What makes it different from others?

Sadly Over-hyped

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

'Without Warning' was a mock news broadcast TV movie along the same lines as Orson Wells's 'War of the Worlds' radio adaptation. Being that it was made in the mid-'90s, it doesn't know moderation when it comes to piling on the cheese! Its gimmick of being shot in the style of consistent news broadcasting for the duration falls flat in places because whereas the likes of Jane Kaszmareck (probably spelled it wrong - the mum from 'Malcolm in the Middle') provides some seriously good acting, she's then let down by the show being so unconvincing in every other way that she just looks like she's crying over the corpse of her career; that or cramps.I know it was just television and how limited it was at the time, but even the sound effects and static interference visuals were poorly done. They irritated me more than anything.Television should never try to be pantomime and nobody should be expected to call endless badly scripted talking entertainment.

Superb job of director Robert Iscove and his crew portraying this film, along with a notable lineup of actors and actress'. Acting and the plot was impressive, giving the audience a sense of realism without being too overly dramatic or Hollywoodish. Compared to other movies utilizing the newsroom to introduce the plot, this by far surpasses most. I can see how this movie when first aired how people mistook it for being genuine. In a sense I would consider this a modern 90's era mindset reaction of people and a paranoid nation in response to a first encounter to Earth. A good comparison for this film would be when H.G. Well's broadcasted his War of the World over live radio, also depicted a true sense of realism, with the exception of this film having the perspective view from within the TV newsroom. Robert portrayed this film with such realism that easily gave the sense of an actual TV broadcast and interviews of world crisis' and headline news of before. The world definitely needs more films with this realm of realism rather than some recent films which try to portray the same sense utilizing the first person perspective with a handy cam, nauseating acting by a hokey cast, and typical overly used plot with the predictable idiotic actions of the characters, a feeble attempt to entice the audience. A good film shouldn't need to have those.

i saw the movie about 6 to seven years ago, and i'm searching for the movie online now (2003), that will say how much the movie impressed me. i was watching it at home in malaysia and it hit me that this movie may be a reality one day (very very slim chances). after watching the expression of the last newscaster saying his last words to his family and knowing that the time is over very soon is one of the scenes a remember until now. never mind the story line maybe a bit odd once you start to think about it after watching the movie, but, the movie gives u a chance to look at life again and remember that life can over within seconds. so make use of the time that u have. thats the message i got from tis movie.sad that it is not released on vcd or any other form. I would surely like to own one copy of it. can anyone help?i would recommend anyone this movie.

I had high hopes for this film. The idea of a "War of the Worlds"-style fake news broadcast about an imminent asteroid impact was very intriguing. One of my favorite TV films was 1983's "Special Bulletin", which took a similar approach to the subject of nuclear terrorism.Unfortunately, this movie fails on almost all levels. The actors playing the news reporters come off like, well, actors playing news reporters. The plot points are just plain silly and melodramatic. The conclusion of the film is wretchedly insipid. In effect, the fact that humankind takes perfectly logical steps to protect ourselves from an asteroid causes super-advanced aliens to think we're too warlike for them to let us live. Or something like that.The issue of asteroid impacts is real and serious enough that we don't need television trivializing the subject with ridiculous sci-fi elements.