No Place Like Home (2002) User Reviews

less-than-mediocre

[KDWms · 4/10 · 2 April 2003]

I wasn't very moved by this harmless flick for kids 10-to-15 (???) years old. Others may feel differently, but I found the performances to be too restrained and the viewer being asked to be over-accepting, even though we're dealing with fantasy here: A single-being spacecraft crash-lands on earth, and a girl (not much over the driving age) and her brother (not much under the driving age) befriend the non-English-speaking alien, helping him with encounters involving their divorced father, a bumbling deputy, a stodgy government lady and an unrealistic photographer/professor/agent, among others. Also, Adrienne Barbeau provides some initial language-deciphering, given her character's knowledge of Native American words, from which the foreigner's speech has evolved. An element of suspense is created by the fact that the stay must end within a certain amount of time. And, as the visitor performs various tasks (such as restoring life to a dead rabbit), he's gradually depleting/not replentishing/running out of energy. My impression was that the kids' knowledge of what to do, and what things meant, was unbelievably excessive. This all causes a less-than-mediocre evaluation to come from here.

Finally an A+ rated movie for everyone to think.

[rlmarr · 10/10 · 3 May 2004]

Finally an A+ rated movie. I was very impressed by this wonderful movie for ALL ages. The performances were NOT restrained and the viewer is challenged throughout the movie to recall events and keep up with details in the movie mentally. The producers did a fantastic job of choosing the perfect aged characters for the roles played. As one realizes that the setting of the show only APPEARS to be on Earth if one will open up and see this fact by focusing on many key hints throughout the movie to stimulate cerebral exercising. Viewers perceptions can vary widely with this movie as to who is the real aliens and just who is and is not speaking a native tongue. I was so pleased to see the choice of all the actors including Judge Reinhold. They ALL did a really great job by having the audience feel the emotions of them as the day progressed in two worlds that are far apart but very near to each other. Yes all movies have flaws but for once in modern times a movie is made well enough such as this one to be clean enough for just about everyone. Really good way to show us all how to use our brains.