Month: November 2024

Today’s quick review: Alien: Battlefield Earth. After an alien scout ship crashes in Area 51, the alien leader (David London) reluctantly declares war on humanity to rescue his captured brethren. As hostilities escalate, the President (Ryan Michaels) ignores the pleas of General Romney (Scott Scurlock) of the Air Force, Danny Collins (Derek Nelson) of Area 51, and Neil Taylor (Cameron Bass) of NASA to make peace with the aliens.

Alien: Battlefield Earth is an experimental budget sci-fi movie that follows the tragic incident that leads to war between a benevolent alien race and the people of Earth. The movie is notable for its highly restricted budget and the creative techniques it uses to compensate for it. Although Alien: Battlefield Earth pushes the boundaries of the medium to tell its story, its efforts are largely wasted on a bland and unsatisfying vision.

Alien: Battlefield Earth makes for a baffling watch. The movie is cobbled together out of stock footage for the battles, video conferences for the humans, and CGI sequences for the aliens on their ships. The stock footage leads to battles that are short, vague, and visually inconsistent; the video conferences are let down by poor acting and ill-defined characters; and the CGI sequences just barely manage to convey what they need to.

Viewed a certain way, these visual shortcuts are an innovative attempt to overcome the usual limitations of budget productions. However, nothing can make up for the movie’s narrative shortcomings. Alien: Battlefield Earth features a linear, poorly paced, and utterly generic plot. It dithers over the question of whether the aliens and humans can find peace, padding out this one conflict with irrelevant incidents and endless repetition.

The end result is a movie with no insight and nothing to look forward to. With a better story, Alien: Battlefield Earth could have been a clever exploration of what can be achieved with a minimal budget. Instead, Alien: Battlefield Earth ends up with the debilitating combination of a bland vision and a lack of resources to realize it. Only give it a shot if you are morbidly curious.

For another sci-fi movie that goes to creative lengths to stretch a thin budget, try Space Detective. For a budget sci-fi movie with a similar format but more polish, try The Beyond. For a budget alien invasion with more live action, try Fighting the Sky, Alien Uprising, Horizon, or Attack of the Unknown. For a big-budget alien invasion movie, try Independence Day or Edge of Tomorrow.

[2.5 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14257552/). I give it the same for rock-bottom production quality let down by a flat story.

Today’s quick review: Horizon. Bristol descends into panic when an alien spaceship appears in the sky over the city. Steven (Paul Tonkin) leads a group of friends and family—including Chloe (Alicia Ancel), Nicole (Kate Davies-Speak), and Dan (Simon Pearce)—to take shelter at his parents’ farm in the countryside. But the tide turns when Edward Coleridge (Dan Winter), an alien abductee from the past, asks them to help him stop the invasion.

Horizon is a budget sci-fi adventure about a group of friends trying to prevent an alien invasion. Horizon aims big for a movie of its budget. It features a large cast of survivors, a winding plot with a few secrets to uncover, and occasional action scenes to keep things interesting. But in spite of its ambition, it is held back by its limited budget and tonally mismatched story, making it a niche pick at best.

Horizon has clear flaws. The budget is a problem throughout, manifesting in cheap stunts, unconvincing acting, and limited special effects. Horizon actually does a fair job of working around these limitations, but they are still an impediment. The movie also does a mediocre job with its cast and plot. It avoids the extreme missteps of the worst budget movies, but it still has a hard time telegraphing how all its many pieces fit together.

More importantly, Horizon feels like two stories jammed together. The first is a dark and serious tale of survival at the end of the world, while the second is a jaunty adventure to stop an alien invasion. The tone shifts jarringly when Edward enters the picture, trivializing the death and mayhem of the early part of the movie by shifting to a contrived adventure that Steven, Nicole, and the others have little reason to be involved with.

For all of these faults, the movie has some charm. Relative to its budget, Horizon handles both halves of its story well, and it only runs into trouble when it tries to graft them together. There are extra steps to the invasion that a less ambitious movie would not have bothered with. The movie also has a good sense of what to spend its budget on, scraping together just enough in the way of special effects to make its story work.

Horizon represents an honest effort that is ultimately held back by indecision over what kind of movie it wants to be. If it had committed itself to either a survival drama or a sci-fi adventure and trimmed its loose plot threads, it would have been a tidy budget offering. As it stands, it has a host of flaws that the viewer will have to look past to see its virtues. Budget sci-fi fans may want to take a peek, but others should steer clear.

