Silent Warnings

I was recently at the local video store and saw Silent Warnings on the shelf. I figured how bad can it really be? I rented it, took it home and the second everyone saw what I had rented they were scrutinizing it. I ignored thinking that a movie about aliens and crop circles really can't be completely disappointing. I popped it in the DVD player and proceeded to watch the film.

At first glance, it looks just like Signs. A farm, crop circles and the appearance of aliens in only slight amounts at first, but more prominent nearer the end.

Basically, a young man inherits his crazy cousin's farm after his death and goes there with some friends to fix the place up and sell it. After only being there for a few days they start noticing crop circles, someone disappears and they realize that, for some reason, aliens are attacking them on the farm. They do whatever they can to stay alive and figure out how to get rid of the aliens.

Silent Warnings feels like a made-for-TV budgeted film, but somehow worse. None of the main characters had any acting ability, unless you count Billy Zane as a main character, but he doesn't really have many lines so I wouldn't label him as one.

Now I guess I should be fair in respect to the acting and small budget effects. These are always expected with the typical straight-to-video, "never-heard-of-it" movies. But...Silent Warnings left one small thing out of the plot. An ending. I've never been so disappointed by the end of a movie in my life. Signs was bad, Jeepers Creepers was bad...This was awful.

All in all, I knew it wouldn't be good, but I had no idea.

Overall Rating: 2 / 10

OK, this film isn't anything special, but I was motivated to watch it because of A.J. Buckley, who plays Layne. He did the best that he could with his character, I totally enjoyed his performance. He can say everything just with his beautiful blue eyes. Whoever appreciates this actor and his work, should definitely watch this film. He's the best! The characters could have been developed a lot more, especially Layne's. He had issues with his girlfriend, but the script seemed to forget about it quite quickly. The ending felt rushed, and it sort of ruined the premise. Overall, it could have been much, much better. A.J.'s performance made it OK to watch, but the rest of the cast was weak, with the exception of Billy Zane, who wasn't given enough room to shine, though.

WARNINGS......l got this film in the bargain bucket at my local video shop, and have not bothered about it for over a week, last night l decided to just look and see....l kept watching, and watching, and got really into it, it`s a great underated film, far superior to Mel Gibson's SIGNS...AJ Buckley...(not heard of him before) did a great job as the main lead character, Stephen Baldwin and Billy Zane have only minor roles but add to the film well...down side...what did the silly girl go outside for a smoke for when she knew there were "things that go bump in the night".....but l would recommend this film to all..and give it



8 out of 10

I feel that the other comments made about this movie do not exactly do it justice. I just rented and watched a copy of it last night, and I feel a little more generous than some of the other posters. Firstly, one has to address the fact that this movie is highly derivative of "Signs". Basicaly, the premise is the same. Crop circles mysteriously appear in a farmer's field and trouble ensues.

The acting is about what you would expect. Baldwin is far too over the top to really appreciate, but Billy Zane does a great job, as do most of the actors that portray the college kids trying to fix up the old farm house.

The CGI aliens are not done very well and look really fake. The build up of tension throughout the movie, however, is well done. There are some scenes where I couldn't help but jump and, in general, I think that this movie actually did a better job of interpreting the possible uses of crop circles better than signs. In this movie, the circles are used as a type of portal system for the aliens to get from place to place. In terms of a further comparison with signs, the ending is a lot more bleak.

I felt that signs included a cheesy supernatural element that, thankfully, was mostly absent from this film. Don't rent it expecting to see something on the same scale of Signs, but if you liked it and the ideas it presented, you should get some enjoyment out of this as well.

Of course, it was obvious that it was a rip-off of Signs, but I didn't quite know what to make of Signs, so I thought this might provide a more wholesome movie experience. It started out well. After the main character's cousin mysteriously dies in a car crash, this guy and five college friends of his go to the cousin's house in a corn field near a small rural village. It's a good set-up, and there is a very nice and natural dynamic between all the characters, leading one to think that there might actually be a good story in here somewhere.

Unfortunately, there isn't. The interesting character interactions, which you want to see developed, get cut short by some silly nonsense about anonymous grey aliens. The end is a meaningless fizzle, where you can't tell if the alien invasion is retreating or advancing.

The movie starts out having a point, but ends up having none. 4 out of 10.