Xtro II

I have seen all of the "Alien" films. I loved the "Alien" films. But the one I loved best was "Aliens", partly because of James Cameron's brilliant writing and directing, but mostly because I loved the guns. Oh, the guns! The M41-A Pulse Rifle rocked, but even better than that was the mighty Smartgun. I am a "connoisseur" of Alien ripoffs. So naturally, when I heard that this movie had a smartgun-like weapon in it, my response was, of course, "where can I find this movie?" After searching I finally came across it, and popped it in my DVD player.

Wow.

This movie absolutely blew me away with its unrelenting "Aliens"-style tense action, but mostly I was pleasantly surprised to find not only a smartgun-like weapon, but a near perfect smartgun replica! I was practically vibrating in my seat when I saw that thing fire.

But aside from the gun, I generally enjoyed the movie. It didn't have a "feel-good" happy- skippy ending, but it didn't have a "everyone dies" ending, which I appreciate (though the ending does confuse me a bit...) The creature design was brilliant. In all the "Alien" ripoffs I've seen, (besides the later "Alien Lockdown", which is more of a PredAlien anyways) this by far had the best creature. It even did the famous "headbite", but with its whole head! Altogether, I enjoyed this movie more than "Alien Resurrection" and "Alien 3 " combined.

Overall, I recommend this movie if you are a fan of "Alien" ripoffs, and have the patience for a bit of wooden acting.

A watchable yet highly derivative work with a good-bad ratio that about balances the scales.

There's absolutely no point in bellyaching about its sequel-ship as proceeding Xtro from ten years prior because it is public record that a sequel couldn't be made unless it was in name only due to legal issues. I for one had enough of Xtro the first time around so it's no tragedy to me that this film had nothing to do with it.

Unlike its predecessor this film can't be mined for archetypal meaning. It is devoid of any depth, if I do say so myself.

Forget about Alien; Xtro 2 is a poor man's remake of "Metamorphosis: The Alien Factor" from 1990; another sequel that had nothing to do with its weird and disgusting older sibling.

But of course we can't forget about the impact of Alien on this film. The shots of the parallel dimension are almost identical (at a glance) to what we see on the monitors in front of an electrified Ash as Dallas, Lambert and Kane explore LV24. Then we have the entrance of the monster (I like the unzipping effect in Xtro 2, though).

Aesthetically this film is like a graphic novel set in the dark. It's quite impressive how they managed to get so much black in the background that all we see for the most part are the cast, creature, and the artefact of interest (a ripped grate, for example). I also appreciated that Jedburg was there at the bottom of the elevator shaft, as he should have been.

As I said: watchable, highly derivative, decent monster, aesthetically minimalist. A cultural summation rather than contribution. You know what you're getting.

Xtro, the original movie, was a British production involving an abducted father who comes back for his son, transforming him into an alien like himself and raising Hell for his ex-wife and friends.

This movie has nothing even resembling anything like that, with the exception of the director.

It is a bad sign when a movie sequel manages to forget some of what happened in the previous movie. It is a terrible sign when it completely ignores every thing like the plot, characters, situations, et al.

Even worse is when you hire Jan Michael Vincent at the height of his addiction phase, when he was on the verge of getting bounced from Airwolf for his drunken antics. His underwhelming presence in this film is a great display of the depths he had sunken to already.

I recently watched Xtro 2 (1991) on YouTube. The story follows a group of scientists working in an underground bunker who build a teleportation device to access another dimension. But once they open the portal, they have no idea what's waiting on the other side-or what might come through into our world... and they're about to find out.

Directed by Harry Bromley Davenport (Xtro), the film stars Jan-Michael Vincent (The Mechanic), Rachel Hayward (Cruel and Unusual), Paul Koslo (The Omega Man), and Tara Buckman (Silent Night, Deadly Night).

This sequel is a letdown. It feels like a made-for-TV movie and plays like a low-budget Aliens knockoff. The dialogue is stiff, the acting unconvincing, and the horror elements are weak-aside from a few decent corpse effects. The setting is passable for the story, but overall, there's nothing particularly memorable or original here.

I'd give this a 3/10 and recommend skipping it.

After all the bad reviews I read of this movie, I was dreading watching it. But it actually exceeded my expectations!! It's really fun! Don't listen to all the negative reviews. This was actually a very suspenseful, entertaining, low-budget SCI FI movie! Yes, there are some Alien elements in it of course, but I think the actors performances were really very good. Tara Buckman is fantastic as a "Linda Hamilton" type heroine. I really enjoyed her performance - she definitely leads the movie, and I have to say she's got wickedly cool hair too! She was a knockout in a Buck Rogers episode ('Unchained Woman') from the 70's. I was worried that Jan Michael Vincent would be alcohol-deadened, but he actually turns in an admirable performance as well! I know he's older, but some of that 80's 'action star' persona comes through really nicely, and he still has amazing charisma in front of the camera. It's also a treat to see a young Nicolas Lea (from the X Files) in this - battling aliens, no less! The alien itself is pretty interesting - nothing as scary as 'Aliens', but it's pretty cool special effects. Enjoy this movie- it's fun!!!!