Pete's Meteor

When the titular meteor (though it's the size of a footlocker it only leaves a 15-foot crate) lands in the backyard of a 12-year-old Irish laddie named Mickey, he presumes it was sent from heaven by his dead parents. Well, why not? Among his crazy grandmother (Brenda Fricker playing that matronly character once again), his unofficial godfather/drug addict/mob man pal Pete (Myers), and the wealthy scientist (Alfred Molina) who is given custody of the meteor by the government, Mickey's got a pretty messed up family life already. Parents speaking to him from beyond the grave sounds almost normal.

What follows is a somewhat run-of-the-mill drama, the kind of movie we've come to expect about how much it sucks to be poor and Irish. (You know the movie I mean: They remake it every year. Last time it was Angela's Ashes.) The only difference is that the goal of Mickey and his friends is not to pull himself out of the proverbial and literal muck, but to get his giant space rock back, too. And something about Pete not getting killed.

To say that the logic of Pete's Meteor is sketchy would be an understatement. But it's the question of why-should-we-care-about-these-kids that makes this Meteor so tough to sit through. Like many of Meteor's ilk, the kids are alternately rotten and extremely schmaltzy to the point where you never really like them. The story doesn't help matters, and sheer insanity is not much of a substitute for actual character development.

However, to see Myers put on an Irish accent instead of his usual Scottish is worth a peek... and a bit of a giggle, too.