yeodawg Alien spin-off I love these str8 to video monster movies. You can always guess what inspired them. In this one somebody saw the movie ALIENS with the space marines who-haaaing it up around the spacecraft. They decided it would be cooler if the alien crash landed on earth and a salt and pepper "MIAMI VICE" cop team had to deal with it. Wrong, nothings cooler than space marines win a run gun-battle with Alien creatures on a space station. However there were some cool points to be had. This film is so old the clothes are now in style again. The men in black show- up, there were using them long before the x-files. There's a scene in his apartment where he's grabbing every hi-tech gun there is but a GSG-9 only because it wasn't invented yet. This scene rivals the TERMINATOR gun store scene.

udar55 Maverick detectives Ian McLemore (Charles Napier) and Jerry Merris (Ron Glass) find a routine investigation of the death of two teenagers takes a twist when they discover the killer is some kind of mutant alien thingy created by the U.S. Government. Naturally, whatever they do pisses off Capt. Robertson (Bo Svenson, proving he really isn't Napier in real life) and interferes with McLemore's plans on bedding young police woman Carla Sandbourn (Ann Turkel). Just kidding, he has mad bag piping skills that get her to take her clothes off (really!). This low-rent ALIEN rip-off from Fred Olen Ray works mostly due to the lead performance by Napier. He is genuinely funny and totally game for the crazy stuff he is asked to do (chasing mini-aliens around L.A.; chainsawing the monster in the finale). And the aforementioned seduction by bagpipe is truly something you've never seen before. Ray skimps on the gore and nudity (odd for him) but does deliver a nice gooey monster (which apparently comes with its own strobe light). Julie Newmar pops up for a few scenes as a psychic who is always calling McLemore with tips on where the alien is. Nice way to cover your holes, Fred.

gridoon A cut-rate imitation of "Alien" that has an air of sloppiness about it (the script could have been written over a weekend probably), but delivers the goods in the end with some good buzzsaw action and lots of slime. Problem is, it's STILL not particularly better than any other of the dozens of "Alien" ripoffs that are floating around.....(**)

Xyzzy Veteran director Fred Olen Ray and cinematographer Gary Graver prove they have the skill to put together a good low budget rip-off of Alien--but that they aren't gonna any time soon.The movie is essentially a long string of clichés: Napier and Glass play two cops who "don't play by the book" blow up a car by shooting it, killing a perp who's "just a kid", getting suspended by their hard-ass boss (but mysteriously continuing to work nonetheless), investigating a mysterious murder which is being covered up by the military which, naturally, has been engaged in creating a super-war machine, etc. etc. etc. Ann Turkel does an admirable job, even though she's given the thankless task of being Napier's love interest and virtually falling apart every time something happens.Then there's this whole business of stunt casting Julie Newmar as the psychic who tells Napier where the alien is.The frustrating thing is that, in between the nonsense, FOR shows a real talent for pacing, action and shooting on a budget. He and Graver manage to create real atmosphere in the final scenes that, even though it's directly lifted from Ridley Scott's "Alien" (note the character name "Mrs. Ridley"), complete with inexplicable smoke, light, dripping water and even strobes, it's a tantalizing look at what the two are capable of when they set their minds to it.But as much as I was rooting for it, when Napier says (in the post-coital dialogue with Turkel) "The street is my boss. Who's yours?" I realized that the movie had landed in camp-ville, like it or not, and there it would stay.