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Seriously. Did no one else think this looked like an ABC mythology show?

Kim Hollis: Skyline, the District 9 wannabe that critics despised, opened to $11.8 million. Given the modest mid-teens budget, do you consider this an acceptable result, or is it still a disappointment?

Josh Spiegel: I'd say given the fact that everyone I follow on Twitter said that Skyline was not just bad, but hilariously terrible, this number is impressive. Also, the budget for the movie is listed as $10 million, but I've read a few people elsewhere say it's even lower than that. Either way, this gives the special-effects company behind the film ammo to make new films, even if they're as supposedly stupid as Skyline. Enough people were hooked in by the many, many references (or rip-offs, I suppose) to every other alien attack film, hence the not-so-bad number.





Bruce Hall: I am going to start posting on Saturdays, because Josh often takes the words right out of my mouth.

Seriously though, Skyline looks for all the world like one of those critic-proof, low budget fantasies that are almost guaranteed to make their money back by virtue of a bored young target demographic with low expectations. No matter how bad this movie was - and even the trailers were putting people in stitches - it evidently made its production budget back in one fell swoop - from here out, everything else is gravy.

Before you say that this marks the onset of the Apocalypse, or just the death of cinema, take heart. I can think of no better incentive for SciFi Channel (I refuse to call it that other thing) to finally bring Mansquito to the big screen.

Tim Briody: I still think the chili concept is a winner. Wouldn't have gotten worse reviews than this movie did.

Brett Beach: This seems like one of those "made to cash in on a blockbuster of the moment" flicks that pop up on DVD or cable the week before or after said blockbuster hits the theaters with a title so very similar it may actually fool the less discerning film watcher. The TV-marquee headliners (Donald Faison and Eric Balfour) bear this theory out. Apparently, the plot is a mashup of virtually all the aliens attacking Earth scenarios that have come before with the special effects either being the sole raison d'etre or absolutely nothing special either. For what it's worth, the TV trailers I saw had me tuning out before the 30 seconds was up. I got the sense that expectations were becoming ridiculously inflated just before the release (with a Skyline 2 already announced in advance, a practice that annoys me to no end.) Thus, even with a budget this small, I would call this opening weekend, in light of expected swift and terrible falloffs in the days to come, a disappointment.

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