Alien at the Movies

Paul & Audrey Safranek (Matt Damon & Kristen Wiig) contemplate shrinking themselves down to 5 inches tall in order to reduce their carbon footprint. This is writer/director Alexander Payne's sci-fi satire about saving the planet. Christoph Waltz costars with Jason Sudeikis, James Van Der Beek, Niecy Nash, Neil Patrick Harris, & Laura Dern relegated to rather cameo roles. However, Hong Chau playing a Vietnamese housekeeper manages to comedically steal all of her scenes. She lights up this lengthy comedy with a serious message. Warning: full frontal male nudity.

Alien gives it 2½ "the down side of downsizing" stars out of 4.