The Lone Ranger

I was 36 when this movie was released, had three kids, and really enjoyed this movie. I still enjoy it today. It is just great family entertainment without promoting an agenda, except for the premise that very advanced aliens could exist out there somewhere. The plot is simple. If you were a kid that happened to be "taken" by an alien automated spaceship, what would you do to get home and how fun would it be? What I like about this movie is that the alien ship's purpose was not to invade other planets, as is so often portrayed, but instead to collect samples of life on those planets. Also (as one who worked with computers for 47 years), I found it fascinating that the very highly advanced alien technology could still malfunction and require a human to correct the problem. Special effects were good for 1986, and this was one of Sarah Jessica Parker's early films; she was only 20 when it was filmed.

Although I didn't see this movie until the DVD came out, it is one of my favorites. This is definitely a survival movie, but completely different from most. In most "alien invasion" films, humankind is fighting the invaders to keep control of Earth. Think Independence Day or War of the Worlds. In "The Host," the war is over; the aliens control almost all the planet, with the few humans left free using guerilla actions to fight back and survive. It is a story of not only survival of the human race, but also of the aliens. Although they know that morally it is wrong to take control of human bodies, they must have a host bodies in order to survive. It is the internal struggle of one alien and its compassion for the human mind still trapped within the host body that makes the plot of the movie, along with the alien Seeker who is determined to find the remaining humans and either control them or exterminate them. In this process, the alien within the host falls in love with the humans in general and one human male in particular. It is this love and compassion for the human race and the willingness of the alien to sacrifice itself to restore control of the trapped woman's body to her own soul that makes this movie so spectacular and different. If you're looking for fast moving action and a lot of CGI special effects, you won't find it here. You will find a moving story of courage and survival, one of the most beautiful music scores I have ever heard by Brazilian composer Antonio Pinto, and an Oscar worthy acting performance by both Saoirse Ronan and Diane Kruger.