runner-15 — 16 years ago(January 21, 2010 09:28 AM)

My wife and I have loved this movie from the first time we saw it, and now 18 years later as we find ourselves moving into middle age it seems to have even more appeal.
Despite any faults Jeffrey Jones may have as a person, as an actor he is one of the best Average Guy actors to ever grace the silver screen. His performance here as a middle age man with teenage children and a bad back is so perfect. The scene near the beginning of the movie where he is trying to load the car and his back is hurting, when he asks his son to help, but he just rides off on the skateboard was well for lack of a better word, familiar. Throughout the movie as he becomes more and more of a hero, the middle age complaints still fit so perfectly. And his reactions to the alien word around him are beautiful. Incredible movie.