User reviews

First of all, i must admit, I am a great Shater-Fan. I read his books ("The Ashes of Eden" was a great one) and listen to his CD "Has Been". But "Groom Lake", or "The Vistior" like it is called on the DVD i bought, is low average. On the DVD-Cover are Pictures of The Enterprise D - and this Movie has nothing to do with Star Trek! And the Photos on the Backside are from a other movie with Bill - "American Psycho 2"! This is kind of weird, and, well, a bit a shame for a great actor like Bill Shatner. He don't need such crappy tricks to sell DVDs!

The film itself is a B-movie, and if you like Sci-Fi-Movie, you maybe like this one. Yes, the story is a bit confusing and not really straight told. Yes, some of the effects show the low budget of "Groom Lake". But it has it's moments, and if you like Sci-Fi, you maybe like it. The only thing i really don't like are the shaky hand-camera-scenes.

It is sad to see a potentially nice subject (dying girl tries to find alien life before she dies) wasted like this. The characters are wooden, there is hardly any logic in their actions. But there is a lot more in this film to complain about. The special effects could be charming as they are disarmingly clumsy and unconvincing, but they fail to be. The lighting and editing reminds one of the bold and the beautiful. The acting is terrible. No memorable one-liners whatsoever. In short, there are no redeeming qualities. William Shatner even succeeded in miscasting himself. Only a tiny amount of irony or self-parody would have made the film at least bearable, but unfortunately it all seems to be meant seriously. Avoid.

William Shatner has been around the movie and tv business long enough that he ought to be able to do simple things like choose film stock, know when something looks cheesy, and know when acting is bad.

In Groom Lake, Shatner simply did not consider quality. One scene looks like a movie set and another looks like someone's bedroom, shot with a home 16mm film camera. Maybe he did put some love into the film, but that is not what moviegoers come to watch.

This is a horrible movie. Don't rent it unless you absolutely have to see how low Shatner can go. If you do rent it, be prepared to scratch your head in confusion, and groan with pain over the this turkey.

You know you have to wonder what's going on with Bill Shatner. He's a talented actor with a beautiful speaking voice, capable of superior performances.

But some of the stuff he is involved in makes you want to shake your head. And this stuff isn't off-the-wall good. It's off-the-wall poor. Poorly made, poorly paced, poorly edited, poorly written, etc. It's as if he is someone who is not quite in touch with himself; and it shows in the projects and people with which he gets associated.

And now we have 'Groom Lake'. It wouldn't make you winch so hard, if it hadn't also been written and directed by Shatner. The logicalness and continuity is uncomfortably close to what you'd expect from an Ed Wood-level production.

Here's this bonehead boyfriend risking life and limb roaring up a treacherous hillside with his dying girlfriend, all the time assuring her that it'll be all right. Well, it's not all right, Mr. Genius. Their vehicle overturns and rolls completely down the hill. And this is only one part of a heavily fragmented, unsupported story line. The negative comments could go on.

For the record this viewer would like to be a full-time fan of Shatner. But, Bill, somehow you just aren't getting the job done. You are capable of a much more brilliant body of work.

Must be the worst film i've seen this year. William Shatner... Somehow that name told me I was about to see some interesting Sci-fi. How wrong I was. This is not good sci-fi. It is awful sci-fi. The effects are bad, the hand-camera choice isn't a wise one, for starters.

This is nothing. It's so lame, so bad actors, so bad a script you just want to die while watching. It isn't even funny. Some flicks are bad so they become fun, but this isn't even that.

Somehow I had the bad taste to pick this one time I was to rent a movie. It was so boring I had to fast-forward the last two thirds of the film. Never see this!

Just a friendly warning.

I live in the same town, where a lot of this film was made. Well, at least shot. And although I was not personally an extra a few of my friends were. They said in their opinion it was the most fun they had ever had because they were asked basically to act like morons on camera. When I asked if that was all they said yeah and they couldn't wait to see what a piece of junk this movie turned out to be. We were disappointed. The acting is sub-porno standards and many extras blatantly look right into the camera. We here in town basically refer to the movie as the worst movie ever to be caught on film and hope that in a thousand years it will NOT be what is used to show what our entertainment epitomized. Save your money, and your time. Do not rent, nor watch this film.

I love Bill Shatner. I have seen most anything he's done, and even went to Ssplat attack II to see him. Still, he shouldn't just take any damn movie. I mean, there is that stupid chef show, now this, this horrible, horrible movie. You may think 'how bad can it be?'. Well, I was dehydrated for two days from spitting on the DVD and cursing Bill Shatner's name.

This was some of the worst ever to be made for entertainment...

It was so bad, that I watched the whole movie on fast forward...

I know why watch the movie, if it was so bad, well I spend money renting this "thing", so better get my money's worth, and well I still feel cheated...

