Rufus (TV Movie 2016)

Rufus: Directed by Savage Steve Holland. With Jace Norman, Davis Cleveland, Haley Tju, Noel Johansen. When Manny finds a mysterious collar and puts it on his dog, Rufus, he magically turns into a human boy. Although he doesn’t know how to act normal, he becomes the most popular kid in school.

“Everyone described this film as BLACK HAWK DOWN meets ALIENS and who am I to contradict public opinion . One thing I didnu0026#39;t notice in the reviews was similarity to the John Wyndham novel The Kraken Wakes . Meteors land in the ocean and very quickly alien incursions attack the coastline . One criticism of Wyndhamu0026#39;s criminally underrated novel is that if an alien race was this advanced then thereu0026#39;s no reason for them to be hostile down to evolutionary psychology . In simplistic terms a civilization alien or otherwise would have to evolve beyond petty tribalsitic squabbles and pool their resources in to conquering physics and mastering interstellar travel . In other words an advanced civilization should in theory be a non aggressive race not bent on conquest u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is speculation of course because thereu0026#39;s no evidence that thereu0026#39;s life on any other planet and the novels of John Wyndham are quickly forgotten as the laser bolts fly and the aliens emerge from the sea . This is a pity because I was expecting a bit more mystery and suspense allowing the story to breath before the aliens were revealed . Itu0026#39;s still not really a great loss at this point because I was still very impressed by the epic scope and spectacle as the marines fly to Camp Pendleton via helicopter dodging airbursts caused by the aliens . As the action then takes place as a ground war in the ruins of LA I was reminded to a certain extent of BLACK HAWK DOWN . The problem after the initial fighting however is that the scale and scope stops and started reminding me of any Michael Bay film you care to mention u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eGoodbye epic scope and scale we had when the marines were airborne and hello to close up and elliptic editing done via shaky cam . One can understand director Jonathan Liebesman trying to do a sci-fi blockbuster in a realist style but weu0026#39;ve seen too many films with u0026quot; blink and youu0026#39;ll miss it u0026quot; type editing and youu0026#39;d think with the utter contempt that many movie fans hold Michael Bay in youu0026#39;d think most directors would avoid this style rather than constantly embrace it , but no they still continue as if itu0026#39;s part of their job remit . Would I cynical in thinking in this case itu0026#39;s too disguise the fact that the aliens arenu0026#39;t all convincing if you look at them longer than a nanosecond ? Hmm CGI and blink and youu0026#39;ll miss it editing . You spend tens of millions of dollars on a movie and you donu0026#39;t bother hiring an editor or a screenwriter . Remind me why Hollywood producers live in big mansions with a swimming pool while thereu0026#39;s so many people with potential living in poverty ?u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis is a the type of film like WORLD WAR Z that constantly gets pumped out by Hollywood where thereu0026#39;s a germ of a good idea in there somewhere that blossoms in to a big headache inducing mess that makes for a great trailer but doesnu0026#39;t have any substance to sustain it for two hours . Obviously any idiot can be a Hollywood producer but it takes someone of relative intelligence to analyse if they want to spend money watching films like this at the cinema just because the trailer looked good . Iu0026#39;m glad I didnu0026#39;t spend money on a cinema ticket to watch this”