Skyline parents guide

Skyline Parent Guide

Without giving the audience characters they can care about or even a sense of real foreboding, "Skyline" is little more than a disappointing 90-minute attack on the human senses.

Overall C-

A strange blue light is the first signal that an alien life form has contacted Earth, yet anyone who looks at it is sucked towards its source. When huge spacecrafts also begin smashing into urban areas, a small group of people suspects these new arrivals may not be human friendly.

Release date November 12, 2010

Violence C-
Sexual Content C
Profanity D+
Substance Use C

Why is Skyline rated PG-13? The MPAA rated Skyline PG-13 for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, some language, and brief sexual content.

Run Time: 93 minutes

Official Movie Site

Parent Movie Review

It isn’t likely that the Los Angeles Convention and Visitors Bureau will be showcasing Skyline in their tourism packages, especially after one character in the movie mutters a derisive comment about the town. Aliens, however, seem to feel differently about the City of Angels. For them, it is a destination hotspot for hostile takeovers and human annihilation.

As this movie begins, Jarrod (Eric Balfour) and his girlfriend Elaine (Scottie Thompson) touch down in L.A. just in time to attend the decadent birthday bash of his longtime friend Terry (Donald Falson). But after a night of wild drinking and spying on the sexual activities of the neighbors with a high-powered telescope, the partygoers are sprawled around the penthouse in a stupor when an eerie beam pierces the night sky and awakens them.

Looking out the window, the group discovers alien ships descending from the sky, emitting a blue ray that seizes the attention of human beings, causing their eyes to glass over and spidery blood veins to spread across their faces and limbs. When the people are sufficiently entranced, they are sucked inside the spacecraft.

Within hours of their arrival, the extraterrestrials also send out probes that go door-to-door hunting down people and consuming them on the spot. Luckily for the main characters, these probes, that can reattach their own severed limbs, lack the capacity to detect a person hiding only a few feet away from them on the other side of a kitchen cupboard. (Whew!)

All military efforts to stop the space intruders are pointless, considering that it takes only four or five of the aliens’ massive ships to overshadow the entire community. Still despite the herculean odds, troops and fighter planes (that look like gnats in comparison) are deployed, mostly to give the space invaders more fodder to chomp on.

Meanwhile, Jarrod, Elaine, Terry, his lover Candice (Brittany Daniel) and his assistant Denise (Crystal Reed) try to outwit the probes, dashing madly in and out of the apartment building. Later some of them run around the rooftop of the building wildly swinging an ax and bashing a creature over the head with a cinderblock. Of course with a cast this size, it is a sure thing that not all of them will make it. And the most (and maybe only) fun in this cheesy plot comes from guessing who will go first.

The reason for the invasion isn’t revealed until the final moments and even then it is a stretch. The ending, clearly designed to give filmmakers plenty of wiggle room for a sequel, is also abruptly short and senseless. Without giving the audience characters they can care about or even a sense of real foreboding, Skyline is little more than a disappointing 90-minute attack on the human senses.

Directed by Colin Strause, Greg Strause. Starring Eric Balfour, Donald Faison, Scottie Thompson. Running time: 93 minutes. Theatrical release November 12, 2010. Updated

Skyline
Rating & Content Info

Why is Skyline rated PG-13? Skyline is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, some language, and brief sexual content.

Violence: Aliens descend on a city, causing explosions, destroying property and hunting down humans. A man with a gun fires several shots. Humans are sucked up into the alien ship. Characters are decapitated, blown up and thrown from rooftops. Planes engage in midair fighting. A man attacks an alien with an ax. A helicopter crashes into a building. A man sets off an explosion with a gas stovetop and cigarette lighter. Characters are killed and discarded inside the body of the alien ship.

Sexual Content: Women wear sheer or low cut clothing and bikinis. A girl is seen wearing only a towel. There is implied sexual activity between two male characters as well as men and women. A couple kisses. Characters exchange sexual banter. Innuendos are present in the script.

Language: The dialogue includes a strong sexual expletive along with infrequent scatological slang, vulgarities and profanities.

Alcohol / Drug Use: Characters engage in social drinking on numerous occasions in social settings. Characters smoke, sometimes to relieve stress.

Other: Partygoers spy on neighbors with a high-powered telescope.

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Skyline Parents' Guide

Why is it important for a director to create characters that the audience cares about? Why do viewers need to become emotionally involved in a story?

Is there ever a sense of real fight when one opponent is significantly larger or more powerful than the other? Does this script offer any hope that the humans will succeed in overcoming the aliens?

Home Video

The most recent home video release of Skyline movie is March 22, 2011. Here are some details…

Skyline releases to DVD and Blu-ray on March 22, 2011, with the following bonus extras:

- Commentary by directors Greg and Colin Strause

- Commentary with co-writer/producer Liam O’Donnell and co-writer Joshua Cordes

- Deleted, Extended, and Alternate Scenes

- Pre-viz clips

- Trailers

Related home video titles:

Unfriendly aliens have human beings running scared in these films as well: War of the Worlds, Invasion, Independence Day and The Arrival.