The Fourth Kind

Universal Pictures | Release Date: November 6, 2009

6.1	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 109 Ratings

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grandpajoe6191Oct 4, 2011

Oren Pelli's "The Fourth Kind" is not a movie that will scare your guts off, not even till the last moment (like "Blair Witch Project" or "Paranormal Activity"). Instead it will make you wonder how dumb is the director to direct such idiotic movie.

3 of 3 users found this helpful30

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Spielberg00Nov 14, 2011

Bottom Line: Two-star alien film fails to impress, rarely thrills. Admittedly creepy, but also pretty crappy.

Occasional use of the â

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

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ChadS.Nov 6, 2009

An owl is "the most imaginable evil on Earth" and smells like "putrid cinnamon", according to one of Dr. Abigail Tyler's patients, whose description of an alien lifeform sounds so absurd, you start to half-believe that the sleep An owl is "the most imaginable evil on Earth" and smells like "putrid cinnamon", according to one of Dr. Abigail Tyler's patients, whose description of an alien lifeform sounds so absurd, you start to half-believe that the sleep hypnosis videotapes are indeed real. Truth must be stranger than fiction, the moviegoer thinks, because what screenwriter in his right mind would use an animal so utterly unscary, so closely related to the Harry Potter movies(and books), unless he was forced to, due to the historical record which precludes his own extra-terrestrial inventions. A feral flamingo, perhaps? A penguin, even. Accepting the documentary footage as a non-fiction element, a starting point for Milla Jonovich(as the real-life Dr. Abigail Tyler) and her co-stars to recreate the events seen on video and heard on audio, makes or breaks "The Fourth Kind"(a bastardization of the narrative/doc hybrid form used in Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's "American Splendor"), since the moviegoer is made self-aware that his/her suspension of disbelief is a decision that the filmmaker has already predetermined for the audience. Non-compliance with the alien abduction storyline as fact might be beside the point anyway, since the duped and unduped should be equally bored by the sheer hokiness of the archival segments interspersed throughout this relatively glossy docu-drama. Admittedly, the application of an existing academic institution's name in the graphics during a sit-down interview conducted by a writer with the "real-life" Dr. Tyler, gives the first-hand account an outward aspect of authenticity, as does the "name omitted" device "The Fourth Kind" uses during the doctor's sessions with her doomed patients(the same technique to preserve anonymity should have applied whenever the owl gets a mention.), but it all seems so pointless, so laborious, this fabrication, when the film is so lacking in suspense.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful

feardrinkerSep 3, 2010

The movie is an oddball mixture of genuine scares and inept filmmaking. At points the movie is embarrassingly goofy, but for a few moments there my hair was definitely standing on end. The best bits, I think, are the scenes were the doctorThe movie is an oddball mixture of genuine scares and inept filmmaking. At points the movie is embarrassingly goofy, but for a few moments there my hair was definitely standing on end. The best bits, I think, are the scenes were the doctor interviews her patients (via hypnosis) and draws out all the things they had tried to forget. Very convincing performances by the actors portraying the patients, for the most part. Jovovich is a competent actress but miscast here, given her spandex-zombie-asskicking background.… Expand