Three young boys and a token girl find a cute-as-a-button robot alien and must battle parental denseness as well as evil Feds to get him back to his spaceship and home.

Golly, why didn’t anyone think of that idea before? On the plus side, the kids are minimally irritating, and I liked the way the little space thingy used their smartphones to communicate. On the minus, the script’s fairly dumb and it’s filmed in the old-long-ago found-footage gimmick that makes it an effort to watch.

All in all, a likable enough E.T. knockoff that is sure to delight you. If you’re eight. A real watch-watcher for parents. (91 min)