Director: John Schultz
Starring: Ashley Tisdale, Thomas Haden Church, J.K. Simmons, Josh Peck, Carter Jenkins, Austin Robert Butler, Ashley Boettcher, Henri Young, Regan Young, Doris Roberts, Robert Hoffman, Kevin Nealon, Gillian Vigman, Andy Richter, Tim Meadows, Malese Jow, Maggie VandenBerghe, Kari Wahlgren
Cert: PG
Region: B
Length: 86mins
Video: AVC, 1080p, 1.85:1
Audio: DTS-HD MA 5.1
Languages: English, Italian, Castellano
Subtitles: English (HOH), Dansk, Suomi, Italian, Norsk, Castellano, Svenska
Number of Discs: 3 (triple play edition)

I'm sorry, I don't have a permanent marker. Would a Sharpay do?

Who is Ashley Tisdale? Who IS she? Oh, right, she's the blonde one from High School Musical. She's also pretty much the only 'star' in this affable kid's movie about miniscule ETs, hence the bizarre god-like status she's awarded on the extras section on this disc. While Aliens in the Attic will probably entertain the under 12s thanks to its bickering scaly antagonists and multiple scenes of people forced to beat themselves up care of a said alien's mind-control device, that's about as far as its appeal goes.

The original and slightly more sinister title 'They Came From Upstairs' was replaced during post production; a shame as it promised some mischievous Gremlins-like fun. Since Joe Dante wasn't involved in this film, sadly the comparison ends there. The four aliens - known as Zirkonians - who crash land at a holiday home over the 4th of July are as clumsy as Mr Bean on ice-skates and the group of kids trying to foil their invasion plans aren't much better. Tom Pearson (Jenkins) is the smartest of the bunch - a mathlete who's tired of being called a geek by his think-first-act-later cousin Jake (Butler) and ignored by older sister Bethany (Tisdale) when he warns her her boyfriend Ricky is a ne'er-do-well (he wears a pink shirt - nuff said). Nevertheless they look to him when the critters ambush them on the roof whilst they're trying to fix the TV antenna.

Which one is the ugly one? Oh yeah, the one in the blue top.

This being a film about kids proving their capability during a crisis, the adults are mostly oblivious to the battles going on upstairs ("I'm pretending to pretend there aren't any aliens," Hannah tells her father, slightly confused) or else they become victims of the Zirkonian's mind control device, which only works on people over a certain age. Since Bethany's boyfriend Ricky (Hoffman) is a high school senior, and thus susceptible, he spends most of the film walking into doors after gamer twins Art and Lee get hold of his controller and use him to fight off the Zirkonians. Props must go to Hoffman for the enthusiastic way he performs the most painful looking stunts since Home Alone 2. He's never afraid to make himself look a complete nonce for the sake of good slapstick. The rest of the cast are game but largely lumped with limp stereotypes (the geek, the ditzy blonde, the cute little one, the dumb jock).

As for the aliens, some surprisingly decent CGI is further elevated by a voice cast that includes Spider-man patrons J.K. Simmons and Thomas Haden Church as leader Skip and egotistical warrior Tazer, who has a crush on his female counterpart, Razor (Wahlgren). Bringing up the rear as the sole good guy in the group is Sparks (Ice Age 3's Josh Peck). He befriends Hannah and ultimately helps sabotage Skip's plans for world domination via turning on a giant homing beacon buried under the house (don't ask). The rivalry between Tazer and Razor offers some of the few genuine laughs in the movie - when presented with a scene from Zorro on TV, Tazer quips "They were fighting and now they're hugging with their lips. I don't understand!" - while a kung-fu face-off between Ricky and Tom's Nana is actually quite original. And damn funny.