For another budget alien invasion set in England, try Alien Uprising. For a sci-fi action movie about an alien invasion that has a better plot and much higher production values, try Oblivion, Edge of Tomorrow, or Independence Day.

[3.6 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10310010/). I give it a 4.5 for a credible effort that doesn’t quite pan out.

Today’s quick review: Fighting the Sky. With mysterious sounds coming from the sky and abductees appearing out of nowhere, the public consciousness turns to aliens. Lorraine Gardner (Angela Cole), an alien researcher, reunites with Roy Shaw (Roger Conners) and the rest of her old team to track the sounds to their source. Meanwhile, Valerie Paz (Jinette Faraj), a clever young girl, searches for answers of her own.

Fighting the Sky is a budget science fiction movie about five friends who connect the dots on a series of alien encounters. Fighting the Sky aims to be a tense investigation, but it misplays its hand badly. The plot barely hangs together, the cast is bland and unwieldy, and the movie never finds a way to meaningfully raise the tension. The result is a series of disjointed ideas assembled into an uninteresting and poorly executed story.

Fighting the Sky suffers badly from its budget. The acting is wooden and unconvincing. The sound quality for the dialogue is poor. The soundtrack rarely matches what is on the screen. The special effects are sparing, although they show a little more polish than the rest of the movie. Although Fighting the Sky manages to avoid any catastrophic errors, the production quality seems low even for a budget picture.

Where some movies manage to make up for similar shortcomings through good storytelling, Fighting the Sky does not. The plot is a generic story about aliens that adds nothing new to the genre, and the pacing is slow. The pieces of the puzzle do not fit together into any meaningful pattern. And to top it all off, the movie has a bad habit of starting plot threads it never finishes, leaving the ending wholly unsatisfying.

Fighting the Sky is a rough pick, even for fans of budget movies. It goes through the motions reasonably well, and there are a handful of moments where the cast seems like they are having fun. But between its uninteresting ideas and its unengaging execution, Fighting the Sky will be a miss for the majority of viewers.

For a much smarter sci-fi drama about an alien researcher, try Arrival. For a budget alien invasion with similar problems and more action, try The Recall, Attack of the Unknown, or Alien Uprising.

[3.0 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4782322/). I give it the same for low production values and a lack of creativity.

Today’s quick review: Alien Uprising. England is thrown into chaos when, the day after a mysterious power outage, alien ships appear in the sky. Michael (Sean Brosnan), Carrie (Bianca Bree), Robin (Simon Phillips), Dana (Maya Grant), and Vincent (Jazz Lintott) must face looters, madmen, and alien scouts to reach Michael’s uncle George (Jean-Claude Van Damme), a former black ops soldier who can protect them.

Alien Uprising is a budget sci-fi movie about an alien invasion. The movie takes a slightly different tack than its bigger-budget counterparts. It focuses on the human side of the invasion, including the panic it causes, the darkness it brings out in people, and the difficult moral choices the survivors face. In spite of these promising themes, Alien Uprising suffers from weak execution and a poorly constructed story.

Alien Uprising has the makings of a decent budget flick. The characters are not phenomenal, but they have flaws that the story can work with. The movie takes its time building up to the invasion, focusing on the fear and confusion among the populace rather than flashy, plot-critical action. Alien Uprising even tinkers with a few interesting ideas for the mechanics of the invasion, although it is slow to develop them.

But very little of this potential pays off. Alien Uprising does a poor job of managing its story. The setup drags on and on, the characters start on arcs that never finish, and the story lurches from idea to idea without ever seeing them through to the end. Even worse, Alien Uprising does not have a clear objective in mind. The ending, when it comes, is awkwardly timed, poorly set up, and thoroughly unsatisfying.

Those willing to venture into the budget sci-fi genre will find Alien Uprising has a handful of ideas to offer but not much more than that. Those who are truly curious may want to give it a shot, but the movie is badly outclassed by its competition. Most viewers will want to give it a pass.

For a sci-fi movie about aliens invading Britain that has more attitude, try Attack the Block. For an alien invasion movie that uses its budget more intelligently, try The Darkest Hour or Skyline. For a budget sci-fi movie that suffers from similar problems, try Attack of the Unknown. For a monster movie with a similar focus on civilian survivors, try Cloverfield. For a thriller that examines a similar social breakdown, try The Mist.

