The Last Mimzy is spectacularly silly. A ridiculous family film that attempts to mesh the warmth and wonder of E.T. (one of my favorite films of all time) with the innocence and harmless nature of Disney's cult classic Escape From Witch Mountain. The end result is an inept misfire that will not only bore the living daylights out of the adults in the audience, and most likely insult even the intelligence of the under eight crowd - the age group this film was apparently targeted for.

Before anyone paints me a cynic, know that I do have a fondness for family pictures. I don't need blood and guts or huge explosions to be entertained. And in fact, I really enjoyed the recent Bridge to Terabithia. Heck! Take a look at my best of 2006 list, where Charlotte's Web, Monster House, and Cars are all prominently featured in the top twenty. The Last Mimzy represents the weak side of family fare. Essentially, it is to Escape From Witch Mountain, what Mac and Me was to E.T.

The Last Mimzy tells the tale of two children whose lives are flipped upside down after finding a strange, otherworldly box with magical powers that washes up on the beach. When the box is opened, odd things appear within the confines of it's tiny walls including a stuffed rabbit which little Emma (Rhiannon Leigh Wryn) quickly takes a shining too. Before long, the youngster is carrying on lengthy conversations with the stuffed toy, and shortly thereafter, she begins exhibiting strange powers. Her brother Noah (Chris O'Neil) also begins to show signs of genius, including the ability to command spiders into formation out of ordinary webs.

I feel bad. I really do. I don't want to sit here and trash a film aimed at the family crowd. I know we live in a cynical world and we can use all the innocence we can get, but sadly, The Last Mimzy just doesn't cut it.

The screenplay was written by Bruce Joel Rubin whose fashioned quite the diverse resume through the years (he wrote Jacob's Ladder and Ghost, and also penned and directed My Life). His screenplay is a loose adaptation of a short story called Mimsy Were the Borogoves (you might remember that bit from Lewis Carrol's Jaberwocky - as adapted by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore). The plot is all over the map and there isn't a single three dimensional character to speak of. The movie starts off interestingly enough. When the children first find the box on the beach and open it, I was sort of compelled to see where the story might go, but the plot becomes less and less intriguing as it moves along. Sort of like the recent Jim Carrey still-born thriller The Number 23. What's more, The Last Mimzy is convoluted and chalk full of fake sentiment.

The Last Mimzy marks the first time New Line Cinema co-founder Robert Shaye (he was responsible for green lighting Wes Craven's iconic slasher film Nightmare on Elm Street) has directed a picture since 1990's The Book of Love, and it really shows. This effort is extremely sloppy, but then the screenplay wasn't particularly strong to begin with.

Young Rhiannon Leigh Wryn and Chris O'Neil are cute and pleasant in the leads, while The Office's Rainn Wilson has a few nice moments as a hippy/middle school science teacher, but the rest of the cast appear absolutely dumbfounded. Timothy Hutton and Joely Richardson, seem to be sleep walking through this thing as the bewildered mom and dad. Their reactions to the extraordinary things their kids begin doing, don't ring true at all. If I saw my kid floating down from the ceiling like Regan in The Exorcist, I'd be slightly more shocked than the parents in this film. Michael Clarke Duncan provides the film with it's most laughable dialogue. As a man trying to discover the source of a black out, he utters hilarious lines like; "Hey baby, have you seen my computer codes?" and "you better put a coat on. It's chilly outside". All in that deep, baritone voice. What's more, Duncan isn't even really playing a character. Why this role was written is is beyond me.

The Last Mimzy is the lamest of misfires. There's virtually nothing compelling about it. There are things that transpire throughout the movie that are supposed to evoke a sense of awe, but for the most part, they don't. When I wasn't heckling the film for it's silliness, I was yawning. There really isn't much worth recommending here. Just because it's PG and geared towards families doesn't make it worth seeing. I do have to say though, the new Roger Waters tune that appears on the soundtrack, is pretty good. I wish the movie itself was half as strong.