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73 of 77 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
It's the "War of the Worlds" as presented on TV..., November 9, 2003
As the reviewer below mentioned, this made-for-TV movie is loosely based on Orson Welles's famous radio broadcast in 1938. The broadcast was based on the classic 1898 novel "War of the Worlds" in which seemingly-invincible, octopus-like Martians invade and lay waste to England before suddenly dying from a simple Earth virus. Welles took this sci-fi story and turned it into a disturbingly realistic, minute-by-minute radio news broadcast of Martians landing in the New Jersey countryside and then moving towards New York while destroying everything in their path. Welles intended for the broadcast to be a ratings-boosting Halloween "trick", but many people thought that it was a real news story and panicked, packed up their cars and families and headed for the hills to escape the Martian "invaders". In "Without Warning", CBS-TV attempted to do what Welles did on CBS radio decades earlier: present a frighteningly realistic TV News broadcast of an alien invasion of the Earth. The two-hour movie is presented as a genuine news broadcast - there's the typical TV newsroom you see on CNN or Fox News; there's the team of anchorpeople giving updates (to add to the realism Sander Vanocur, a real reporter who's covered Washington politics since President Kennedy, was hired to play the anchorman); and there's the "live" satellite feeds from around the world as the evidence rapidly mounts that the Earth is being visited by not-so-friendly aliens. And the story is at least as frightening as the Welles version so many years ago. Originally, reports come in of a large UFO that's been shot down by the Air Force; an entire town in Wyoming suddenly disappears, with empty cars lining the streets and people's half-eaten dinners sitting on their plates; a zombie-like little girl is found talking what appears to be "nonsense" (it's actually a message from the aliens), then a missing skier in Europe turns up spouting the same gibberish; then large asteroids are spotted heading for the Earth's major cities, poised to destroy them; and the US military in a hurried press conference announces their plan to destroy the asteroids before they hit the Earth. I won't give away anymore of the plot (the ending is a real chiller), but this fast-paced film grabs hold of you quickly and doesn't let go until the very end. I saw this movie by accident when it originally aired, and although I wasn't "fooled" (I'm a big fan of Orson Welles' original broadcast, so I knew it had to be fake), this film nevertheless is chilling to watch in its realism. If there ever is an alien invasion of the Earth (which I doubt), then this movie probably gives an accurate portrayal of how the TV news media would cover it. Highly recommended!
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37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It's what you've been waiting for!, July 8, 2003
This is the television movie that stirred up a lot of trouble for CBS in 1994. Despite repeated disclaimers every commercial break, many viewers really thought this was real. Sound familar? It should. The style is loosely based on Orson Wells' War of the Worlds radio cast, where the story is told through breaking news coverage.
I worked at a CBS affiliate and scared people kept calling wanting to know if it was real.
Anyway, this is a fun movie. It is not HAMLET and is a bit over the top at times. But if you get into the spirit of things you might occasionally feel a chill go up your spine.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ah, Childhood Memories, November 29, 2005
When I first saw this movie, it was during it's original broadcast on TV. I was 11 and I begged my parents to let me watch it, depite the numerous disclaimers. We'll even now I think I should have skipped watching it. This movie was the source of most of my nightmares as a child. The 'Orson Welles Factor' really worked on me back then, and I knew it was just a show. It was chilling to the very end, I can still see the ending shot in my head as clear as it was when I watched it in the 90's.
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