mgruebel The Arrival starts out with an incredible shot of a meadow ... in the Arctic. Then moves on to Charlie Sheen as a satellite TV repair guy who wires dishes together to collect long-baseline high-resolution radioastronomy data.The film is filled with such visual and story gems, and for the first two thirds, it works really well and had me thinking 'winner,' unlike the predictable Independence Day that came out at the same time.Unfortunately, by the end the writers have written themselves into a corner, and the plot holes are as devastating as the mini black hole that sucks up a radio telescope. After Sheen escapes from the underground complex, where the aliens are setting up machinery to accelerate global warming so the Earth becomes hospitable to them, the plot rapidly falls apart.This movie falls in the same category as the Nicholas Cage vehicle Knowing, which starts out great and mysterious, but by the end you wonder "Really, aliens are torturing small school children to cryptically tell us the demise of the Earth is inevitable?"Whenever a movie has good production values and starts out great, but falls flat at the end, I can't go above 5/10. I have not seen it since 1996 because I don't want to be let down a second time.

gwnightscream Charlie Sheen, Teri Polo, Lindsay Crouse and Ron Silver star in this 1996 sci-fi film. Sheen (Wall Street) plays Zane, an astronomer who discovers an alien conspiracy after picking up a radio signal from space. Polo (Meet the Parents) plays Zane's girlfriend, Char, Crouse plays scientist, Ilana and Silver (Timecop) plays Gordian, Zane's corrupt, boss. This is a pretty good sci-fi flick with some neat effects, good score and Sheen & Silver are great in it. I recommend this.

caprica1999 Great premise. Loved it. Smart. I was captivated for a good chunk of it. I love sci-fi.Jesus! Did that kid Kiki have to have his mouth open the ENTIRE movie? He and Charlie Sheen are tToo long. Last 30 minutes is annoying.Worth a look. Got it for $5 so worth it.

SnoopyStyle Ilana Green (Lindsay Crouse) examines a green field in the middle of the frozen Arctic. Her research is being blocked but she discovers a rapid climate change underway. Zane Zaminsky (Charlie Sheen) and Calvin (Richard Schiff) working a radio telescope discover a signal from 14.6 light years away. It goes away before confirmation. Their NASA JPL boss Phil Gordian (Ron Silver) cuts the program claiming budget cuts. Then he destroys the data and blackballs Zane. The only job he can get is installing TV satellites. His marriage to Char (Teri Polo) is under stress. Using satellite dishes, he creates a personal radio telescope to search for the signal with the help of nosy neighbor kid Kiki. Both Green and Zaminsky zero in on a Mexican location.This is a nice paranoid conspiracy alien invasion movie. I like Sheen's side of the story. I doubt that both investigations would lead to the exact same place. Climate science isn't that precise. As for assassination attempts, crushed by a bathtub is one of the most unusual and laughable. It seems so much easier and more common to simply shoot them. However, I do really like the black hole metallic spheres.After a really good first half, the movie starts to run into problems. It's still pretty good. David Twohy is most notable for the Riddick franchise. He needs to simplify the second half and ramp up the action. It tries to be too cute with the story. The movie needs to end in Mexico or else there is an obvious simpler way for Zane to expose the conspiracy.