Futur immédiat, Los Angeles 1991

I've always liked this film despite its flaws. It is an interesting allegory of racial conflict, using a sci-fi premise and a "buddy-cop" formula. You have the minority rookie cop assigned to the bigoted partner, who are then assigned a case involving the minority group. The rookie proves to the bigot that people are the same, despite their physical differences and they slowly become friends.

Mandy Patinkin is great here, conveying the idea of an outsider who is not totally familiar with his new environment. James Caan is fine, but doesn't seem committed to the film, and his performance is a bit uneven. Terence Stamp is hurt by his makeup, as his face is one of his greatest strengths as an actor. Much of his characters come from his facial expressions and the makeup inhibits this.

The story is a bit cliched, but the sci-fi gloss keeps things from falling flat. The tv series was better able to explore the racial allegory, as the film just doesn't have enough screen time. The mystery component is pretty much standard fare. If you look beyond the surface of this film, there are some worthwhile ideas here. They just get a bit lost in the "cop" trappings.

This film begins in the future with a giant spacecraft hovering over Los Angeles and it's filled with alien beings who have come to Earth hoping to find a better life than the one they left behind. As it so happens these "newcomers" were genetically bred for hard labor and as such they are an extremely adaptable species to just about any environment. Yet in spite of the advantages of having a docile and hard-working group of workers like these many Americans are fearful and intolerant of them. Such is the case with a Los Angeles police detective named "Sergeant Matthew Sykes" (James Caan) who has just lost his partner during a shootout with two of these aliens. Yet rather than distancing himself from these aliens he volunteers to accept a brand new partner by the name of "Sam Francisco" (Mandy Patinkin) who just happens to be one. But there's something about these "newcomers" that even he doesn't know and it's going to make his life much more difficult than he ever would have dreamed possible. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this movie was heavily advertised when it first came out and because of that I was somewhat disappointed with it at first. However, even though it may not have been the blockbuster I was expecting it was still entertaining enough due in large part to the acting for James Caan who played his role in an excellent manner. That being said, I liked this film for the most part and I have rated it accordingly.

This is like a lot of movies where the premise is more interesting than the plot. The arrival of the "Newcomers" seems to be a metaphor for the immigrant experience in America, but this is not followed up. It goes from a sci-fi movie into a cop-buddy movie, and it's really not bad on that level. It seems, however that the filmmakers passed on an opportunity to make a really significant commentary. One wishes for the film that got away.

This is the film that inspired the excellent television show and the many specials that followed its cancellation. This film has good performances by James Cann and mandy Patinkin, that elevate it above the norm. It is a combination buddy film, crime drama and science fiction story. Surprisingly it comes together very well. This film is not the best of the genre, some of the television shows surpass it, yet it worth a watch.

Considering that it is little more than your standard cop buddy movie, the slight variation being that the buddies are a tough seen-it-all cop and a by-the-books rookie who is an alien, Alien Nation ends up being a pretty good film. You can give a lot of credit to James Caan and Mandy Patankin for that. They have great chemistry as the partners. Both are very accomplished actors, and they make a very cliched script into something well worth watching. 7/10