I finally saw The Fourth Kind

[broberfett]

The movie stars Milla Jovavich. It took me a little bit to get into it. It claims to be based on real cases and all that. Sadly for the coolness of the movie, but happily for the asses of the residents of Nome, the whole thing was bullshit and made up. All those FBI visits that the movie talks about were just about a bunch of lost Natives travelling from distant villages and disappearing. There was no anal probing involved. The FBI swears-scout's honor.

The marketing people for the movie set up fake stories that appeared to be from a real paper. Supposedly the paper was all upset about fake stories being credited to them and the studio made a "contribution" of $20,000 to the paper. The marketing people also set up fake bios for the Doctor lady, trying to make it look like she was a real person.

So if you see an owl looking through your window and it won't go away, don't give a hoot. Your ass is probably safe(for now).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fourth_Kind

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah I saw the trailer and thought they were trying to market it just like "Paranormal Activity" except with aliens and became disinterested.

 

[Mr Light]

At the opening of the movie Milla Jovovich says this is a true story and they use actual footage from the encounters. So I watched the movie beliveing it was all real, and it scared the shit out of me. I couldn't believe this stuff actually happened on film! Then I read afterward it was all made up. Pissed me off. To have the actress being herself at the beginning of the movie tell you it's real when it's not, WTF is that?

 

[RoJoHen]

I have to ask because I really don't know: what are the first two kinds of close encounters?

4th Kind: Alien Abduction
3rd Kind: Seeing a UFO (I assume based on the movie)
2nd Kind: ?
1st Kind: ?

 

[Gepard]

I have to ask because I really don't know: what are the first two kinds of close encounters?

4th Kind: Alien Abduction
3rd Kind: Seeing a UFO (I assume based on the movie)
2nd Kind: ?
1st Kind: ?

1st is seeing a UFO. 2nd is finding evidence of a UFO's presence, like burn marks on the grass or something. 3rd is seeing an alien being (as in the Spielberg film). 4th is abductions. The scale goes even higher than that.

 

[Reverend]

At the opening of the movie Milla Jovovich says this is a true story and they use actual footage from the encounters. So I watched the movie beliveing it was all real, and it scared the shit out of me. I couldn't believe this stuff actually happened on film! Then I read afterward it was all made up. Pissed me off. To have the actress being herself at the beginning of the movie tell you it's real when it's not, WTF is that?

To be fair, all mockumentaries tend to take this tack to reel in the viewer. Hell, even Fargo has a thing at the beginning claiming it's all based on a true story.

 

[SinglePurpose]

At the opening of the movie Milla Jovovich says this is a true story and they use actual footage from the encounters. So I watched the movie beliveing it was all real, and it scared the shit out of me. I couldn't believe this stuff actually happened on film! Then I read afterward it was all made up. Pissed me off. To have the actress being herself at the beginning of the movie tell you it's real when it's not, WTF is that?

Really? I haven't seen the movie but it's about alien abductions, of course it's fake. I mean Orson Welles pulled this trick in the 30s.

 

[Mr Light]

They flat out said at the start of the movie this was actual real-life footage

 

[SinglePurpose]

They flat out said at the start of the movie this was actual real-life footage

I've got some swampland in Florida I'd like to sell you.

 

[Mr Light]

Really?! Is it a sweet deal?!

 

[Haggis and tatties]

Good movie if you switch off and enjoy it and go with the flow, but put it firmly up there with The Blair witch and P Activity.

 

[Silent_Bob]

After reading this thread i finally dragged the dvd out of my unwatched pile and decided to give it a go. Alien abduction has always been a rather disturbing concept for me, so had i not known the "real life" footage was fake i probably wouldn't have slept last night after watching it. That said it was still fairly creepy and the faked footage was done well.
Although it provided yet more evidence to support my argument that Mila Jovovich is a terrible actress. It becomes even more apparent when you compare her to the actress playing the "real" Dr. Tyler.

 

[Procutus]

Good movie if you switch off and enjoy it and go with the flow, but put it firmly up there with The Blair witch and P Activity.

Agreed. In and by itself, it's a good flick, but totally fiction. Still, it had its creepy moments and was better constructed than TBWP was, IMO.

 

[broberfett]

I think believing that the story could be true, even just a little bit, is critical to true enjoyment of the movie. I didn't know the FBI thing and the characters were definitely fake(though I suspected) until I looked it up after the movie. Even if you don't believe it all, if you can think,"wow, the number of FBI visits there is a bit weird!" then you can enjoy the movie much more.

 

[Reverend]

They flat out said at the start of the movie this was actual real-life footage

And? Star Wars claims to be an historical account of events that took place ages ago in a distant galaxy - says so right at the start of the film. Fargo, as I previously mentioned claims to be based on true events. Hell, even complete fiction like Braveheart pretends to be based of true events. Do you believe everything you see and read in movies is real?

 

[Mr Light]

"A long time ago in a galaxy far far away" doesn't mean it's a documentary Mila Jovovich says in the opening Hi I'm actress Mila Jovovich and I'll be playing a woman who this really happened to and we intercut it with actual documentary footage. It was like the opening to a History Channel special or something.

 

[Reverend]

So by that logic, if Star Wars had opened with Alec Guinness saying the same thing, you'd believe it?

 

[Deckerd]

As someone has already pointed out; this is not a new idea. Orson Welles managed to terrify half of America by doing the War of the Worlds like a live radio news report.

And has someone has already already already said. A True Story about alien abductions?