Alien Avengers

This little goofball won me over somehow. Watching Shanna Reed kill that guy with her excellent thighs was worth my time on it's own :-) Anyway, amazingly this was an entertaining movie. It appears everybody had a good time so I think that probably helped tremendously.

And of course.

The thighs scene man!! I can't remember the last time I watched a Roger Corman flick, and didn't feel I killed any brain cells. It was nice to see Norm (Norrrm!!!) get to ham it up in what ended up being a fairly well put together script.

This is on Showtime throughout April, and worth some giggles.

We had a blast with the creation of Alien Avenger as the movie was a unique experience to film daily. I was fortunate enough to play Officer Park, who was mostly seen in the station making copies and showing facial expression and slimed to death on the floor as Daphne jumped over me many times as I lay still, that was fun to make and I am hopeful everyone enjoys this classic. Roger Korman added his movie mystique to the filming and we filmed this mostly in the suburb of Los Angeles called Cypress Park at on old building that was and has since been rehabilitated on Ave 26 at I-5. Since moving to Las Vegas making the movie was a unique experience for me as this was an area in which I grew up in as well so it made the making of the movie that much more enjoyable. This was a great break for me from the daily sports world that I live and work in...I can only hope I can do some more movies such as this in the future.-Rich Perez

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).

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.