I rented this stinker and shut it off after about 45 minutes. From the moment Tom Cruise makes his appearance as some blue collar jerk, they had lost me. Like Paul Newman trying to play a wiseguy in Road to Perdition, Tom just can't pull it off. The dialogue was so annoying I just couldn't stand it: the phony animosity between Cruise and his ex's new husband; the smart-alexy kids who say the stupidest implausible things in the midst of this world crisis; the idea that every vehicle in the world is shut down except a minivan Cruise decides to commandeer; the idea that all freeways are clogged but Cruise manages to sail down the road; the notion that only Cruise knows when something is about to explode; and that despite the ferocity of the attacks, good 'ol Tom always manages to stay one step ahead of collapsing buildings, etc. In fact when the destruction first starts and there is a kind of earthquake effect wherein the street starts to separate, why is it that all the spectators just stand around without even pretending to be in shock? Why should the cops have to tell them to "move back"? I was told by a co-worker that this film was shown as their in-flight movie and the entire planeload of passengers asked to have it shut off. The last straw for me was when Tom encounters a news crew near a crashed airplane whose entire mobile station works just fine. Oh, I forgot, at this time Tom had only traveled about a block from his ex's home where he had stashed his kids but when he gets back there they don't have a clue what's going on outside! With 747's crashing and burning and everything! Who needs syrup of ipecac when this garbage is around. At least the 1950's version was hokey without trying to be so darned cinematic. Special effects are not enough to save this crock.
Review of War of the Worlds
