Movie review: 'The Fourth Kind'

An encounter to avoid

By Roger Moore

Tribune newspapers
November 5, 2009

 

Movie review: 'The Fourth Kind'
Milla Jovovich (Credit: Simon Vesrano/Universal )
Photos:
Milla Jovovich Elias Koteas Will Patton Milla Jovovich, Hakeem Kae-Kazim and Elias Koteas
The Fourth Kind
Running time:
98 minutes
Rated:
PG-13
Cast:
Milla Jovovich -
Dr. Abigail Tyler
Will Patton -
Sheriff August
Elias Koteas -
Dr. Abel Campos
Corey Johnson -
Tommy
Enzo Cilenti -
Scott
See full cast
Director:
Olatunde Osunsanmi
Official Movie Web Site:
http://www.thefourthkind.net/
Movie Trailer:
Overall User Rating:
5 (1 rating)
Write a review

1 1/2 stars (out of four)

“I am actress Milla Jovovich,” the star says, directly to the audience at the start of her new movie, “The Fourth Kind.” 

And those are pretty much the last true words out of her mouth in this gimmicky, “Yes, this really happened” alien-abduction horror hooey.

“Close Encounters of the Third Kind” fans will recognize the title. Alien sighting, close encounter of the first kind; making friends and phoning home, close encounter of the third kind; kidnapped, probed, poked and freaked out of your mind? That’s “a close encounter of the fourth kind.”

Jovovich plays a Nome, Alaska, psychotherapist whose husband has died and whose sleep-deprived patients tell her chilling, cryptic stories of owls and abduction when she puts them under hypnosis.

The conceit that writer-director Olatunde Osunsanmi milks for all it’s worth is an interview, shot at Southern California’s Chapman University, between the director and the “real” Dr. Abigail Tyler:  A cadaverous-looking actress narrates her story, her encounters with patients who flipped out and even killed themselves over what they’d experienced.

Osunsanmi, a protege of Joe “Smokin’ Aces” Carnahan, also uses split screens to show “real” police video and “real” hypnosis session video playing out opposite his actors re-enacting those moments. With “found video” again igniting the horror-movie market, these hucksters must be kicking themselves that the long-shelved “Paranormal Activity” came out a month before this one, stealing their whole video veritas thunder. The video conveniently distorts at every payoff-shot moment — victims levitating, their mouths distorting to roar some ancient language that some “expert” identifies as Sumerian, as if anybody knows what Sumerian sounded like.

“What you believe is yours to decide” is the awkward way actor and director make their case. OK. And a quick check of the Web, where The Anchorage Daily News and others have exposed the hustle and hoax, helps. What the real Chapman University got out of buying into this fake-out isn’t clear.

The movie isn’t helped by a blank-faced turn by Jovovich, channeling her decades as a “if you smile or frown, you’ll wrinkle” model. Elias Koteas is here to play therapist to the therapist, though he doesn’t lend the credibility you’d expect. Only Will Patton, as a sheriff and a guy who doesn’t have to turn to the camera to insist he’s not lying, finds pathos and fear in what’s happening in his town.

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Showtimes for Today, November 21

AMC Loews 600 North Michigan 9Buy Tickets
600 N. Michigan Ave. - Chicago, IL 60611
Saturday, November 21
2:15
AMC River East 21
322 E. Illinois St. - Chicago, IL 60611
Saturday, November 21
10:20
Cicero ShowPlace 14 (Kerasotes)Buy Tickets
4779 W. Cermak - Cicero, IL 60804
Saturday, November 21
11:50 | 2:10 | 5:20 | 7:45 | 10:25
North Riverside Mall Theatre
7501 W. Cermak Road - North Riverside, IL 60546
Saturday, November 21
12:50 | 3:05 | 5:20 | 7:35 | 9:50
AMC Loews Norridge 10Buy Tickets
4520 N. Harlem Ave. - Norridge, IL 60656
Saturday, November 21
6:45 | 9:05
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