[3.1 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2040578/). I give it a 4.0 for glimmers of potential amidst a mismanaged story.

Today’s quick review: Attack of the Unknown. Vernon (Richard Grieco), Hannah (Jolene Andersen), Maddox (Douglas Tait), Kai (Paul Gunn), and the rest of an LAPD SWAT team are transporting Hades (Robert LaSardo), a freshly arrested drug kingpin, when an alien invasion throws the city into chaos. Taking shelter in the jail, the survivors look for a way to fight back against the blood-sucking aliens.

Attack of the Unknown is a budget sci-fi action movie about a SWAT team caught in the middle of an alien invasion. Attack of the Unknown aims to be a thrilling and violent story of resourcefulness and perseverance. However, it falls well short of this goal. Bland characters, slow pacing, flimsy and misused special effects, and an array of storytelling missteps sap what potential the movie has, leaving it a weak movie with limited appeal.

Attack of the Unknown has a hard time getting to the point. From the long introduction showing the capture of Hades to the time wasted on civilians and their problems to the tangent-filled conversations that slow the action to a crawl, Attack of the Unknown does everything in its power to put off the actual conflict. Even when the invasion gets going, the movie is so stingy with its special effects that it’s hard to tell what’s going on.

Pacing issues aside, Attack of the Unknown suffers from weak acting and a dearth of ideas. Richard Grieco, Robert LaSardo, and to a lesser extent Jolene Andersen do a decent job with their parts, but none of the other roles are particularly likable, interesting, or well-acted. The story has very little to offer. The only relevant fact about the aliens is that they drink blood, and no other thought is put into their invasion.

Attack of the Unknown may catch the eye of a few budget action fans, but even then, there are movies that do more within the constraints of the genre. Apart from some very basic action, a linear plot, and decent acting from the leads, there is not much to latch onto. Most viewers will want to steer well clear.

For an alien invasion movie that makes better use of its special effects budget, check out Skyline or The Darkest Hour. For one with a more engaging story, try War of the Worlds or Attack the Block. For an action movie about police officers trapped in a jail, try Assault on Precinct 13.

[4.7 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8804580/). I give it a 3.5 for poor craftsmanship and an uninspired story.

“I’m telling you. This is how people die in movies.” —Alex

Today’s quick review: Rim of the World. Alex (Jack Gore), Dariush (Benjamin Flores, Jr.), Zhenzhen (Miya Cech), and Gabriel (Alessio Scalzotto) are at a summer camp in southern California when the world is ravaged by an alien invasion. Obeying the wishes of a dying astronaut, the teens embark on a perilous journey to deliver a key containing vital data to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.

Rim of the World is a sci-fi adventure about four teens on a mission to save the world. Hounded by an alien monster and surrounded by destruction, Alex, Dariush, Zhenzhen, and Gabriel have to muster their courage and travel the 70 miles to their destination. Rim of the World mixes teen humor with special effect-laden destruction. In spite of some rough spots with its story, it manages to be a fun watch.

Rim of the World’s greatest strength is its characters. Alex, Dariush, Zhenzhen, and Gabriel have vastly different personalities, but they balance each other nicely. Their bickering and pop culture references give the movie a steady source of humor, while they are just resourceful enough to face the challenges in front of them. Their characterization is missing some subtlety, but they provide a solid foundation for the movie to build on.

Still, Rim of the World is clumsy in places. The story works well enough, but it revisits the same ideas too many times. So while the journey has a fair amount of variety, the incidents begin to feel repetitive because they use the same tricks to get the kids in and out of trouble. The movie also has some tonal issues, mashing up the humor and levity of a family adventure with the high stakes and body count of something more mature.

The end result is something fun but not as polished as it could have been. Rim of the World is a fine pick if you’re in the mood for a comedy-laced adventure about four teens tossed into the deep end. Its characters are likable enough, its humor has a decent hit rate, and in spite of some holes in its logic, the plot covers the ground it needs to. Just don’t go in expecting the careful story and character work seen in some similar films.

For a sci-fi movie that pits a group of teens against alien invaders, try Super 8 or Attack the Block. For an alien invasion on a grander scale, try Independence Day. For one with a friendlier tone, try Home. For a family fantasy adventure about a boy facing his fears, try The Pagemaster.

