2011 - BATTLE LOS ANGELES, dumb but fun science fiction action stuff

If you look at the title, the cast and the director, you should have a good idea of what you are about to watch.  Space aliens are landing in Los Angeles in order to steal our water.  To the rescue is the United States Marines or specifically one squad in particular which will apparently figure out a way to take down the invasion of these slimy things pretty much on their own.

The squad is the usual bunch of marine movie cliches.  There's the veteran sergeant who's about to retire, the green first lieutenant whose first command this is.  The black guy, the guy about to get married etc.  Their mission is to rescue some civilians trapped behind enemy lines which naturally includes a couple of cute kids in need rescuing.

The film is shot in the now overused "shaky cam" style with the camera bouncing around and following the squad to give it a look of "you are there" realism.  At times the camera is so shaky it's almost impossible to figure out exactly who the marines are shooting at with the spastic camera racing around all over the place. 

OK,  his film is essentially Independence Day crossed with every war movie cliche I ever sat through.  My expectations for this film were so low I actually kind of enjoyed it for the most part.  I just waited to see when they would dredge up the next film trope which was kind of fun.

Written by Christopher Bertolini the running time is 116 minutes.