Aliens in the Attic

You get the feeling that the Aliens in the Attic video game probably has more to offer.

The aliens look like cast-offs from a bad Spielberg film and the whole family are boring examples of Hollywood's ordinary Americans.

Gremlins meets Goonies meets something stultifyingly inept in a sci-fi adventure for the very young.

You could take the kids to see it this summer holiday and avoid an hour or so of rain - or rent the DVD later on. Inoffensive.

Daft battles aside, the film soon takes a predictable turn towards family togetherness and bonding, which is cringing but morally commendable all the same. Ultimately this is a bearable if forgettable film.

Aliens in the Attic is simply your standard issue, paint-by-numbers family film likely to be most successful with smaller children.

As a piece of cross-generational cinema, Aliens falls rather flat but as a dedicated children's film released into prime school holiday territory, it does exactly what it says on the tin.

OK, it is a little derivative, but the young actors are all very convincing and Robert Hoffman does some terrific physical comedy after his body is commandeered by the alien leader.