ET, the extraterrestrial, is befriended by a young family who keep his presence secret, but there's trouble a'brewing...

Elliott (Henry Thomas) finds the short, thankfully passive, ET monster and, along with his older brother and younger sister (Michael (Robert MacNaughton) and Gertie (Drew Barrymore)), manage to keep the monster secret from their mother (Mary (Dee Wallace)). ET seems to be able to control the mind of Elliott: this leads to much in-school classroom mayhem involving frogs...

"ET has all of the emotion of a squashed cigarette packet on legs."

"A weepy, very slow, great to snooze through, subliminal marketing friendly movie. The kids will love it, and then, hopefully, buy the merchandising or we're ruined..."

"Lots of bicycles and, yet, none of our hero's wear safety helmets even during the flying above the forest and in front of the moon scene!"

"Why did the astronaut come to the house in his full walking-on-the-moon costume? It makes no sense at all, but I am sure the Health and Safety in the Workpace people were happy..."

"Did that child shout 'penis breath' at his brother!?! It's a marketing disgrace! Had he shouted 'peanuts breath' we could have gotten another marketing tie-in in."

"The first alien makeover in a movie, bravisimo!"

"That has got to be one of the least effective police road blocks in history! Police dudes: you're supposed to block the road, not leave a ruddy great gap for them to escape through."

Steven Speilberg is at the height of his popular powers: Just give him the money and enough latex for the monster, and let's go wooo hooo! Box Office Smash! I'm getting a bonus this year! Weeeeeeeeee.... Life is sooooo goood..... let's dance...

The US military get involved and revive ET who then escapes thanks to our young hero's. ET finds his spacecraft again and, presumably, just flies off home, but not before that bicycle chase doomed to become a popular Disneyworld ride...

Welcome to 2D movie heaven! Some nice performances (Drew Barrymore is amazing) populate this superficial effort where a brown, crinkly, ugly, alien, with the bulbous glowing finger and big eyes, befriends children who, initially, keep him a secret from their mommy in exactly the same way children are told not to do...

The main character, of course, is the short, stocky, brown, crinkly, thing we know as ET, a slightly rubbery-wobbly effort when judged to today's standards.

No expense is spared to ensure marketing tie-ins from M&M's, cans of Coke, baths, telephone services, pot plants for mommy, bicycles with baskets in the front and Speak & Spell machines, which, in their day, almost succeeded in giving the entire English speaking world an American accent.

But this movie is memorable and indeed is, probably, most touching, if you get to the end of it. I, unfortunately, always fall to sleep whenever I watch it. The ET monster, today, looks too rubbery for this old wizened eye.

"EEEE TTTT phooone hooommeee..."

"It's nothing like that penis breath!"

"You must swear the most excellent promise."

Anything brown, crinkly and chewy, but, ultimately, dissolvable in the mouth.

In the walk-in closet position of hiding an alien from outer space that your kids have been hiding from you for the past month and you are such an untidy person you haven't noticed all the cans lying on the floor... It's just as well ET wasn't radioactive or the kids could have been frazzled to the bone.

Speaking as a pro-froggist: the moment of setting the frogs free in the classroom is one of the pivotal moments in our struggle to release oppressed frogs wherever we find them in the world. Do they do this in the classroom today? It seems cruel in the extreme.

As the monster is child friendly sized this movie is acceptably cuddly, however, had it been much bigger, the movie could have taken on a more ucky, sinister, tone.

Never leave a monster from another planet at home during the day.

215lbs + 50lbs of super-crinkle ugly cream.

No pet frog is able to watch the in-school setting-the-frogs-free scene without a tear in their eye and a mournful croak - hide all glass jars and cotton wool to avoid distress.

Pets (mainly slow/heavy cats) which have learned to enjoy animal makeovers, will enjoy the moment where ET gets the first alien makeover in a Hollywood movie.

Dogs may feel patronised by the scene in which ET gets food from the fridge: hide cans of drink, and don't dwell on the fact that he doesn't have opposable thumbs.

A souvenir ET poop on a key ring.

Amazingly, this is said in the movie.

Family friendly. This movie may encourage children to bring home strays or very short people off the streets, beware.

All in all, a reasonably harmless movie, although it's all very superficial stuff. The ending is likely to make you cry.

January 12 , 2004