Alien Terminator

Alien Terminator (1996, Dir. Dave Payne)

A small group of scientists are working in self-imposed isolation below the Earth's surface. They are all working to create DNA which could change the world, but one of the scientists have been given an secret assignment, and when the assignment goes wrong, all hell breaks lose. The new creation is now aboard the ship and will destroy anyone who gets in its way, as it moves towards the surface.

They always say to never judge a book by the cover, and this can often be said towards a film, but when you look at the cover of 'Alien Terminator' (Alien Species in the UK), it is definitely a cover you should follow. What it found in this movie, is a complete rip-off of Alien and Species (oh, i wonder where they thought up the UK title). They even borrow one of Alien's most famous scenes, with the only different being the alien coming out his back. The effects are OK, but there isn't really any effects found in this film. They are all very minimum. The acting is appalling though, with some amazingly bad writing. How many adults films are there when most 'bad' language includes words like crap and scum. I recommend you avoid this and go and watch any of the Alien films, even AVP: Alien vs. Predator is an improvement over this.

"You piece of scum." - Dean Taylor (Rodger Halston)

Patently predictable and lame sci-fi / horror thriller, the umpteenth variation on the familiar "Alien" story. (But hey, at least they're up front about what they're ripping off.) A sextet of scientists work deep underground (five miles beneath the earth, to be exact), not knowing the full extent of what their work entails. It seems that the twisted, eccentric genius in their midst, Newton (Kevin Alber), is doing - you guessed it - cutting edge genetic experimentation, from which he hopes to profit big time.

"Alien Terminator" is a yawn-inducing example of the "same old, same old" when it comes to this kind of genre storytelling. The filmmaking isn't so incompetent, or cheap, that it makes one laugh, unfortunately. It's just boring. Everything about is is just barely adequate, without the redeeming nature of unintended chuckles. It's too hard to care about this tale, or about its characters. The actors aren't unlikable, but their characters are just inane. The incredibly sexy Maria Ford offers some fun playing a tough talking, Ellen Ripley style action babe. The most endearing guy is the doctor, ironically named "Coach" (Bob McFarland), who disappears from the story too soon. Alber is very annoying playing the greedy oddball with the hidden agenda. And yes, folks, since this is a production of Roger Cormans' New Concorde company, you can expect a dose of sex and partial nudity.

It's hard to imagine even die hard aficionados of this variety of entertainment being quite enthused by this one.

Five out of 10.

First of all, when you type alien species here at IMDb, the link you get is wrong! The cover used at Alien Species is the one that should be used here. Anyway, what I just watched you really can't believe it exists! it really is a rip off of Alien but in an extreme low budget way. If you watch the decors used it will tell you everything. The first 5 minutes you will learn to know the characters. That's good, 4 guys, 2 lasses. by seeing the two birds you will immediately know which one will show her tits. And yes, a bit further in the movie she shows them. More into the movie she shows them again in a gratuitous way, nothing to do with the storyline. And let me tell you, that was the best part of this turkey. When the alien burst out of the, euh, back of his victim, you just see it crawl on the floor. When it is a full creature well remember the black lagoon, that kind of monster, you know what I mean. This is the kind of horror you let your kids watch. See it to believe it.

Did they trick you? Be honest, where you one of the people at your local video rental that picked it off the shelf because of the name and then got home and realized that it wasn't Alien, it wasn't The Terminator and you should have read the title more closely?

Or, where you the person that went to your local video rental, saw Maria Ford's name, assumed... breasts... and grabbed it for that?

Or, where you the person that went to your local video store, clearly saw the title "Alien Terminator" and thought to yourself... "yeah, I want to see what would happen if they turned Alien into a B movie... with Maria Ford's breasts?"

Because, honestly... YES! We want to see a low budget Alien rip-off. YES! We are going to watch it late at night and slightly inebriated. YES! We are going to watch it with friends over just to offer our own commentary on how awful it is. YES! Maria Ford and in the 90s we knew what that meant. YES! we want to see the big reveal of the most ridiculous low budget alien ever created!

YES! It is a horribly bad B-Movie, but that is why we picked it up... if we intentionally rented it knowing what it was going to turn out to be.

And it hits all of the tropes, it hits all the reasons why people like me rent movies like this.

So, mission accomplished.

One of the dumbest and yet most entertaining films I've ever seen. The conversations are like porn dialogue, and the plot is ridiculously stupid. Interesting, though, that most of the sci-fi movies that have come out recently have similar plots - goes to show what budgets can do. A great film to watch with a bunch of people - no one will care if they miss anything due to the roaring laughter caused by this intense thriller. Some great lines, too - the stuff lasting inside jokes are made of.