The Shadow Men

This film seems to be an attempt to give a more "realistic" portrayal of alien encounters and Men In Black (well I say "realistic" because the proof is still lacking).

It certainly targets to people (such as myself) who have a strong interest in UFOlogy, aliens, MIBs, the real X files etc.

It's not a bad film but not a great film. It's rather predictable throughout because it has all the cliches that we've learnt from the X Files and tv shows about aliens abductions.

It is not a bad movie to watch if you are reading a book, playing the guitar or doing something else while it's on.

The ending pleasantly and enjoyably excessive but I guess a film needs some sort of closure.

There was a lot of talent that was wasted on this film. Both Dean Stockwell and Sherilyn Fenn have made much better films.

Well, This isn't that bad, not as bad as some make it out to be. If you are into UFOs and alien abduction. Some parts are pretty cheesey, but all in all it's not that bad of film. Once you start watching you kind of got to keep watching to see what happens.

I'm not much into Eric Roberts movies, but he was actually pretty good in this. If you an actually lover of films then you might like this one. give it a chance.

Now, to say that It's unrealistic, you got to remember it is just a movie. I highly doubt that this was based on a real life encounter. just go into with an open mind.

It seems not a single person behind-the-scenes on this project strived to make it anything more than passable. That's not to say the film is bad -- it isn't. It's not great either. It's just... *Meh*

There were opportunities in the script for curve balls to be thrown at the audience, but the filmmakers declined. They stuck to the formula, never veered off the path of familiarity, and gave us the plot completely by the numbers. This is the type of movie that you can flip on at any time and not really pay attention, never having to worry if you'll miss any key plot points.

I'm a fan of Eric Roberts and find him enjoyable in even the worst of movies, so having him in the cast definitely helped.

And kudos to the filmmakers for playing off the ridiculously awful alien costumes for realism. They looked awful, but worked in that "so cheesy it's fun" sort of way.

Overall, I was impressed by a number of things. Good casting, pretty good writing, some fine acting from Fenn, Roberts and Stockwell. The lead MIB was well done indeed! Really captures the heart of MIB lore - these folks really did their research (a rarity with these kinds of films, as you know). It's just too bad that this kind of film doesent deserve a larger budget. I give it a solid B!

It would be interesting to compare this one to Men in Black. (the will smith film.) This was more like what I've heard real life stories of encounters with MIB agents is like. Decent cast, too, with Eric Roberts, Dean Stockwell, and Andrew Prine. Slow and dark at times, but worth the rental if just to satisfy your curiosity. Give it a try.

** 1/2 out of ****