Scenic views of the Isle of Man provide some eye-catching seaside backdrops for this cheap and cheerful alien invasion romp, which plays like a slightly more sweary episode of Doctor Who. Occupied by intergalactic robots on a cosmic fact-finding mission, Earth is placed under global house arrest, a curfew forcing everyone indoors for the foreseeable future. Oleaginous collaborator Smythe (Ben Kingsley, experimenting with a “regional” accent) has the hots for yummy-mummy Kate (Gillian Anderson), but hasn’t counted on her rebellious son (Callan McAuliffe) and his spitfire pilot dad. Director Jon Wright, who directed the rambunctious monster-movie Grabbers, makes the most of his limited resources, imbuing the action with an oddly endearing sense of string-and-glue DIY youthfulness.
