AKA: Guess Who’s Coming for Christmas?
DVD review (region 2)
Directed by Paul Schneider
Starring Richard Mulligan, Beau Bridges, Barbara Barrie
Release date Out now

George Walters (Mulligan) strikes up a friendship with a visiting businessman named Arnold Zimmerman (Bridges). But no one believes George’s claim that Arnold is a visitor from another planet…

This 1990 made-for-TV movie is infused with the spirit (if not the skill) of Frank Capra in its celebration of small town values, faith and friendship. It’s sentimental, entirely predictable and not especially amusing, but just about gets by on the strength of its likeable leads and genial nature.

The late Richard Mulligan (Little Big Man, The Big Bus) is on winning form as the daydreaming, elderly resident trying to convince his family that he isn’t crazy, and he bounces well off a floppy-haired Beau Bridges as the intergalactic salesman. But this is science fiction at its absolute softest, complete with a corny kid and a muzak score that sounds like it belongs in an elevator.

The sort of film you could imagine watching with your grandparents on a slow Sunday afternoon. James Skipp

VERDICT: 5/10
Unexceptional but harmless sci-fi comedy.