Briskly efficient, blithely superficial visitors-from-space thriller. The thrills, as they may rationally be called, are widely varied in kind and degree: the momentary frisson upon finding a dead ringer in Mexico of the bad guy in Los Angeles; the well-sustained bout of heebie-jeebies in a hotel room swarming with scorpions; the extended exploration of the aliens' subterranean base of operations, not unlike the lair of a Bond villain; the specific technological marvel of an otherworldly vacuum-cleaner-cum-trash-compactor that sucks up everything not nailed down in a room into a sphere smaller than a soccer ball; the acrophobic acrobatics at the rim a giant satellite dish; several more. The edge-of-sanity performance by Charlie Sheen doesn't allow for much in the way of emotional crescendo (and director David Twohy's repertoire of tightening closeups and ascending crane shots is soon depleted, too), but it helps to excuse any deficiency of caution and common sense in the character. The serviceable special effects are above reproach — and also, if you follow, below reproach: they hover in the reproach-free midrange. And naturally, mandatorily, there is an Important Message included about our ecology -- yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, sure -- but it never slows down the action. It's delivered on the run. Ron Silver, Teri Polo, Lindsay Crouse. (1996) — Duncan Shepherd
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