UFO (2018) User Reviews

Bring out your inner geek with this thoughtful film

[tarquin-65274 · 7/10 · 7 September 2018]

This was a very decent film and definitely worth watching - the acting was underplayed and there were no stupid special effects - just a good interesting plot and story.

I have no idea if the math was accurate but it seemed quite plausible and the mystery kept me waiting until the end - I almost felt like a math genius just watching it unfold.

The acting and direction was good - the usual aspergers/autistic type math genius that gets to prove his point by solving a really hard problem - made me think that the future of human kind will probably be in the hands of someone like this.

Not the average action packed sci-fi alien squealing fest but very entertaining.

Enjoyable B-grade low budget film, but you may not like it if you hate math

[Top_Dawg_Critic · 7/10 · 4 September 2018]

This was certainly no big budget Hollywood blockbuster, but a fairly decent and interesting film that held my attention.

It didn't have any action or thrills, but the rather original concept behind a UFO sighting was enough to keep me well interested.

This is novice director and writer Ryan Eslinger's fourth film installment, and he did a very good job.

The score was a little too obvious throughout the entire film, and pausing it in certain scenes would have created better tension for the viewer. The pacing and length were just right. The C & B grade cast performed fairly well, but I feel Alex Sharp should have not been cast as the lead. Perhaps someone more seasoned would have made this film more appealing. It was however a pleasant surprise to see Gillian Anderson a.k.a X-Files' Scully, and she of course nailed her role.

I can see many people slamming this film, especially if they hate math, and because it's not your typical Hollywood production. Had there been narrating, it would have made for a great documentary type film. This felt more like one of those "based on a true story" films. Nothing spectacular, but still interesting enough to watch and make you think.

Nevertheless, still enjoyable and refreshing to see something different, even if not Hollywood-ish. Would I recommend it? Yes. Would I see it again? Probably not.

The Road Less Traveled In U.F.O. Movies....No Aliens or Bombast & It Works.

[AudioFileZ · 7/10 · 10 September 2018]

Really good U.F.O. movies are like hen's teeth. They are talked about but no one actually sees them. Heck even documentaries on the subject raise the art of "beating a dead horse" to, mostly, boring levels. So, when a movie about that most elusive, yet often seen phenomenon comes out I usually am a sucker to bite.

U.F.O. is refreshingly different from the start. It doesn't depend on bombast or over-the-top C.G.I. In fact it takes the opposite approach. Derek, a high-achieving collegiate mathematician becomes obsessed with an airport daylight sighting by a mass of both professionals and lay people. He has his reasons and they are fairly plebeian and in no way over-cooked too lending just the right bit of reality to his otherwise almost "too pushy" quest to find some truth.

Alex Sharp as the brain in overdrive Derek really carries the film. He is ably supported, but wisely modestly, by a love interest (Ella Purnell as Natalie), a hard-boiled academia professor (Gillian Anderson as Dr. Hendricks), and government shill (David Strathaim as Franklin Ahis). The tight cast represents, along with the news media, all of the crucial elements of all U.F.O. sightings from the forties right up to today without pushing into anything too conspiratorial or hard to buy into. This is the stage for a good story and a driven young man whose smarts are up to the mystery. As I watched the movie I kept thinking to myself this parallels a real sighting of several years ago and bonds on a very decent fictional story that fits nicely. When the credits roll the not too thinly disguised real event is acknowledged which I think is a fantastic touch. This is one entertaining fun U.F.O. movie that doesn't insult in any way. I recommend it without reservation for U.F.O. fans (a 7 for us) and guardedly for all others (less perhaps a 5.5 to 6 rating).

Wonderful Movie!

[m1965 · 6 February 2019]

Boy, I haven't had chills like this since "Contact".

If you like well written movies, movies that leave you on the edge of your seat from the get-go - this is it!

If you like movies that are INTELLIGENT and push the envelope of interesting and well written, this is your movie!

Acting is superb, writing is superb - and content is mesmerizing.

