Alien Avengers

If you like sci-fi and/or horror, this exuberantly "B" movie will delight you, since it combines both. Was disappointing to have such graphic violence, but then see very little of the beautiful Anastasia Sakeleris, but a decently funny movie overall.

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.

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).

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.

One of the better entries in Roger Corman's seemingly endless series of low-budget films. This one has a slumming George Wendt and Shanna Reed playing aliens here on Earth vacationing. Apparently violence and crime are unknown on their world. Their idea of fun is provoking various low-lifes to assault them (not that it takes much provocation for these types) and then killing them. They snap tourist photos of the corpses with a cheap camera that has the cube flash attachment. (Remember those?) The film totally aims for camp, and largely hits a bullseye. And I must comment on Anastasia Sakelaris, who plays the alien daughter. She was just the prettiest thing ever. Too wide in the mouth to be a classic beauty, but to me it makes her more real, less the usual plastic Hollywood creation. Really too bad that she did not have a wider film career. I would have loved to have seen her in more stuff.