Martian Child
Product Description
After decades of playing single men in romantic comedies from the classic SAY ANYTHING to the critical favorite HIGH FIDELITY the year 2007 marks a change for John Cusack. With roles as fathers in 1408 GRACE IS GONE and MARTIAN CHILD the beloved actor grows up and deserves some of the highest praise of his career. In MARTIAN CHILD David Gordon (Cusack) is a successful science fiction author plagued by both the death of his wife and writer s block. When a group home … More >>
July 28th, 2010 at 7:01 am
I wanted to like this small, trying-to-be-charming movie starring the often great John Cusak. Sure, we’ve all seen this story before: Man meets boy-from-Mars; Man falls in love with boy-from-Mars; Man loses boy-from-Mars, etc. Unfortunately this movie offers no new elements to this worn format, and it’s all been done better before. Beware of the filler characters, concocted to take up time that the thin main story line can’t fill: The best friend/agent played by Oliver Platt (rhymes with FLAT). The “almost girlfriend” played by Amanda Peet, whom you actually can see wondering, “What am I doing in this movie?” The “heavy” who turns happy social worker guy. And don’t forget Joan Cusak, John’s sister, playing his, er, sister. A rhetorical question: Has Joan Cusak ever been in a movie that didn’t star her brother, other than that Melanie Griffith empowerment pic? If it wasn’t enough that the director and writers were too lazy to provide a single original element to this movie, they had to tie up the film with a totally unbelievable recycled faux “scene of peril” to get the man and the boy-who-thinks-he’s-from-Mars back together. When all was said and done, this movie made me feel so bad I had to take two aspirin, go to bed, and call my doctor in the morning. He told me to take it easy for a few days and to get my strength back by watching Cusak in two small classic films that (unlike “Martin Child”) are well directed and well written: “The Sure Thing” and “Say Anything.” I’m on my way to recovery now…
Rating: 1 / 5
July 28th, 2010 at 9:18 am
Definately not what I was expecting. The child is not really from Mars. I couldn’t even watch the whole movie, I really don’t like it. It was a waste of money renting it. Oh, and I would like to meet the idiots that wrote the summary on the back of the box and in the info that it shows on Dish Network Pay-Per-View.
Rating: 2 / 5
July 28th, 2010 at 9:45 am
When the Internet first became widely used by the public (I’m sure most people know it was initially used by the military and educational institutions), you could trust what you read, but these days who knows? At another web site I read review after review praising this awful movie, but then I skipped to the first reviews, which were at the end since they were listed in reverse order chronologically, and I saw many very negative reviews. I’d guess that someone didn’t want the bad reviews to be on top.
I saw this movie over a week ago, and it left me such a bad impression that even now I still wanted to write a review. I will say, I am glad I watched the DVD extra so that I found out that it was based on a true story, and I could see where the script writers had gone beyond dramatic license. To me there were maybe 5 or 10 minutes that were OK, the rest was neither believable nor entertaining at all, and I think that maybe 20-30 years ago, before “political correctness” became such a force that it’s hard to know what’s right from wrong anymore, less people would condone a movie like this.
The movie is a series of cheap contrivances meant to play on the audience’s emotions. I don’t know if the young “star” is as poor an actor as he came across, or if he was told to act that way, but his “innocence,” his desperate, high-pitched, wining tone, and many other manipulative demeanors meant to evoke sympathy, while in fact he had traits that were far from even decent, completely turned me off. I read a review which stated that he had a “small stealing problem,” which only could be written in an age of political correctness. The boy was a thief, maybe even a kleptomaniac, a serious problem that was never resolved. And the way he would cower or speak some phony Martian lingo when criticized in the slightest way was really nonsense to me, topped off by Cusak’s own cowering, apologetic retreat, after doing nothing more than telling the boy in a way that was not mean-spirited at all that he had done things that were wrong.
As I read the glowing reviews for this manipulative garbage, I thought to myself: is this what people do with their “compassion” in a world so full of cruelties and abominable treatments of others, to condone the behaviors of an abused boy so that anything he does is to be accepted and/or pitied, and no criticism is allowed? Strange world, that’s all I can say.
Rating: 1 / 5
July 28th, 2010 at 11:51 am
I watched this because I am a fan of John Cusak. In this film he does the best he can with a totally sappy predictable humdrum script. I was bored out of my mind. The film drags. The dialogue is totally predictable. The premise is silly and misleading. I have worked with special needs children and this movie gives the false impression that a little love conquers all. As such, the movie is misleading and does a disserive to needy children who need stable homes, loving parents, and a lot more than is not even hinted at in this film. I wasted 90 minutes watching this film. What a disappointment.
Rating: 1 / 5
July 28th, 2010 at 12:55 pm
The DVD I ordered have not come yet. Since I ordered, it is almost 1 month. The price of DVD was charged on my credit card altough I did not receive it. Amzon does not show the contact information and I have no way. So I will discuss about this with my credit campany or others. Please send the DVD to my house ( my house address is correct), or return my money.
Rating: 1 / 5