"This isn't Xbox, this is real - like Wii." This Famous Five meets Gremlins/Critters is a fun action comedy that will keep adults and kids entertained. But when you've got the writer responsible for Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were-Rabbit and Madagascar, what would you expect?
Because 15-year-old Tom (Jenkins) is flunking school and older sister Bethany (High School Musical's Tisdale) is spending too much time with her playboy boyfriend Ricky (Robert Hoffman), their parents decide to rope them into a family holiday and take off to a country house. Bummer. Things start to look up when they are joined by cousins Jake (Butler) and twins Art and Lee (Henri and Regan Young) and, before the kids get a chance to be bored, four knee-high, green aliens land on earth and take up residence in the attic. Their mission: to invade earth and wipe out the 'ugly humans'. They weren't counting on the plucky kids, however, who use any means (mainly toys) available to them to defeat the bad guys.
The frantic pacing and the back-and-forth between the squabbling, bumbling aliens (JK Simmons and Thomas Hayden Church) are the highlights of Aliens In The Attic; that and Robert Hoffman (Step Up 2: The Streets), who shows a talent for physical comedy (helped by some nifty special effects), steals the movie from the title grabbing aliens. Just watch his Matrix-style punch up with Nana (Everybody Loves Raymond's Doris Roberts), and when he's under the aliens' mind-control device – comedy gold, that.
There are a couple of wasted opportunities, though. With two sets of parents downstairs, who have to be kept out of the action because the aliens' mind-control device has no effect on them, there was room for a host of gags. This feels like a get-out clause for writer Adam F Goldberg who probably couldn't think of anything interesting to do with the adults.
It might have a thin xenophobic vibe to it but Aliens In The Attic is solid entertainment for those looking for a perfect family summer movie.