This movie does what so many big budget films want to do at a fraction of the cost!

Do yourself a favor and watch it. You won't be sorry!

Pretty good, not for everyone

[whatch-17931 · 7/10 · 22 February 2021]

Yeah, it's been done before in Close Encounters, sort of, but it's quite a different take. There is a Eureka!! bonding moment between the professor and student about the wavelength of radio signals emitted by hydrogen and it's kind of touching.

It's nice see college students that really seem like college students. Andersen does a very convincing job of a college professor.

One major annoyance is the very last line, when the student is asked what all this means, and he answers "we are not alone." Well, DUH, by this point of the movie. Bad choice there.

Intelligent, well thought and acted film

[jkt2006 · 7/10 · 23 April 2020]

Enjoyed this slow burn which inspite of being so doesn't bore you for a minute and keeps you engaged. Thoughtful, geeky fun.

Not bad, but it could have been so much more

[FabledGentleman · 6/10 · 4 September 2018]

This movie ultimately looks and feels like a pretty good student film, it has a pretty interesting story at it's core, and is made on a low budget, it also has some fine acting in it, but at the end of the day, it delivers little i would call cinema worthy. Now i didn't see it in a cinema, but still, a movie is a movie.

This film kind of feels like an episode of a TV show, in it's editing and it's camera work. It's a movie that is made almost entirely on autopilot it seems, it delivers a formula you have seen hundreds of times before, it delivers very few surprises outside the plot itself which could go anywhere to be honest.

And that is what saves this film, that i didn't know exactly where the main story would take me, and this raised the suspense, so i was never bored watching this, at least not much. But Gillian Anderson and David Strathairn has way too little to work with here, it almost feels like they are in this to either cash in on some easy job, or to maybe support an up and coming director, because they are both fine actors, and in this film, you couldn't tell if you had never seen them before.

It's a decent end of the day film, it keeps your attention for the most part, but it wants to be something more, but there just isn't enough money involved to take it to the next level, so it tries to just stay on the ground, tries to keep things small, though ultimately the story itself is HUGE, so it sort of clashes a bit.

So a decent afternoon flick you can watch while having some food or just feeling bored. Not a bad movie, but nothing special either.

6/10 - Fair

Moderatly intresting extraterrestrial movie with a ton of math

[juneebuggy · 4/10 · 18 October 2019]

A college student believes he saw a UFO when he was younger, which fuels his motivation to try and prove the existence of extraterrestrials through complex math problems. He focuses on sightings at American airports with his professor while flunking out of school and sabotaging relationships in his growing obsession to find the truth. Gillian Anderson of X-Files plays the professor.

An o.k movie, tons of math in this. Tons. ET's communicate through #'s, still found this moderately interesting. The usual government coverup kid must try to get through.

A refreshing approach to the subject.

[docdetroit99 · 8/10 · 1 October 2018]

As a physicist and a SciFi fan, I rather enjoyed the movie. It was very approachable in terms of dialog and the science seemed reasonable and accurate. I would highly recommend this if you like a thoughtful SciFi approach to UFOs.

Worth watching

[mr-whyte · 7/10 · 4 September 2018]

Nice one and a half hour well acted film. Don't expect aliens and full on action, but a nicely paced well written story that aims to make you question things. Very enjoyable.

I believe... this is the most boring film of all-time

[Fluke_Skywalker · 3/10 · 26 December 2018]

Plot; A college student becomes obsessed w/proving a rash of recent mysterious sightings near airports are in fact alien visitors.

For someone who takes off his shoes if he's doing an addition problem w/numbers above 10, this math-soaked "They are out there" mystery is about as compelling as watching a turtle charge headlong into a gale force wind. Paired w/its weekly allowance budget and community theater level acting (even from its two "names"; an absolutely unrecognizable Gillian Anderson and a comatose David Strathairn) this is a cinematic sleeping pill.

