Alien Fury: Countdown to Invasion

Note to any future George Lucas wannabees: Be sure to include credible spacecrafts and aliens; not badly drawn pictures of spacecrafts and aliens that look exactly like humans. The plot (that keeps changing to keep things confusing) could have been interesting if the producer had concentrated on that aspect and not on how good-looking the girls should be or how tough the guards should act. It´s cr@p - pure and simple. It has no saving grace. Put it to sleep.

In charge of alien threats, Bill Templer appears to be fighting the establishment to protect the public against an alien invasion. But wait, is he honest? It appears that to protect the existence of his agency, he has manufactured an alien invasion and launched an offensive attack to protect Earth. But wait, it appears that there actually are aliens, but they don't want to invade, that the unprovoked attack will actually drive them to invade. But wait, it appears that Bill Templer is himself an alien trying to provoke his own peaceful race to attack Earth. But wait, the unprovoked attack has really made the aliens mad and they are actually going to invade the Earth. But wait, in a last second rescue, the good guys off Bill, destroy the missile aimed at the aliens and save both the aliens, and the Earth, which is already under an attack which is immediately withdrawn. This movie, performed with a sense of humor, holds the record for twists and turns and is worth experiencing for that reason alone.

But wait, did the aliens really call off their invasion......

This has all the hallmarks of a 'made for TV' production, complete with cheap actors, locations and other low production values. It would seem to be a first feature for a high percentage of the cast and this alone will always knock a film back. However, we found it to be more than just 'watchable'. The plot is full of double crosses, misdirections etc that kept it interesting without the need to cry out in frustration at the plot holes. In fact, if the plot had been given the hollywood big budget treatment, a script-massage and a recasting, it would have probably been a good performer in the cinema. Shame.

This movie was so bad that it more resembled a very tired TV series than a movie. There was no action, the acting, writing, and directing were abysmal, and it wasn't even decently filmed. I will give it credit for having suspense, though it was the half-hearted, stressful kind of suspense you get when you are in denial about the fact that you are sitting through a numbingly pathetic excuse for a movie and you are clinging to a futile hope that in a couple of minutes it might get interesting. This isn't an alien thriller... it had no aliens, or convincing alien technology, and there was no sense of imminent threat (beyond the very real possibility you are having 2 hours sucked from your lifespan by some hack film maker.) The story (Department of defense cover up about alien invasion) might have been good if an actual writer took the idea and built a script around it, but the way this was done, it shouldn't have been more than a half hour long. Don't waste your time... and don't listen to the votes... this isn't better than a 2...

Well, few surprises in this movie. Alien invasion, or is it? A smart scientist figures it out, sinister gummint organization, nuclear weapon launched, abort sent, etc, etc.

The characters - almost every one of them was over acted. The hero, with his Clint Eastwood breathy voice. His wife, the beautiful doctor with always-perfect hair and makeup who works in a public hospital: puh-lease. The slavering general. Cardboard cutouts, every one of them. Grace Phillips in her braless strappy top (and to her credit she looks OK in it) gives some idea of where one of the target demographics of this movie was. The female mud-wrestler type cast as a security guard could be another clue. And almost all the other women, who for some strange reason had short skirts and very high heel shoes, might be yet another.

Special effects were reasonable, although the multiple alien spacecraft sitting in the crater, each one an obvious copy/paste of each other... at first, I thought it was a computer wallpaper. And the stories with the nitrogen inhalers - please, give us nerdy audience types at least a tiny sliver of background knowledge.

I think that the worst sin this movie committed was that it couldn't make up its mind as to what combination of seriousness and comedy it was going to be. But again to be fair, if you set your expectations low enough you might well be entertained.