Alien Country

At first I thought this was a mockbuster, but 'Alien Country' is not, and neither is it trying to be another 'Alien' wannabe. This is a very different alien movie and a lot of fun, actually.

Jimmy (K. C. Clyde) is a dirt car racer. One night he finds a mysterious suitcase inside a dirt car. When him and his 'girlfriend' Everly (Renny Grames) opens the case, they find an unusual crystal. As the crystal starts to glow, a porthole to another planet opens, and unknowingly creatures from this world enters our world.

As the creatures start killing people, Johnny and Everly team up with a friendly alien to stop the bad aliens, but someone else is also after the crystal...

Being only 96 minutes long, 'Alien Country' is fast-paced and exciting. It is mostly a comedy, so off course the killings are also in a very lighthearted manner. The film features cool photography, cinematography and visuals, and the editing was also very good.

With likeable characters, a dashing cop in the form of Officer Kirk (played by the hunky Trey Warner), and lots of action, adventure and planet hopping, this was a lot of fun. There's also an interesting back story regarding Jimmy's dad. I really enjoyed this.

This is one crazy, braindead fun ride of a movie :)

What else would you expect from a director called "Boston McConnaughey" :)

To say it does not take itself too seriously would be the understatement of the year :)

You notice the love the filmmakers put into every scene - and most of them work, they either make you laugh (a lot) or scare you (well, just a little bit, it is a crazy comedy after all).

There are some plotholes and things that don't quite add up - but I didn't care, because the movie was so much fun to watch.

The actors are all very good and although the script is (intentionally) silly you do care about the characters they portray and really hope they all survive and also save the planet from an alien invasion :)

For a low budget movie, this wasn't bad. It didn't take itself too seriously, with a multi-part story. It even played into the bad acting as part of the lower-rent characters normal way of acting.

Then you have the end, which gave me a chuckle, and left me with a smile - it gets a star just for that :)

Two bike riding treasure hunters dig up a glowy thing in the desert. There is a glowy alien globe. With heat on their tail, they stash the suitcase in a car. The car is used in a demolition derby. The car crashes and explodes in a glowy flash. The crew finds a glowy mechanism. The glowy thing opens a glowy triangle portal to another world. There are other aliens. There is a good alien. There is a bad alien. There are alien dinosaurs that glows differently and explodes in glowy spores when they get shot.

It took until the girl singing country for me to get the double meaning of the title. These are country boys and girls dealing with the alien world. With the availability of computer animation, the difference between amateur and professional special effects is not as far as it used to be. One can still see the amateurism in the acting. They are generally amateur actors trying their best. The story is a mess. I would like for them to try harder with the good alien. Maybe they don't have the expertise to do makeup, but he could at least dress him differently. Sometimes, this group combo almost achieves some comedic turns. Again, they're trying their best. It's just not good enough.

So I ran across this by accident. The trailers reminded me of other small-town alien invasion films like "Alien Opponent" and gave it a spin.

The plot requires you to take certain things on faith (it gets a bit muddled when talking about opening and closing the portals) but the dialog is witty and has that small-town charm nailed down pretty well.

I don't think anyone in the film you will recognize, but they certainly do their best and genuinely seem to be having fun with the plot.

Given the probably modest budget, the SFX/CGI was quite well done. The film was shot in Utah and the stunning scenery certainly lends an air of authenticity to the small-town feel.

It's difficult to judge how skilled the director/ writing cast is given a singular offering (this film) but I'm going to keep an eye on his output in the future.

Overall, if you want a fun lighthearted (and witty!) take on alien invasions, give this charming flick a watch.