Maybe if you get your kicks w/the equidimensionality of the coefficient hypotenuse (I know math-heads, not a real thing) this will light your fuse, but for everyone else UFO stands for Uninterested Freaking Observer.

The positive reviews are accurate

[ebeckstr-1 · 8/10 · 28 May 2019]

Despite its pedestrian title, UFO is a very good science fiction drama which somehow manages to make mathematics suspenseful by virtue of a literate script, taught direction, and very good, sincere acting on everyone's part.

While not conceived on the grand scale of excellent higher-budget concept-driven productions such as Arrival, Annihilation, Interstellar, Ex Machina, and Predestination, UFO nonetheless joins the ranks of these films in what we can probably at this point call a genuine cycle of intelligent sci-fi, which we've been enjoying 4 the last five years or so.

Compelling

[manugw · 7/10 · 23 December 2019]

UFO sightings is a trodden path in movies, but in this case they found a way to make a script intriguing enough to arise curiosity from beginning to end

Could have gone much further

[marclevine-56426 · 3/10 · 3 January 2021]

I think you would need to have studied math to university level to understand the theory behind the premise for this film

It did follow the standard obsessive genius saves the world approach. The trouble is this promised quite a lot and failed to deliver

Contact with math.

[bjpafa · 7/10 · 18 September 2018]

It seems like a simplified Contact with a touch of math perspective.

Worth seeing.

Believe someone that has seen a lot.

And signed to SETI from the beginning, I cannot see it clearly anymore... Well, I didn't reverse engineered the maths involved, so, maybe I'm playing the ingenuity tune... Try and see.

Seven is from a believer.

Mathematically sound

[mrtomkania-163-340158 · 7/10 · 1 March 2020]

Maths aren't my strong point, so the plethora of equations and really big numbers were confusing enough to be believable. The conspiracy busting vibe was spot on and the whole thing was thoroughly enjoyable.

Could have been so much more....

[mf2812 · 6/10 · 4 September 2018]

As in my heading, this could have been so much better, not that it's bad though. I see there's certain reviews calling it pretentious. That's just not true. There's a difference between smart or clever and pretentious.

If this was played out more like a faux-documentary style I reckon it would have worked out a lot better though.

It's a definite watch at least once. Give it a go. It's just under 90 mins so it's not too taxing and you might be surprised. One thing though, I really wouldn't recommend it for a sit down with your missus or friends and crack open a beer type scenario. It's just not that type.

6/10

I have lost 90 minutes of my lifetime.

[siniza-01557 · 3/10 · 21 January 2024]

People who give this movie a 10 have never seen a movie before apparently. Do not waste your time watching this. Nothing will happen. There is no suspense whatsoever. The acting is fine but you don't care about the characters at all as there is no character development and the characters themselves are dull and boring.

I don't think that you have to be some kind of math geek to find a movie about mathematics interesting and enjoyable. This one was just executed badly.

I saw some folks making a comparison with the movie Contact with Jodie Foster. Comparing this movie to the movie Contact is an insult to the movie Contact.

Thoughtful and refreshing approach to UFOs

[cabezatuck · 8/10 · 5 September 2018]

"UFO" definitely went under the radar, no pun intended. I had not heard of the film until browsing the Internet. I was intrigued by the plot description and after watching the film I can say it did not disappoint. First off I was excited to see "UFO" took place in my town of Cincinnati. The story was clearly inspired by the real life events at Chicago O'Hare airport in 2006 where dozens of airport personnel, pilots and passengers witnessed a saucer shaped object hover over the airport before darting up into the sky at an incredible speed. In the movie after a similar event at CVG, Cincinanti's largest airport, both the government and a brilliant math student race to resolve a mysterious binary cipher delivered by a craft that briefly appears over the airport. The story is fascinating and mirrors the aftermath of the Chicago sighting, when the media was quick to label it simply a weather phenomenon but many silenced witnesses were left frustrated with what they know they saw. The director takes a refreshing approach in actually delving into the topic, rather than exploiting and ridiculing it. You won't see any crazy special effects or Amy Adams talk to a genius octopus, just ordinary people trying to make sense of an extraordinary situation. The film has a satisfying ending but you will be left wanting to know more. I highly recommend this film to the UFO enthusiasts and the skeptics alike, as well as those just looking for a smart and interesting SciFi movie without Matthew McConaughey getting stuck in the wall.

