Alien Outlaw

I do not know what happened with this film as the premise sounds like it should of made a fun film; however, that is not the case as instead we get a film where scenes about virtually nothing go on and on and on! This film even features Lash La Rue and he does not even whip anything or have a whip in this film. Didn't the filmmakers know that was his trademark? Instead we get this supposed super shooter girl who can handle guns, but does not seem to keep track of when to reload. We get three aliens who go on the rampage with absolutely no reasoning behind their killing spree and their use of our weapons instead of something of their own.

The story, a ship crashes and after a long scene of a guy convincing a girl he has to go he becomes the first victim, allowing himself to have a gun taken from him and then being shot. A woman who is a supposed big deal is irked at her agent and goes to this place that keeps stressing how they are a great company to promote stuff to get new management. What does this have to do with the aliens? Soon the aliens ram into a girl and then we watch two guys at a river where one of them thinks vacationing means stripping down to your boxers and shooting things and the other one has the handy skill of being deadly accurate with a fishing pole. We find out that the dude who was killed at the beginning was related to Lash's character, but little tears are shed when they find out he has been killed. There is also a scene where a couple argues about a map at a gas station with almost the same ferocity as the characters in Blair Witch and then they speed off without their dog and did I mention there are aliens in this, because you can almost forget about them at times!

This film fails on so many levels to the point it is boring rather than so bad it's good. Too many scenes keep going without any payoff as they feel the need to show us the shooter interviewing for crying out loud. As I said, Lash gets top billing, but does not get to use a whip when there are three aliens because we have to show what an awesome shooter the girl is and they have to have her shoot with no pants on, which I understand as her ass is more attractive than her face.

So, not a good movie and not as fun as the premise should of made this movie be. The aliens are a bore and there is way too many scenes that add little to the film other than extending its run time. I think the same people that did this one also did a film called the Dark Power which also featured Lash, but he got to whip stuff in it and it was a bit more fun than this film which at times is very tedious to watch.

A group of three aliens comes to Earth to . . . well, I'm not really sure why they're here. They steal some guns - old style revolvers and rifles - and start shooting people. Oh, and they also beat-up a car for some reason. Our heroine, Jesse Jamison (Kari Anderson), seems to be the only person in the small town the aliens have landed who can do anything about them. She's an expert with a gun herself and it's up to her to save the day.

I would say that Alien Outlaw was trying to cash in on the success of Predator, but it actually came out first. I suppose the aliens are on Earth to do a little hunting as in Predator, but they don't seem to have any weapons of their own. So, like I said earlier, I'm not sure why they're here. You'd think that a civilization capable of interstellar travel would have a better plan than these three seem to have.

Beyond the plot's lack of logic, almost everything else is bad. The special effects are poor, the comedy is weak, and the acting is downright atrocious. The film features two old time Western actors, Sunset Carson and Lash La Rue. Neither brings much to the table other than some unintentional humor. In short, Alien Outlaw is pretty much a disaster.

As bad as it is, there are a couple of things to enjoy. There are a few scenes that actually (most likely by accident) work. For example, the scenes where the aliens come out of the water are effective and nicely filmed. But the main reason to see Alien Outlaw is for lead actress Kari Anderson. It's not that she's much of an actress (this is her only acting credit), but those legs! Anderson's legs are the real star of the Alien Outlaw.

I have happy memories of a teenage summer staying near Sparta, NC, on one of the locations that this film uses. Specifically, in the film it was the farm house of the character played by Lash La Rue. I was staying with the family that owns that farm. The "barn" you see in some scenes there was actually the family's garage.

The film crew were there for several days and I joined in the shoot as a sort of unpaid runner, carrying things around. It was quite odd, not to say surreal, at times: a fifteen year old kid from the UK sitting on the porch chatting alternately with a grumpy B-western star, then the long legged heroine (they were FANTASTIC legs), then the "aliens", without their helmets. At lunchtimes we had fried chicken, mashed potato , biscuits and gravy I seem to remember. Tasted very good! At one point I overheard the director say something particularly uncomplimentary about his own film. He struck me as someone who could have made much better films if he had had the resources.

I just got the DVD, having never watched the film and it really is difficult to say anything positive about it as a piece of cinema. As a memento of the best summer of my life though it is priceless.

What is up with these faux sci-fi films that mostly focus on thick-tongued yokels? The women in this (including the heroine) are used as props to flash their T&A and service unattractive men they'd never touch in real life. SO MUCH TIME is utterly wasted on nothing but dragging out redundant, boring scenes and forcing us to spend time with annoying, unlikable people we'd dread sitting next to on a Greyhound bus. The talent agency woman/office are laughably pretentious. Oh, they book for some of the biggest, classiest events in the country? The tacky, cheap office that looks like a factory break room says otherwise! The Fauxcahontas outfit the put-upon guntrick chick (Jesse) wears is stupid, as is the movie's insistence she bend over in it. The music is ugly. And apparently the plot is something we have no business being curious about. However, though she wasn't a good actor, I liked Jesse and cared about her getting a better agent (I really wasn't given a choice). Also, Lash had an incoherent charm in his role. However, my favorite character was the black gas station attendant. He was very pleasant and behaved naturally. Finally, I appreciated them cheering Jesse on to fight the aliens, even if she did so in a Party City "Pocahontas" costume she apparently lost the skirt to.

This sci-fi/comedy/western could've been a lot more entertaining with some expert editing, the performances by a cast of unknowns leave a lot to be desired also. Plot lines that lead no where, and a plodding story line make the 90 minutes seem like 3 hours. But if you like cheesy grade z action, with a tiny bit of gratuitous T&A thrown in you might want to lose 90 minutes you'll never get back. The entertainment I got from this shoe string budgeted flick was in watching the beautiful, almost scantily clad Kari Anderson (this was her only movie appearance??), and the chance to see two old (fairly well preserved) cowboy stars from the 40's Sunset Carson and Lash LaRue. An extra bonus for cowboy fans is the interview (more of a informal reminiscence for the old days of the B western) between Sunset and Lash.