Alien Country

I had never heard about this 2024 sci-fi comedy titled "Alien Country" from director Boston McConnaughey. And with it being a movie that I was not familiar with, of course I opted to watch it. And I will say that the movie's cover certainly was interesting enough.

However, writers Renny Grames and Boston McConnaughey failed to deliver a script that won me over. I gave up on the movie with 30 minutes left before the movie ended. But I have to admit that I was not impressed with the storyline one bit, and it just failed to entertain me. And with the movie being totally devoid of comedy elements, it was a dry patch to sit through.

While I wasn't familiar with a single actor or actress on the cast list, I will say that the acting performances were good, despite the fact that the script failed to entertain me.

Visually, then "Alien Country" was good. The special effects were nicely made and looked good. But the effects had little impact on the movie for me, since the script was rubbish.

This was definitely not my cup of tea. And I have no intentions of returning to finish watching the remaining 30 minutes of the movie, because I just simply don't care about the characters or the storyline in the movie.

"Alien Country" was, for a lack of other words, generic and mundane.

My rating of "Alien Country" lands on a three out of ten stars.

My highest praise of a film is saying 'I want to see it again' and I want to see Alien Country again. I've followed the development of this film for a few years. I had really high hopes for Boston and Renny's first feature film, and they knocked it out of the park. The theatrical premiere was unreal, they even had the old car from the film in the lobby of the theater (with it's 1970s BYU parking stickers and all). The film is just an epic and fun ride with very rewarding surprises all along the way (my favorite of those surprises, without doing a spoiler, will just say 'The Final Headshot'). Excited for the next project from these two.

So I ran across this by accident. The trailers reminded me of other small-town alien invasion films like "Alien Opponent" and gave it a spin.

The plot requires you to take certain things on faith (it gets a bit muddled when talking about opening and closing the portals) but the dialog is witty and has that small-town charm nailed down pretty well.

I don't think anyone in the film you will recognize, but they certainly do their best and genuinely seem to be having fun with the plot.

Given the probably modest budget, the SFX/CGI was quite well done. The film was shot in Utah and the stunning scenery certainly lends an air of authenticity to the small-town feel.

It's difficult to judge how skilled the director/ writing cast is given a singular offering (this film) but I'm going to keep an eye on his output in the future.

Overall, if you want a fun lighthearted (and witty!) take on alien invasions, give this charming flick a watch.

At first I thought this was a mockbuster, but 'Alien Country' is not, and neither is it trying to be another 'Alien' wannabe. This is a very different alien movie and a lot of fun, actually.

Jimmy (K. C. Clyde) is a dirt car racer. One night he finds a mysterious suitcase inside a dirt car. When him and his 'girlfriend' Everly (Renny Grames) opens the case, they find an unusual crystal. As the crystal starts to glow, a porthole to another planet opens, and unknowingly creatures from this world enters our world.

As the creatures start killing people, Johnny and Everly team up with a friendly alien to stop the bad aliens, but someone else is also after the crystal...

Being only 96 minutes long, 'Alien Country' is fast-paced and exciting. It is mostly a comedy, so off course the killings are also in a very lighthearted manner. The film features cool photography, cinematography and visuals, and the editing was also very good.

With likeable characters, a dashing cop in the form of Officer Kirk (played by the hunky Trey Warner), and lots of action, adventure and planet hopping, this was a lot of fun. There's also an interesting back story regarding Jimmy's dad. I really enjoyed this.

This indie film has some really great scenes. I found myself laughing out loud. I felt like the acting was good the cinematography was good.

I feel like the movie doesn't really feel like other alien movies. It doesn't take itself too seriously this is obvious at many different points in the film and through a number of different types of deliberate choices. Other indie films feel campy because the quality of the script, special effects, and talent is so low. This feels campy as a stylistic choice, they weighted the movie more towards fun than trying to convince you that everyone is going to die a gruesome death.

Overall it was a fun watch!