why do c thomas howell do these movie . cruise ( howell one time co star ) do a huge blockbuster of wotw and howell follow with this lame effort . where do i start here . production value i will start with the good stuff . the look and feel of some of the scene in this movie be not too bad to be honest . the set ups be okay in spot and the direction not too bad . script terrible . a series of clunky scene that could have be put in any order you like permeate throughout the movie . the amount of time the scene fade to black and reemerged a second later in the same room be uncountable . very poor storyline ( but so be the cruise wotw ) take some blame but an abysmal screenplay kill it off . special fx okay and i do not want to be too harsh here a i imagine the budget be small than cruise lunch bill but in the overall context of the film the effect be badly do . some shot be quite impressive mainly far off destruction shot of bridge and washington and liner . but in the main the alien machine and tentacle themselves be dreadful . also the camera quality be fuzzy on some shot and cut away entirely on others . act i be a fan of howell but a he have reduce himself to act in these low budget flick he have succumb to the over acting bug a long time ago . look at his performance in the hitcher and compare it to this movie . there be no comparison . he overdo his facial expression and his flailing arm and leg ( where do he get that run style . ) and for a final coup de gras look at the scene where he lose the photo of his family . hysterical . but after say all that he be still the best actor on show here . busey be embarrass to look at and peter green ( zed be truly dead now baby ) mumble incoherently through his one and only scene . i honestly could not understand one word he say i even go so far a try to enable the subtitle on that scene but the dvd do not have subtitle . this seem to be a real keep it in the family affair too as howell son and the director wife and the line producer all make it into the film . none of them be good . direction not bad but not good either . score dismal . overall and a lame duck effort that will do nothing for howell in his attempt to make it back to the big time . he should take a look at rourke and try to figure out how he make in back to the a list but if he keep do stuff like this and he would not have a career soon enough . negative .