Dr. Alien

This movie is just plain great, It's a funny, campy, B-grade Pseudo-Sci-fi T & A flick that is just one of the most entertaining films I've ever seen. What's strange is that this film hits on the topic of teenage sexuality pretty well, if you ask me, (or as well as this sort of film could.) Not to mention that there are many topless scenes, which is always a plus. Also, the concert scene was just so out there... I wish I could go to a concert like that, Man, It's just so great, see for yourself. I give this film a 9. If you like fun sexploitation flicks, this is about as much fun as you can have.

"Dr. Alien" is an enjoyably goofy production from Full Moon, a pleasingly sleazy schlock comedy with lively performances and an overall harmless appeal to it. It may be silly, but the truth is it's just about impossible to resist.

A number of familiar faces fill out major and supporting parts, so B movie lovers will be happy to see them all here. Billy Jayne, whom you may have seen in "Bloody Birthday", "Cujo", "Just One of the Guys", and 'Parker Lewis Can't Lose', stars as Wesley, a straight arrow, wimpy college student who agrees to help out with a scientific project for extra credit in his biology class. Trouble is, his new teacher, Ms. Xenobia (veteran TV bimbo Judy Landers) isn't playing it totally straight with him, and the "vitamin" that she tests on him transforms him into an irresistible stud, complete with a chittering worm that pops out of his head.

Very amiable from beginning to end, "Dr. Alien" may not have its viewers necessarily laughing out loud but it may have them smiling, at the least. It's got amusing makeup effects by Greg Cannom and his team and a non-stop, upbeat pop & rock soundtrack. It's also quite sexy, and voyeurs will love the generous servings of breast shots that director Dave DeCoteau provides. In addition to the perky Ms. Landers, the lovely ladies of the movie include Olivia Barash ("Repo Man"), Ginger Lynn, Linnea Quigley, and Laura Albert as the rocker chicks, Michelle Bauer and Karen Russell as co-eds, and Elizabeth Kaitan as a waitress. The solid schlock movie supporting cast features such people as Stuart Fratkin ("Teen Wolf Too") as the obligatory obnoxious best friend, Raymond O'Connor ("Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers") as Xenobias' nerdy associate, Arlene Golonka ("The In-Laws") as Wesley's mom, Jaynes' real-life brother Bobby ("Tremors") as his sibling, and Edy Williams ("Chained Heat") as a gym teacher. Troy Donahue gets prominent billing, but actually isn't in the movie for very long.

If you're looking for some dumb trashy fun, "Dr. Alien" is recommended. Hell, one can't knock any lowbrow comedy that actually works a message about self-esteem into its mix. It's fairly fast paced stuff with a reasonably short running time and enough gags to make it palatable.

Six out of 10.

A witless teen sex comedy that typifies everything that went wrong with genre films in the late 1980s. Troy Donahue grabs a quick paycheck for his cameo as a college professor who gets injured in a car crash caused by a UFO. His replacement is statuesque blonde Judy Landers, who's really an alien doing fertility experiments on Earth to help cure the sterile population of her home planet. She injects some green stuff into a straight-laced, unpopular, necktie-wearing nerd, causing him to grow a tentacle/antenna thing that occasionally pops up from the top of his head and instantly hypnotizes women into wanting to have sex with him. Supposed hilarity ensues. You can tell it's supposed to be funny but there isn't anything clever about it. The nerd learns to loosen up and be himself, leading to a muddled moral message for teens, which naturally is the old "believe in yourself and you can do anything" bromide. Since the kid only became popular after developing an impossible new body part that automatically hypnotizes people, the message feels as ill-fitting as it is trite. The pleasant surprise is the makeup. When Landers pulls off her human face to reveal the bulbous-headed, pointy-eared, bug-eyed alien form underneath, the special effects are so good that it's amazing to see them in a movie this cheap and lowbrow. Greg Cannom provided the alien effects, and his makeup work is really terrific. It's a great looking alien that deserved to be in a better film. The same director made (among tons of other undistinguished junk) CREEPAZOIDS, referenced several times here, once as the name on a prop breakfast cereal box and again when one character is shown watching it on TV. Linnea Quigley and Michelle Bauer appear briefly as tramps. For some reason, promotional art for DR. ALIEN used an altered photo that crudely replaced Landers' hypo with an awkwardly positioned test tube. Somebody must have worried that a photo of a woman holding a syringe full of bright green fluid would be interpreted as an endorsement of heroin use. Only in America. This was announced as I WAS A TEENAGE SEX MUTANT, and a very 80's-sounding song by that title is heard on the soundtrack.

I'll have to admit...I LOVE this movie. The movie itself is Comedy/Science fiction. The effects are great. The plot is..well..cheesy...but who cares? Anyone who would be reading comments/reviews for a movie entitled "Dr. Alien" obviously is looking for good old B rated Science fiction movies. I would recommend renting this film if you can find it.

My Rating: 7 out of 10

Dr. Alien looks so cool!

This was pretty close to being tolerable.

"Dr. Alien" (or whatever title it may happen to be under when you see it next) is basically a story about an alien (Landers) who tests a high school nerd Jacoby (Jayne) with a serum that makes him the object of desire of nearly every nubile girl in immediate range.

The fact that I remembered the plot is in itself amazing; everything here is just a setup for whatever lame-brained sight gag the film makers can come up with.

But some of them work. The flustered parent bit is tried and true, Jayne is willing to do what it takes for the laughs, he fronts a rock band in what must have been an afterthought, Landers actually turns into an alien at one point, Troy Donahue gets blown up before the beginning credits roll and then there's the women, God bless them.

If the movie starts getting boring, just pop in a half-dressed or undressed girl and then who cares about the plot? Not me. Two and a half stars. You want a good brain-dead night of laughs and T & A (heavy on the T), call this "Dr.".