[5.2 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8179388/). I give it a 6.0 to 6.5 for good characters, a fair plot, and a few rough edges.

Today’s quick review: Dark Skies. Lacy Barrett (Keri Russell), a struggling real estate agent, and her husband Daniel (Josh Hamilton), an unemployed architect, live in the suburbs with their sons Jesse (Dakota Goyo) and Sam (Kadan Rockett). After a series of bizarre intrusions at their home line up with Sam’s nightmares, Lacy and Daniel reluctantly seek answers from Edwin Pollard (J.K. Simmons), an expert on alien encounters.

Dark Skies is a sci-fi horror movie about one family’s brush with the unknown. Inexplicable incidents around the house escalate into blackouts and psychological symptoms that push the Barretts to their limits. Dark Skies features skillful character work, steady tension, and a suitably haunting mystery. Although Dark Skies is subdued for a horror movie, its sound judgment and craftsmanship make it a worthwhile watch.

Dark Skies has an eye for detail. Instead of drawing its story in broad strokes and leaving the rest for the audience to fill in, Dark Skies focuses on the countless details that bring its story to life. Every scene in the movie reveals more about the Barretts, ratchets up the tension, or both. The seeds that the movie plants early on bear fruit later, and the gradual escalation makes the events of the movie feel disturbingly plausible.

Dark Skies also hits a sweet spot with the mechanics of its plot. The early incidents are just ambiguous enough to keep the family and the audience on the hook without confirming anything specific. As the danger grows more acute, the Barretts find themselves running out of options, trapped in a situation they have no control over. The result is a well-scoped story with deliberate pacing and steady payoff.

For all its strengths, Dark Skies may have a hard time finding the right audience. The tone skews dark for a science fiction movie, with heavy doses of suspense and a few scares thrown in for good measure. However, some horror fans may find it too mundane. Instead of flashy special effects and major scares, Dark Skies opts for a slow boil with as much realism as it can manage.

Give Dark Skies a shot when you are in the mood for a dark and carefully crafted mystery. Dark Skies takes the right mix of fortitude and patience to get through, but the right viewer will appreciate what it does. Steer clear if you are looking for either flashier horror or a friendlier alien encounter.

For a sci-fi thriller about a boy menaced by mysterious entities, try Knowing. For a more tonally balanced sci-fi thriller about a family fighting aliens, try Signs. For a circumpsect and mysterious tale of alien contact, try Close Encounters of the Third Kind. For a much lighter encounter between a suburban family and an alien, try E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial. For a more defiant clash with aliens, try Attack the Block.

[6.3 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2387433/). I give it a 6.5 to 7.0 for solid characters and a chilling story.

Today’s quick review: Alien Warfare. Lieutenant Chris Marks (David Meadows) leads a team of Navy SEALs including Jonesy (Daniel Washington), Thorpe (Scott Roe), and Chris’s hotheaded brother Mike (Clayton Snyder). When the entire staff of a top-secret government research lab vanishes into thin air, Chris and his men are sent to investigate. There they find a lone survivor (Larissa Andrade) and an alien device with immense destructive power.

Alien Warfare is a budget sci-fi action movie about a Navy SEAL team that has a hostile encounter with aliens. To make it home alive, Chris and his team must figure out what happened to the research staff, discover the true nature of the device they were studying, and find a way to overcome the alien soldiers sent to retrieve it. Limited vision and a highly constrained budget prevent the movie from having any real impact.

Alien Warfare struggles with the same problems as other budget films and does a poor job of coping with them. The cast feels understaffed, with only five major characters in a genre that would normally have a few soldiers to spare. The story takes place in a single building with nothing special about it. To make matters worse, the movie is stingy with its special effects and not especially creative with how it uses them.

Still, Alien Warfare puts in a good effort. There is a clear plot progression, albeit a sluggish one. The characters have distinct personalities, and while their interactions are largely a miss, there are glimmers of some fun dynamics. And while the movie’s science fiction is not too original, some of the details are viable. Alien Warfare simply fails to find a way to capitalize on its strengths and work within the constraints it is given.

Ultimately, Alien Warfare will have limited appeal, if any. Fans of budget science fiction will not find the innovative or ambitious movie they may be looking for, while those looking for major flubs will be disappointed by its sensible but underwhelming execution. As such, most viewers would be better off looking elsewhere.

