Alien Avengers

Wow...what a great movie! The first 15 minutes are a little heavy handed, with the whole "struggling young black man" thing. Trying to stay true to himself without becoming a crack dealer and then, his momma dies. Bummer. But once George Wendt and family show up it gets friggin' righteous! They really look like they had a good time making this movie. When George rips off a skinheads leg and beats him over the head with it, well, that's just golden...Roger Corman is hit or miss (but he does pump out, like, 17 movies a year) but he's pretty much on the nose with this flick. I've not seen the sequel, but I'll be seeking it out. The dialogue is pretty great and the bloodshed is AOK. The wife is by far the best, with her smokes, cat eye sunglasses and camera. If you like the idea of the mean streets of South LA being cleaned up by a pack of retro aliens this is a dream come true. Also worth it is the wife's dressing down of the druggies in the crack house, and the explanation given to an inmate as to why they get visitation rights with each other. "Cause we're special...and you're just a piece of sh*t child molester that should have been castrated with a dull knife before being executed", the line is delivered with the gleeful anticipation of a 9 year old on Christmas morning...truly, da bomb.

For a movie with a close-to-nothing budget, this is surprisingly good. Special effects are somewhere between cheap and nonexistent, the whole movie is carried by the actors and the script.

But both the actors and the script are good. George Wendt (as Charlie) is a John Goodman-lookalike and uses that very well. Shanna Reed (Rhonda) is his happy tourist wife, if possible more gleeful about their backstreet adventures. Anastasia Sakelaris plays their beautiful daughter Daphne, also really well, and Christopher M. Brown is the "straight man" Joseph, the nice black guy who tries to understand what is happening around him. Joseph is a particularly vital part, the straight man who gives us a normal person point of view to the events, and also the character who benefits from the aliens. These four actors are the backbone that carries the film.

The obvious B-movie status and low budget limits the possibilities, and sometimes the lack of effects is disturbing. But most of the time it doesn't matter too much (as long as you are prepared for it). We see some blood, and hear some profane language plus see some semi-nudity, but I was happy to see that neither were over-used but used for a reason. And this is one sign of the good script. It doesn't need to use cheap unmotivated sex and under-the-belt-jokes, it uses these themes sparingly in logical and therefore funny ways.

I find it amusing to compare the movie to Predator 2. The basic plots is the same, aliens come to the slum to hunt some wildlife. But from that point, they are totally different. Imagine a Predator posing by the victim, smiling, being photographed with a cheap tourist camera. And imagine it walking around in the open, looking like an average tourist. Hard to imagine? But there you have the basic premise. Same... but totally different.

Alien Avengers aka Welcome To Planet Earth is one funny comedy. It's not your average comedy though. It's a pretty dark horror comedy. It's about these aliens that come to earth for a vacation with their daughter. They end up showing up at this guy named Joseph's door asking for a room. That's where all the fun begins! Charlie and Rhonda are hilarious; they say some of the funniest things and do some pretty violent things to criminals. If you enjoy Roger Corman flicks, I think you'll like this one. It is full of comedy, action and has some very funny lines. If you liked this movie, definitely check out the sequel Alien Avengers II, it's pretty funny too.

I give these aliens a 10/10

Since I just finished the massively melancholic and overly mysterious "Nope" by director Jordan Peele, I felt in urgent need of some light-hearted and undemanding Sci-Fi/cult entertainment. What's better than a sleazy & silly Roger Corman production from the 1990s, like "Welcome to Planet Earth", in that case? But it turns out those two movies are very similar, as they both deal with playful but sardonic extraterrestrials using camouflage to remain under the radar and destroy humanity!

Kidding, of course, as "Welcome to Planet Earth" is nothing but a harmless and insignificant comedy with a couple of tongue-in-cheek Sci-Fi elements. George Wendt and Shanna Reed delightfully overact as the picture-perfect middle-class couple who are on vacation in the nastiest and sleaziest parts of Los Angeles and stay at a rundown boarding house recently inherited by ex-con and petty thief Joseph. Their stunningly beautiful daughter Daphne is less enthusiast about the holiday, but this changes as soon as she develops feelings for Joseph. In reality, though, the joyful family are aliens in disguise, from a planet that uses Earth as a holiday destination where interstellar tourists can violently murder criminal scum as much as they please.

The basic idea is fun & original, and the film is overall worthwhile thanks to the spirited performances from the aforementioned couple, a few creative kills, and - ah yes - a totally random and gratuitous nude sequence by the gorgeous actress who depicts Daphne. Phew, that is what I call a classic rewind-moment! The fun rapidly wears out, though, and especially the last 15-20 minutes are tedious. Also, I know Roger Corman didn't spent much money on his B-movies, but the aliens' spaceship here looks ridiculously cheap and childish.

Low budget sci-fi genre has tended to be a breeding ground for some of the most awful films on the planet. Sometimes though, a movie like this comes and uses clever dialogue and scripting as well as a sense of humor about itself to overcome fairly shoddy special effects and set limitations and create a great piece of entertainment. This movie showcases what you can do with a shoestring budget, a great script with some campy dialogue and some decent actors. If you like campy dark comedy genre films (a la rocky horror, dead alive, evil dead) and B-movie sci-fi, rent this film. This movie is way over the top, and I was laughing hysterically through most of it. Deserves to be a cult classic. The sequel is also good, though not as good as the original (though its first 5 minutes are inspired and Julie Brown is much funnier, IMHO).