Fugitive Alien

This is a Japanese production and a pretty good one. Its visually interesting and the plot is easy to follow. I found it to be reasonably entertaining despite a couple of slow spots here and there. There are some campy stuff like the way the characters shrug off tragedy in their lives. The love of Ken's life dies and he pretty much goes on about business without shedding a tear. Captain Joe loses his daughter and Wife and next day he is back at work, eager to get busy. Despite its flaws I enjoyed the look of the show. The ships and space battles look pretty nice, the bad guy looked nasty, and the English dubbing wasn't very distracting. I liked some of the costumes and locations as well. ,,,, You know, to be totally honest about it, if William Shatner had played Captain Joe, there would probably be tons of interest in this neat little science fiction flick. Definitely deserves a much better rating that it gets here. I give it a 5.5...its fun.

This "movie" is really just several episodes of a Japanese TV show stringed together, and it shows. It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever! This was obviously Japanese television's attempt to cash in on the success of "Star Wars." This movie is really badly dubbed as well. Although I think it would be bad subtitled as well.

On the positive end, it was turned onto a really funny MST3K episode. So it's not a total loss!

Hey Network TV: Instead of beating the venerable "Fugitive" premise to death (a tv show based on a movie based on a tv show?), why not seek out a tv series that was flawed when originally produced but still features enough good stuff to salvage into a new, better series? Here's a good example- "Fugitive Alien" and it's sequel, "Star Force: Fugitive Alien 2" are goofy, sometimes-incomprehensible "features" made from re-edited episodes of a Japanese TV show. They're hard to watch in their current incarnation, but have interesting premises and fun plots.

The story is this: Our hero Ken is a Wolf Raider. Wolf Raiders are super-strong humanoid aliens who like to invade other planets and run around smashing things. For some reason they wear curly red wigs when they do this, which is pretty bizarre. Anyhoo, during a routine invasion Ken is ordered to shoot a little boy named Ken, and he refuses. In the resulting scuffle Ken accidentally shoots his best friend and flees the evil Wolf Raiders, ending up floating through space in his spacesuit, waiting to die (already this is hilarious!).

Luckily, Ken is discovered by the Bacchus 3, a Star Force spaceship commanded by the jowl-sporting, hard-drinkin' Captain Joe (possible come-back role for Ernest Borgnine here!). Ken is almost immediately adopted by Captain Joe, who hides Ken's Wolf Raider past from the rest of the crew and offers him a job. This delights Tammy, the navigator, and dismays Rocky, Captain Joe's first mate, who tries to run Ken over with a forklift. There are two other guys on the ship, I think one was called Dan or something. They don't do much. Anyway, the crew of the Bacchus 3 goes on one crazy adventure after another while Ken is pursued by Rita (who is Ken's ex-girlfriend and the sister of the guy Ken killed). They visit a lot of different planets, Ken saves everyone over and over again, and eventually he and Rocky get past the whole "forklift incident".

If this isn't a set up for a hit TV series or even a feature film, I don't know what is. It's certainly a more plausible premise a series than "Cleopatra 2525", that's for damn sure. So please, consider "Fugitive Alien". Maybe you could get Timothy Daly to star in the series version.

Yes, Sandy Frank folks!

Actually, this is definitely one of my favorite japanese B-movies...which was actually TV shows spliced together. The concept is really neat with renegade Star Wolf...Ken didn't want to kill Ken. Get it? Plus, the matchbox and subpar effects are great in a kampy way and the star wars "homages" are funny! It was definitely a show that fit right in on the SOL which kampy in its own way too!

You gotta love the conflict in this film...Ken and Star Wolves, Ken and Rocky..whereas this ragtag crew become earth's top defenders. Do not miss the infamous "forklift" scene and the sequel: Starforce: Fugitive Alien 2.

Still way better than Space Mutiny.

This 'tv movie' was produced by taking episodes of a Japanese sci-fi show, stringing them together, and dubbing the voices -- and the plot -- using voice talent who sound like the guys on MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000 This made the viewing very confusing, because I was watching this as an episode of that show. This made it even odder than usual, even for that show.

It seems to be about Tatsuya Azuma, a member of a military group of aliens. He's kicked out of the organization because he won't kill people from Earth. This doesn't seem to stop him from getting involved with other operations of this alleged organization, although he seems to compensate by occasionally killing one of his former associates.

The special effects are decent for television of the era. The only actor whom I recognized was Jô Shishido as "Captain Joe".