of romance waiting to bloom between Richard and Molly is snuffed out by evil aliens, obviously disinterested in character development or the integrity of the plot line. Still, don't think that I'm entirely discarding the actor's performances - they're doing their best. There's just not much to work with. Maybe I'm just being too critical of these particular aliens, who have none of the finesse we've come to expect from years of "X-Files." Instead of paralyzing their victims, floating them through any barrier, into antiseptically clean examination rooms where painless procedures are performed in the name of (alien) science, these guys are a little more, shall we say, direct. These seem to be the alien equivalent of back-woods, inbred hillbilly's busting through windows, blasting down doors, (completely leveling one structure) and grabbing their teen victims with the shocking suddenness of a Jason or Freddy. And that's my real problem with this move - and a minor complaint given the genre: slasher-flick. As I watched the story unfold I got a weird feeling of dГѓВ©jГѓВ  vu - I had seen all this somewhere before. Had I been abducted by aliens, only to have the appalling memories sealed away forever? Unfortunately, the truth is less compelling. Ideas and concepts from many, many horror films are lifted almost verbatim and thrown into the plot in a frantic fashion. You'll recognize scenes from "The Hills Have Eyes," "Night of the Living Dead," "Fire in the Sky," and (the most obvious of all) "Carrie." Still, if you liked the Freddy or Jason franchises, you'll enjoy this movie. Just don't expect a Stanton Friedman lecture!

Ben de Graaf

(2012-03-16 22:52:53)

Underrated thanks to prejudice

At the time of this writing it has a 4 average rating. That's justludicrous for a movie of such quality. I don't understand thecomplaints I've read about the acting in the least bit. It was allquite believable and I was actually surprised how well they managed inthe strange premise of such slander-sensitive material. Instead ofseeing the actors' awareness of being in a movie that's doomed from thestart 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 sucha fine job in making it possible to identify with them. I've seen a lotof thrillers based on this exact same theme, and this is BY FAR one ofthe 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'tbothered by them one second while watching it fly by. Simply very wellexecuted script-writing, beautiful camera-work, full of good rawtension and really scary at times, even more so thanks to the unknowndocumentary-like doubts it will raise in the viewer's minds.Very often bad or cheap audio gives away the mediocrity of such amovie, but not so here! Top notch quality and extremely fitting soundwill help this movie gain cult-status. Hats off to the engineers andall those involved in scoring, arranging, editing and mixing for thisfilm. For that I'm tempted to give it an 8, but I have voted 7 becausein my opinion the movie should have been fifteen minutes longer, toshow some more of the documented facts surrounding the true story forexample.

heroineworshipper

(2012-03-15 21:33:33)

I've watched Night Skies, I can take ANYTHING!!!

Yes, this was pretty awful. It's somewhere between a Dubya economicsessay and waterboard torture. Only watched it because Blockbuster isclosing all their stores and this is one of the few movies still leftin a store.Low budget, horrible dialog, horrible plot, horrible acting, andextreme boredom combine forces with this one. It's so boring, couldlisten to any insurance seminar for days with a big smile on my face.When they'd say, "How can you stand it??" I'd say because I've watchedNight Skies, I can take ANYTHING.When the price of gas rises, less seems to happen in U Know Where. Withthis movie, gas must have been $8 because absolutely nothing happens.

christibrany

(2012-03-15 09:45:42)

This was a good film if you are not too picky

I think if you are a fan of sci-fi or are interested in the UFO subjectyou will hands down find this an entertaining film. You are on the edgeof your seat the entire time, it is very scary. That was what it wastrying to do, be a thrilling film, and I think it got that down verywell. Also the actors were not required to do much but I think for thebudget and the 'level' of the actors, the acting was more than averageand fit the film perfectly. IF you do not like sci-fi, you probablywont like this film ,but if you don't mind it, even if you are not asci-fi or UFO fan, i think you can enjoy this scary and somewhatthoughtful film. The special effects were very good too, I don't thinkanything looked fake or cheesy at all. 8/10