For a more sinister trip into a malfunctioning facility, try Resident Evil. For a budget horror movie with a similar premise and a darker tone, try The Facility. For a budget alien invasion movie, try Occupation, Taking Earth, or Cosmic Sin. For one with a little more success, try The Darkest Hour or Extinction.

[2.6 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9562694/). I give it a 3.0 for an honest effort that ultimately has little to offer.

Today’s quick review: The Recall. Charlie (Jedidiah Goodacre), Annie (Laura Bilgeri), Brendan (RJ Mitte), Rob (Niko Pepaj), and Kara (Hannah Rose May) are staying at a cabin in the woods when a mysterious cloud formation heralds the arrival of an alien spacecraft. As aliens stalk the woods around the cabin, the friends must join forces with a paranoid hunter (Wesley Snipes) to survive the night.

The Recall is a budget sci-fi thriller that pits five young adults and a hunter against an alien abduction force. The Recall gets the basics right, with a viable setup, a few interesting ideas, and a good sense of anticipation. However, it struggles to weave these elements together into a cohesive whole. Pacing issues, weak thrills, and a general lack of payoff make The Recall a less-than-satisfying pick.

The Recall never figures out the right way to escalate. The groundwork is fine, but as soon as the aliens are introduced, the movie struggles. The brief encounters that are meant to build tension mostly fall flat, the main characters are given very little to do, and the explanations come a while after they would have been useful. As such, The Recall misses the chance to capitalize on its ideas. By the time they blossom, it is too late.

The Recall has glimmers of potential, enough to make it a fair pick for connoisseurs of budget sci-fi or horror. But the movie strikes out on the countless little details needed to make its ideas work. Viewers who are interested can do better for both thrills and mystery.

For a stranger horror movie about five friends being hunted in the woods, check out The Cabin in the Woods. For a more action-packed alien encounter that plays by similar rules, try Skyline or Predator. For a more thought-provoking brush with alien intelligence, try Chronicle, The Signal, or Solaris. For a non-science fiction thriller about a group of friends who tangle with a gunman in the woods, try Blood Money.

[4.2 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5669936/). I give it a 4.5 for workable ideas that are poorly executed.

Today’s quick review: Gallowwalkers. Aman (Wesley Snipes) sought revenge against the men who raped his lover, only for them to come back to life after he killed them. Now Aman turns to Fabulos (Riley Smith), a young gunslinger, and Angel (Tanit Phoenix), an imprisoned dancer, to bury Kansa (Kevin Howarth) and his gang for good.

Gallowwalkers is a budget Western action horror movie starring Wesley Snipes. The movie pits a vengeful gunslinger against the crew of outlaws he already killed once. Gallowwalkers aims to be a haunting tale packed with gore and malevolent forces. But its execution falls well short of the mark. Shoddy storytelling, low-budget action, and minimal acting to speak of leave the movie’s modest potential untapped.

Gallowwalkers’ main problem is that it does a poor job of conveying its ideas. The opening is a jumble of out-of-context encounters, flashbacks, and voiceovers that do almost nothing to orient the viewer. While answers come eventually, they are not worth the wait. The movie also has the habit of killing off characters before they have been introduced, turning the story into a jumble of strange ideas that are never given the chance to grow.

Even setting aside its story, Gallowwalkers struggles with the fundamentals. There is gore aplenty, but the villains are so ineffectual that it has no impact. The movie also takes a long time to explain the rules of the undead, meaning most of the early encounters have unclear stakes. Finally, none of the characters have complete arcs, giving Wesley Snipes and the rest of the cast little opportunity to act.

Gallowwalkers may hold some appeal for fans of schlocky, budget horror, but its muddled story and unimpressive action mean that the right audience will be hard to come by. Although there is some merit in its premise, and Snipes has played similar roles to good effect, Gallowwalkers’ execution leaves much to be desired. Most viewers should skip it.

For Wesley Snipes in a better supernatural role, try the Blade trilogy. For a Western action movie with similar elements of the supernatural, try Jonah Hex or BloodRayne: Deliverance. For a Western-themed action horror movie in a sci-fi setting, try Priest. For a superhero action horror movie with Western influences, try Ghost Rider or its sequel. For an unconventional Western with more imagination, try The Warrior’s Way.

[3.6 out of 10 on IMDB](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0829176/). I give it a 3.5 for weak execution of serviceable premise.