Almost good

[SilverOrlov · 6/10 · 21 April 2019]

There were a lot of films about contacts with aliens. Some interesting, some not. In this film, despite many previous "ideas", there is an interesting general idea of its own. But the problem of this film is in some meager implementation. This film was generally interesting to me. But tedious.

I fell asleep 20 mins in

[sadie-mck · 1/10 · 1 October 2018]

I wanted to like this film but there was so little to like. I found it boring, unengaging and self important. Who is that interested in maths anyway? I thought that having Gillian Anderson in a key role would guarantee a decent sci if theme. But no this was a turgid mess of teenage nerd angst and paranoia.

Good Story

[miket641 · 8/10 · 23 May 2019]

I normally do not watch UFO films because if you see one the rest are pretty much all the same. Something about this one caught my attention. As soon as it started you could tell it wasn't a big budget movie but it also wasn't one of those cheap documentaries on UFO'S. The movie was well done and it keeps your attention throughout the entire movie. I liked that David Strathairn didn't play a bad guy as he does in a lot of his movies. I also don't usually write reviews but I wanted to let whoever reads this an is considering watching this movie based on reviews that is really worth watching. A good story, and a good cast, who could want more in a movie. 👍👍

A lot of math ... sadly no UFO

[Aktham_Tashtush · 6/10 · 9 September 2018]

SO the movie is good,,, filled with thrilling moments .. filled with mathematics and numbers ... but i kinda wished that the UFO appears in a way ..

The screenplay is tight, organized and goes on a fast pace,, apparently it was based on a somewhat true events happened in Chicago's o'hare airport back in 2006 ,, but as excited as i was seeing "Scully" is gonna be there it wasn't a wowzer ,,

Alex Sharp was good ,, for a guy who started proffisional acting literally last year ,, he actually was convincing and his facial expressions were on point.

anyway ,, if you have any connection to physics, mathematics and science , this movie will make you "Believe" but if you're not ,, then just don't watch it cuz you're gonna be bored.

UFO: Smart as Sagan, thin as Moss

[Platypuschow · 4/10 · 13 September 2018]

UFO is one of those based on a "True Story" movies about UFO sightings and the efforts the governments goes to cover them up.

It tells the story of one man and his obssession with UFO sightings and his determination to get to the truth of a recent sighting over an airport. A maths major he uses his skills to get to the bottom of it, but the "Powers that be" are onto him.

Starring Gillian "X-Files" Anderson this uses a more subtle approach so don't expect big flashy sfx, little green cgi men or anything in between.

Credit where credit is due this is a legitimately intelligent film but alas doesn't really culminate in what you'd expect. Sure it has a traditional beginning, middle and end but it all feels wafer thin and didn't engage me as much as I would have liked.

One for genre fans only methinks.

The Good:

A very smart movie

The Bad:

Everyone looks so damn tired!

Wafer thin plot

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Things like this make me believe in UFO's even less

Gillian Anderson looks like she's been anal probed

Good Effort

[nowego · 7/10 · 9 September 2018]

Like most who reviewed this, I had never heard of it before watching it. One possibly is this was a bit too close to the truth for "the powers that be" to let this get too much attention by being publicised better.

For me it was interesting, I do like math and I do have an interest in UFOs, being good at math and having had a very very close encounter with a UFO around 20 years ago in a small country town.

Most of the movie made sense to me and I believe that UFOs do visit us regularly and we are not being told everything by "the powers that be".

All of the actors did a good job and I found this movie an entertaining 75 minutes, there being almost 11 minutes of credits.

Open your mind to the possibilities and see.