Collector's edition: Killer aliens versus Bayonne, New Jersey

I hate Tom Cruise. I've always disliked him, even though he's busted out some pretty good movies over the years. A general feeling of conceitedness always comes out in his roles, and casting people have decided not to fight it. Magnolia, Collateral, and Vanilla Sky have showcased the man's ability to play a jerk.

Don't even get me started on his real-life antics, if you can even call them that. I can't believe Katie Holmes is having his baby for just $5 billion a year. Who's going to get the kid after the PR contract is up?

Regardless of what you think of the man's personality, he plays a great deadbeat dad in War of the Worlds, the last movie that Spielberg will ever make with Cruise. (It's tough to work with psycho Scientologists, especially when you know they'll be visiting Oprah.) The movie is sweet. Spielberg really makes you feel completely helpless in the path of these unexplained aliens.

The movie is shown from the perspective of one group of people, which too few world destruction movies do. I'm sick of seeing what the president of the United States will do to save the world, again, from aliens that in real life would just completely house us.

It's nice to sit back and see what ordinary people do just to keep themselves alive. Most importantly, it makes you think about what you would do if giant alien tripods popped out of your backyard and started killing everyone. I assure you, if these particular aliens showed up at the Boston College gates, my plan would involve packing lots of clean underwear.

The computer animated predators are the stars of this flick. Say what you will about crazyScientologist Cruise, or glorified scream-machine Dakota Fanning - nothing they do can scare you as much as the casual walk of the tripods as they pluck extras from the streets. On the box, it says that this is Tom Cruise's best performance. Wrong! The answer to that question is Risky Business. This is none of the actors' best performance, however, it is really fun to watch. In fact, it's nearly perfect if you shut it off about five minutes before the end, which is just about the worst ending of any movie ever. And I don't mean the way they stop the aliens, which is cool and true to the other versions of the story.

I am referring to what happens to the characters. Do yourself a favor. Stop the movie early and watch the special feature about how they made the aliens, because I want no part of this terrible anti-climatic ending.