But then along came this crass, noisy, brawling, sprawling comic misfire that proved that even Spielberg could bomb out with the best of them.

It took three times the budget of E.T. to tell the story of Southern California sliding into a state of mass panic in the wake of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December, 1941.

And while you can certainly see every penny of the $31 million budget on screen, the acting and comedy talent involved is totally wasted.

Its writers, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, would strike box office gold a decade later with the 'Back to the Future' trilogy.