Sub-par X-FILES thrills are the order of the day in this cheap, poorly-scripted thriller which goes through the motions without ever becoming interesting. It's one of those Hollywood movies where everybody's eye is simply on making money, so forget about any notions of quality or originality – this is one lame movie, without reason, explanation or interest. The actual premise of the film, although quite predictable, is nevertheless still appealing, and there's about half an hour of genuine mystery until the studio bigwigs decide to have an unnecessary shot of a UFO in a cloud – and plausibility goes straight out of the window.It doesn't really spoil this film to say that aliens are behind it all; annoyingly, though, you never discover their motivations behind the kidnapping over than an 'experiment' on Moore. What a load of bull. The ending is typically lame, cheesy Hollywood sentimentality at its very worst, making all the characters live happily ever after without tying up any loose ends (what happened to her husband?). The film seems to go out of its way to be obtuse whilst at the same time boring. There are endless chase sequences which go nowhere and lead to nothing, and nothing is exactly what happens in this film.Julianne Moore is an actress I've always hated – ever since her non-performance in the appalling LOST WORLD. Guess what? She's even worse here! Moore is just totally wrong, inauthentic as the heroine, and she can't even judge her lines right – check out the hilarious bit where she shouts "his name is Sam!" – hmm perhaps there should have been a pause in there somewhere? Moore's supporting cast is similarly of the vanilla variety, with Anthony Edwards revealing once again why he never made it big after E.R. and the only decent actor, Gary Sinise, wasted in almost a cameo role.The film is successful in its 'jump' scares – especially the frightening car crash and the first 'sucked up into the clouds' surprise; the director shows himself a master of misdirection. But that cool cloud effect is then played over and over, totally ruining the effect; just another example of the way Hollywood can't resist throwing CGI effect after CGI effect into a movie. Sci-fi fans should stick to THE X-FILES rather than watch this worthless excuse for a movie – definitely one of 2004's worst.

I'm a big sci-fi fan and i love Moore, but this is one of the stupidest movies I have ever seen, because although the first 2/3 is really good, the 3rd part of the movie is so idiotic. In the first 59 minutes you are led to believe there is some kind of govmt conspiracy. But it derails at the 60th minute when a house gets blown apart in a very "alien" way and at 20 min before the end people are impervious to gun shots and others get sucked into the sky. But not the 2 heros. It then becomes apparent that conspiracy is not govmt but aliens doing some experiment on us and the two heros. So might as well try to kill them to make the experiments work, right? And if you have enough power to suck people into the sky, it's pretty obvious what would happen rather quickly to the two hero rebels but no, people right in front of them get sucked into the sky but not them, oh is it because they are part of the experiment? like subjecting someone to this kind of experience isn't going to have an effect on the results of the experiment? So the story falls apart in the last 30 min, and completely ruins the first 60min watching. What a waste of time. I can't believe the 7's and 8's I've seen in these reviews, maybe it's the aliens doing another experiment. I would give this movie a 5 star out of 10 at most, and only because acting and action is very good in first 2/3. I'm glad to see the average is below 6, maybe our race is smart enough to fight an alien invasion after all.The only reason I'm taking this much time writing a review for such a bad movie is because of how bad it is, I feel sorry for anyone who's going to watch this as there are so many great movies out there yet so little time, you don't have time to waste on this kind of brain rot. I bet Moore has no recollection of having been in the movie, just like in the movie... it's been erased from her brain by aliens to help her cope with the embarrassement! Maybe she stopped reading the script halfway, she must have been furious when on the set!

Julianne Moore is the mother of a nine-year-old boy, estranged from her Wall Street husband. The son is tenderly put on board a flight that disappears and is forgotten. Moore is frantic, along the lines of, "Where is my CHILD?" Seeking succor from her husband, she finds that he claims they never had any children. A shrink, Gary Sinese, tells her that such delusions are common and so forth. As is usual in these sorts of films, nobody believes her. It doesn't help that when she tries to explain, her speech turns to gibberish.Finally, she roots out a man, Christopher Kovaleski, whose daughter was a friend of Moore and her son. Kovalevski claims he never had a son but when he speaks her name the memories come flooding back. So what the hell is going on? Well, what's going on is that some supernatural force -- always referred to as "they" or "them" -- is conducting an experiment from outer space in an attempt to measure the strength of the mother-child bond. They've got the National Security Agency on their side, somehow; it's never explained how. This -- this -- force can make troublesome people disappear by whisking them up into the sky.Finally an agent from outer space -- an expressionless nonentity -- explains the deal to Moore in an abandoned warehouse. She's the last hold-out, he tells her, and he wants her to forget about her son "otherwise the experiment will fail." Pardon me while I put on my behavioral scientist's research hat. No, the experiment won't fail. It CAN'T fail. If the experiment was designed to measure the strength of the mother-child bond, that's precisely what it's doing. It's telling the investigator that everybody else has forgotten his or her child except for one or two irregular cases, Moore and Kovalevksi. If there are a hundred cases in which the erasure of memory worked and only two in which it didn't, well, those are the results. For most practical purposes, the bond is soluble.The first part of the film is interesting, shot in the most spectral parts of Brooklyn, which is in pretty bad shape to begin with. We see two people running hither and yon through dark alleyways and cowering in fields under the Williamsburg Bridge. Then, as the experiment is gradually revealed, the whole thing falls apart and become a shabby imitation of "The X Files" laced with expensive CGIs.The actors do a fine job. Moore is under-appreciated. She has a blocky, freckled beauty that doesn't fit the Hollywood stereotype but she's a splendid actress. Kovalevski's role is rather more constricting, but Alfre Woodard as a helpful police detective is compelling without seeming to reach for it.The director, Joseph Ruben, can't be held responsible for the weaknesses either. He doesn't show off with the camera and the editing is classical. Here and there, amid the wreckage, he stages a scene that's both functional and poetic."The X Files" had a respectable and solid following from 1993 to 2002. A reasonable guess is that the series served as the inspiration for this movie. Moore's character is named "Telly," two phonemes away from "Scully."

First, if it's not already too late, please avoid the trailers, and I recommend watching the extended version with the alternate version. Why? One of the best surprises is spoiled in the trailer (lesser ones too) and the alternate ending is arguably better, definitely less simple and Hollywood-like despite the same final result. So, this was a very good thriller with an excellent concept I don't remember seeing done anywhere before in TV or film. What if your kid died in an accident but months later you were told by everyone he never existed? I appreciated how the subject was explored and how gradually that revelation and others were made. Is our mother delusional or is there something else going on? Of course, an option is more likely than the other, but the journey was suspenseful. At several moments in the film, there was an escalation of events that raised the stakes and made things more interesting and disturbing.However, this thriller succeeds in part because it's grounded emotionally by Julianne Moore's intense performance. I felt for her ordeal and to be that believable, it's obvious she really is a mother who loves children. Of course, most mothers wouldn't be such great actresses. ;-) The other performances were decent and didn't detract. The directing also helped matters as the veteran Joseph Ruben obviously knows this genre. I appreciated the overhead shots, shots through obstacles and windows implying that our heroine might be observed. It wasn't the flashiest shots but they were well done. Of particular note to me were the accident and the captures, rather effective and shocking. I also liked how the color schemes differed from warm golden in flashbacks to cold bluish in the present. So, very neat "Twilight Zone" concept aptly executed with a great female lead. Your appreciation might depend on how open-minded you are, but for a critical cynic like me, I wasn't taken out by stupid behavior or illogical crap.Rating: 7.5 out of 10 (very good)