I got the fright of my life when I saw that it was directed by Shatner. Someone who has been behind the camera all his life and still manages to turn out this "worse than film school" abomination. Everything about this movie stunk to high heaven and I am amazed that it could possibly have been made. Surely Shatner could have secured budget enough to at least shoot on film stock and not freakin handicam. And the lighting hahahaha I don't know what to say.

I guess it gives me hope that if I one day scrawl out a 7 word treatise of a plot about nothing I could have it made and sell it a network. Shatner you have boldly gone out of your freaking mind :) PS the only thing that kept me watching was in the hope of the cast turning around and telling me that it was all a joke.........

To call this movie good would be an exaggeration, but it wasn't THAT bad. Amy Acker's character was likable, and I have a fairly high tolerance for William Shatner's acting, so I made it all the way through it. The plot could have been tightened up a lot, and some jokes would have helped. This movie is worth watching if you happen to be bored, and it's free. You should only purchase it (if it's available on DVD, which I honestly don't know) if you're a completionist fan of one of the leads. The special effects were dull at best, and the mechanics overall lacked dazzle, but they really weren't distractingly bad. Mostly. In short, the film met the standard formula for a sci-fi channel Saturday night feature: take a screenplay nobody bothered to edit, add a few actors who sci-fi fans will recognize, film it as quickly as possible, and release it with a minimum amount of post-production attention. This one's a masterpiece compared to Manticore, but not quite as good as, oh, say, Darklight.

I don't know why moderators didn't insert the cast zero vote, because one is just too much for this, i recommend for those who want to laugh endless about grossness. Notes: You can notice in the groom lake cafe on the decorated back mirror a big microphone when they're shooting. the alien is just ridiculous. The cars who are running on a straight street had to turn left lane during the shoot to avoid the knockdown of cameras-men. The plot is really bad funny especially when they wanna die suddenly after climbing and crashing their car tumbled down. Began with a love excursion, then go out of plans totally: the worst guinness for this too. The purple radiation light on the skin and the UFO spaceship jellyfish could be made with a win95 software by anyone. The award for worst special effects too. The characters are totally inexpressive, too awfully acting like script-less and improvised scenes, they killed the characters mistaking their roles, like they would not have own. The scene in the military base with the purple sky and the people walking is reiterated about 5 times, even ahead on the movie end. Every scene is worth of laugh, especially Andy and kate tumbled down from a high hill, they were completely unharmed, and then they continued quietly kissing... GooooofY The shooting quality way it's the same used on the DVD backstages, where it is used for interviews. The boyfriend didn't die galvanized across the wire netting like the other intruder did, Or HE must be SUPERMAN or it's Goofy. The girlfriend instead, has been raped from that unsuspected couple, LOL, what's within the rest of plot line??? she wanted to die, what she was waiting for then?

Don't waste your money, unless you want to laugh.

The ultimate culmination of accidentally revealing too much about yourself, Groom Lake is William Shatner outdoing Neil Breen at Breen's own game. It's a film that has made me fully re-evaluate my life, unlike most of Breen's filmography, stuff happens, people react and Shatner directs with such glorious low-budget sleaze it just might make people forgive him for Star Trek V. Honestly, seeing William Shatner dressed as an alien spaceman reciting poetry to a glowing blue man is an easy sell and about the least crazy thing that happens in this film.

There's also a moment near the very beginning where a character is revealed to have Lupis and I fully expected Dr House to show up for a split second...

It has been 9 years since William Shatner wrote, directed and starred in "Tek War" and even 14 years since he presented "Star Trek V" to the audience. Now Shatner is finally back with "Groom Lake", which he wrote, directed and stars in. The story centers around a young couple, Kate (Amy Acker) and Andy (Dan Gauthier), who go to Groom Lake in order to spend their last days together, because Kate is dying. Soon they become witnesses of alien activity around the area and have to cope with strangely obsessed people who have been influenced by the aliens. Meanwhile, John Gossner (William Shatner), the captain of a military base involved with the aliens has to cope with the administration, which wants to cancel his work. "Groom Lake" is a low - budget independent movie, which is unfortunately quite obvious in a couple of scenes. Especially the special effects (created by C.O.R.E. Digital Pictures, a Canadian firm of which Shatner is the chief executive officer)are quite unrealistic and cheap. But still "Groom Lake" is much better than an average B - movie, it is clearly visible that Shatner has put all his energy and love into this project. A strong story, an unpredictable puzzle that keeps the audience excited from the beginning to the end and a wonderful performance by Amy Acker raise this movie high above average. The main message of the movie is also very touching and probably the most important aspect for William Shatner, who dedicated the film to his late wife Nerine and to Mike, his new wife's ex - husband who died of cancer. It is the message that there is a life after death, because the human essence is immortal. 8 out of 10 stars !