An alien coming to our home planet is nothing new. Some are friendly and want to work with us. Others want to take over and eradicate us in the process. For the misadventures of the alien named Oh and his human companion Tip, this movie doesn’t offer the very comforts of its title, “Home”.

An alien race called the Boov are looking for a place to hide from the evil Gorg, its proclaimed leader Captain Smek (Steve Martin) found the perfect planet to call their new home, the 3rd Rock from the Sun. The Boov didn’t just take over blue marble in the galaxy, they taken all the humans and relocated them to the land down under and renamed our beloved planet “Smekland”. All was going well with their plan.

Unbeknownst to them, a young lady, Gratuity “Tip” Tucci (Rihanna) was left behind along with her pet cat “Pig”. When our ineptly, eager alien Oh (Jim Parsons) suddenly becomes a fugitive because of a honest mistake, he finds the one being that can help him through this mess. Now, Oh struck an unlikely truce with Tip and they embark on road, I’m mean hover, trip across the world to find Tip’s mother and prevent a disaster.

While “Home” will please the younger audience with its odd yet cool pairing of Tip and Oh, it parallels to the same chemistry given by the more successful “Lilo & Stitch” from Disney in the last decade.

For the adults, it’s a totally different experience. To watch Jim Parsons play Sheldon on “The Big Bang Theory” is good, to hear Jim Parsons play a similar character in an animated film, its redundant. When a great comedic actor like the late Robin Williams takes on a voice, they expand their range and create a character unlike no other. Hearing the voice of Sheldon in my ears in mangled English was very irritating for nearly an hour and a half.

Rihanna did a decent job for her first time out as a voice actress considering you feel that the part was written for apparently written for her. Not only she voiced Tip but she contribute a few songs on the movie’s soundtrack.

For the fans of the original Adam Rex’s book “The True Meaning of Smekday”, you will leave the theatre cheated and empty-handed as the pop-culture references that made the book great was left out of the screenplay. “Home” lacks originality. The older audience will feel that they have seen a lot of the elements before in an previous alien or a comedy movie. The pacing is too quick. The jokes are worth are a slight chuckle at best and we learn the same profound lessons just before we see all the characters dance to a pop hit at the very end of the movie. How many animated movies have we NOT seen this in the last ten years?

If Home is Where the Heart Is, then where was the Heart in this predictable “Home”.

FINAL GRADE: C-

About The Author

Dean Rogers

Editor-in-Chief/Entertainment Reporter

I knew early on that I wanted to take my place among the stars. One day, my mother saw me reading The Washington Post at a very young age. Who would have known that it would be the building blocks of my journey? Since that day, I dedicated my life to learn all that is learnable. I read everything from encyclopedias, to books, to dictionaries, to magazines. I’m also an avid consumer of television, with my favorite genre being game shows. If you’ve seen me on Who Wants to be a Millionaire or Wheel of Fortune, then you know that this interest has served me well!

My unique style of reporting began back in junior high school, when I started to chronicle the events that shaped my life. Whether it was the annual family vacation or the local science fiction convention, I shot numerous pictures and recorded my thoughts so I could truly appreciate the history. During my senior year at Friendly High, I wrote what was to be my first masterpiece, “Advanced Space Academy – A One Week Journey.” I sent the eleven-page article back to the U.S. Space Camp staff. The article was highly praised for being “one of the best written articles in the history of U.S. Space Camp.” From then on, I knew what I wanted to do for rest of my life — to be a reporter.

Since then, I have trained in Broadcast Journalism at Bowie State University (2008) in Bowie, MD earning a B.S. in Communications. I gained experience in news production and editing through field experiences with Bowie Community Media Corporation, Prince George’s Community Television, and Bowie State University Television. I also wrote scripts for a variety of quiz shows for over five years.

As a lifelong movie buff, I now see close to 100 films every year. I took this love of movies to the next step when I became a co-host for Eclipse Magazine TV in the fall of 2005. While at EMTV, I interviewed celebrities, worked red carpets, and attended a wide variety of movie screenings. In January 2009, I took a leap of faith and started my own entertainment news magazine, The Rogers Revue. Shortly afterward, my life-long journey of studying the silver screen and writing about what I learned finally earned me a place in the Washington Area Film Critics Association.

All of this has led me here, giving you the latest entertainment news for the DMV and the entire nation, and I am truly excited for whatever will come next.

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