Fourth Kind: Not Real, Not Scary

The Fourth Kind attempts to combine dramatization of true events and fake-documentary alien abductions in Alaska, and falls horribly flat. Here's what critics are saying:

• The ludicrousness of the grainy archival footage, presented as "real," and a lousy performance by Milla Jovovich, whose "notion of serious acting seems to be speaking very slowly in a halting monotone," make it hard to suspend your disbelief, writes Stephen Holden for the New York Times.

• Luke Thompson of E! Online finds the film's framing device peculiar: "Every so often, we go back and forth between the dramatization and the 'real' people being interviewed. Sometimes there's a split-screen and both are shown at once. It's hard to relate to actors when the movie keeps reminding you that's what they are."
• "Without the true-story conceit," writes Linda Barnard for the Toronto Star, "the Fourth Kind would be just another formula horror flick with a couple of passable jolts trying to hold a flimsy story together."

(More The Fourth Kind stories.)