Alien Species

I love movies where I can honestly say that I would have done a better job directing. Seriously. I'm not Mr. "Oh, I can do better than that" usually. But I think my dog could have directed this movie better, and I don't have a dog. Doesn't make sense, does it? Neither does the director's strategy for making this movie.

This is one of those movies that must have a budget of about $10,000 and you wonder "where did the money go"? I can only assume that the explosions in the film were an accident, since nothing else in the movie works, especially the plot. I also think that the actors in the movie were not only not trained in the art of acting, but deliberately taught wrong as a joke.

In this movie, you expect a hard-core sex scene to come on at any moment, not because of any sexual tension that has built up, but because the movie looks like it was shot by the same people who brought you anal whores volume seven. They should have paid the actresses an extra $50/day to score some crack and act while high. At least that would have been interesting.

To sum up, only see this movie while drunk with friends. Recommend this movies to none but your worst enemies, and see a good movie directly after this to avoid having the badness of this movie contaminate you.

Release date is Germany January 23, 1998(video premiere) Nightmare Worlds 50 DVD collection has the date at 1996.

This is one of the crumbiest movies you will come across. It is too cheap to be campy. Very low budget and it shows from the beginning. They Borrowed the Sleestak suits from "Land of the Lost" a 1974-1976 TV series. You can see the zippers.

Who are these actors? Surly not good ones that just need a little extra money. Name one that you have seen before. Maybe they are relatives of the producer or director.

A tad of blood, but mostly running, running, screaming and screaming.

The world is being attacked by aliens for nefarious purposes. The poor aliens never dreamed that we would shoot them down with an old-style anti-tank weapon that just happened to be available.

Alien Species is a very cheap knock-off that was clearly surfing the wave caused by the massive blockbuster hit Independence Day (1996). This one was also released the same year as that one so that gives you an idea how fast it must have been devised, filmed and distributed. The speed of production shows, as this is a very shoddy and cheap effort, whose title also alluded to the previous year's sci-fi hit Species (1995). Well, it cannot be accused of not covering its bases that is one thing for sure. I quite enjoy rip-off films though so this was, if anything a slight plus point for this one and, in truth, Independence Day was a monumental load of gash and this minuscule budget movie was no more painful to watch. Just horrible in a different way.

Huge alien space-crafts arrive in our orbit and attack immediately. Various human survivors wind up taking refuge in a cave which turns out to be the base of these extra-terrestrials. Lots of alien-invader based stuff happens off the back of this, including explosions and cow theft.

Despite the budget, this one actually stars Charles Napier in an admittedly uninteresting role but it was still good to see him here nevertheless. It also sports some effects of the giant spaceships that were half-way decent. But in all other regards this is bargain basement stuff to the max. Its soundtrack was so tinny and awful it is hard for me to believe that this could have sounded remotely acceptable back in 1996. Sadly, this music is pretty relentlessly played throughout the movie as well. Its director is Peter Maris who I was already aware of on account of his debut movie being the sleazy thriller Delirium (1979) which made the infamous British video nasty list back in the early 80's. It was a good film though, quite significantly better than this one that is for sure. This one is also notable for ending on a very strange and ambiguous bit of dialogue that frankly posed more questions than it did any answers but, really, that's the least of this movies problems.

This movie has nothing going for it other than some adequate SFX; the alien ships are OK - about the level of first series Babylon 5. Other that that it is a total stinker with nothing to recommend it at all.

Why is it that, in utter crap movies like this...

...the aliens are capable of building faster than light space ship and zapping entire cities to smithereens in moments but are reduced to skulking in caves, shambling along at half a mile an hour and grabbing people's ankles?

... American cars explode so easily? You just have to sneeze on the buggers and they go up like a roman candle.

... nerdy boy college types when presented with an alien artifact he has never seen before, ripped from a dead aliens wrist, can "download its data" onto his laptop in seconds whilst under fire, when most of us have trouble working out which way round a USB plug goes in?

Where did that loaded bazooka come from in the last scene? Hunky hero ran to get it out of the car but it was nerdy boy's car. Do nerdy boy college types always just happen to carry loaded anti-tank weapons around with them? The dialogue is pathetic. The "plot" (hah!) is thuddingly obvious and paper thin, and to call the characters and acting "wooden" would be generous.

It does however contain a hilarious alien kidnapping. If you accidentally buy this movie watch it up to the point the girl gets sucked out of her bedroom window - then turn it off and put it on eBay.

(Some of the comments here are about a different film. "Alien Terminator" (a Troma 'Alien' rip-off) made in the same year was released as "Alien Species" in Britain).

This movie is summed up by the most intelligent line uttered by one of its principal characters...

"I feel like I am in a bad episode of The X-Files"

...Alien Species is a schlocky formulaic alien invasion film with decent special effects, a lot of mediocre action and decent acting, which is so poorly shot, and so uninspiringly written, that it reaches new lows. And don't get me started on the hideous sound track! This film could easily be lost among many of the early Sci-Fi Channel fiascoes. There are a number of CGI shots involving space ships, an impossibly globe-like earth and urban explosions straight out of Missile Command (complete with disappearing flame and temporary damage).

Before I waste what little energy this film's review warrants I'll let you in on the plot. Aliens are invading the earth for no particular reason and everybody on earth is so freaked out and terrified that there is no military response and general panic and desperation predominate. A couple of prisoners are being transported to jail and a flying saucer knocks them off the road, after they pick up a few stranded victims of an automobile accident (including a famous astronomer and UFO expert of course!). One of the criminals turns out to be an innocent man and easily the worst actor in the film, but fortunately he doesn't speak until about half-way through (the X-Files comment being one of his first multi-word lines). Anyway, you get the picture.

As usual, I handed this a 2 because its harmless - since I reserve single star ratings for bigger productions which pose serious mental health risks such as "Tin Cup" and "Runaway Bride". My advice - enjoy this if you're like me and have to see every bad sci fi film ever made. Otherwise, don't waste your time.