Alien Nation is set in Los Angeles several years after we make contact with a genetically engineered race of slave aliens whose spaceship has landed in the Mojave desert during 1989 & cannot take off again, these humanoid shaped aliens known as Newcomers are given the same rights as any human being & start to live & form a community in Los Angeles alongside us humans. Detective Sergeant Matthew Sykes (James Caan) & his partner Detective Bill Tuggle (Roger Aaron Brwon) stumble upon an armed robbery involving several Newcomers, during a shoot-out Tuggle is shot dead by a Newcomer. Determined to find his partner's killer Sykes volunteers to partner the first Newcomer (Mandy Patinkin) to make detective & use him for his own vendetta. However the situation becomes critical when the mismatched duo discover a prominent Newcomer named William Harcourt (Terence Stamp) making & selling a dangerous drug that is as addictive to Newcomers as Heroin is to us...
Directed by Graham Baker this is an odd film that on the one hand is so clichéd it's untrue but on the other feels like no other film I have ever seen. The script by Rockne S. O'Bannon at first glance would pass for a generic Lethal Weapon (1987) or any other buddy buddy cop film rip-off, the two films are incredibly similar including the mismatched partner's (one of whom gives the 'we ain't pal's or friends' line to begin with), the plot revolving around drugs is almost identical to Lethal Weapon, there's a car chase at the end, the final bad guy confrontation, the two partner's using their unique styles to question suspects, the fact that one hates the other at first but then grow's a mutual respect for them by the end & if you take away the sci-fi alien aspect of Alien Nation then the two films are virtually identical. However what saves Alien nation is that sci-fi element, in Lethal Weaopn there were racial tensions because of differing ethnicity but here in Alien Nation the idea is taken to the absolute limit as having two cops teamed up who aren't even members of the same species! This is where most of the interest in Alien Nation comes from, there are some really good character driven scenes including Sykes trying to tell a joke to his partner or explain what a condom is for instance while his Newcomer partner tries to present his people's side of the situation. This angle of the film isn't as deep or throughly explored as it might have been but that's another reason I like Alien Nation, all the obvious allergies to racial hatred & tension aren't too heavy handed, too forced, preachy or totally drown out the thriller aspects of the film.
Director Baker does an OK job here, he keeps things moving along at a decent pace although I'd have liked a bit more sci-fi in it. I mean the film isn't even set in the future & as such it has dated a little bit. There's a pretty cool car chase at the end & a couple of good shoot-outs but the appearance of an alien monster at the end felt a little out of odds with the rest of it. The alien make-up is OK if a little unimaginative, they just look like bald people with a mottled pattern on their scalps. I am not sure about this but apparently there are two versions of Alien Nation floating around, one with subtitles for when the Newcomers speak in their own language & one without the subtitles. I saw the version without subtitles & it did get quite annoying not understanding what they were saying to each other. The original musical score for Alien Nation composed by Oscar winner Jerry Goldsmith was rejected in post production for being 'too weird' even though it was complete to be replaced by the Curt Sobel soundtrack now heard on the final edit.
With a supposed budget of about $16,000,000 Alien Nation didn't have a huge budget but it does look good with good production values, special effects & Los Angeles location filming. The acting is good especially from James Caan who is great in this (did he have his gas cut off in the end?) while Terence Stamp is unrecognisable under all the make-up.
Alien Nation is an odd film since it is so clichéd & by the numbers except the alien angle which really does transform it from an average buddy buddy cop film to a throughly decent sci-fi thriller. Followed by the Alien Nation (1989) TV series which ran for twenty three episodes & the made-for-TV film Alien Nation (1989) before another five made-for-TV films including Alien Nation: Dark Horizon (1994), Alien Nation: Body and Soul (1995), Alien Nation: Millennium (1996), Alien Nation: The Enemy Within (1996) & finally Alien Nation: The Udara Legacy (1997) seem to have rounded things off.
Directed by Graham Baker this is an odd film that on the one hand is so clichéd it's untrue but on the other feels like no other film I have ever seen. The script by Rockne S. O'Bannon at first glance would pass for a generic Lethal Weapon (1987) or any other buddy buddy cop film rip-off, the two films are incredibly similar including the mismatched partner's (one of whom gives the 'we ain't pal's or friends' line to begin with), the plot revolving around drugs is almost identical to Lethal Weapon, there's a car chase at the end, the final bad guy confrontation, the two partner's using their unique styles to question suspects, the fact that one hates the other at first but then grow's a mutual respect for them by the end & if you take away the sci-fi alien aspect of Alien Nation then the two films are virtually identical. However what saves Alien nation is that sci-fi element, in Lethal Weaopn there were racial tensions because of differing ethnicity but here in Alien Nation the idea is taken to the absolute limit as having two cops teamed up who aren't even members of the same species! This is where most of the interest in Alien Nation comes from, there are some really good character driven scenes including Sykes trying to tell a joke to his partner or explain what a condom is for instance while his Newcomer partner tries to present his people's side of the situation. This angle of the film isn't as deep or throughly explored as it might have been but that's another reason I like Alien Nation, all the obvious allergies to racial hatred & tension aren't too heavy handed, too forced, preachy or totally drown out the thriller aspects of the film.
Director Baker does an OK job here, he keeps things moving along at a decent pace although I'd have liked a bit more sci-fi in it. I mean the film isn't even set in the future & as such it has dated a little bit. There's a pretty cool car chase at the end & a couple of good shoot-outs but the appearance of an alien monster at the end felt a little out of odds with the rest of it. The alien make-up is OK if a little unimaginative, they just look like bald people with a mottled pattern on their scalps. I am not sure about this but apparently there are two versions of Alien Nation floating around, one with subtitles for when the Newcomers speak in their own language & one without the subtitles. I saw the version without subtitles & it did get quite annoying not understanding what they were saying to each other. The original musical score for Alien Nation composed by Oscar winner Jerry Goldsmith was rejected in post production for being 'too weird' even though it was complete to be replaced by the Curt Sobel soundtrack now heard on the final edit.
With a supposed budget of about $16,000,000 Alien Nation didn't have a huge budget but it does look good with good production values, special effects & Los Angeles location filming. The acting is good especially from James Caan who is great in this (did he have his gas cut off in the end?) while Terence Stamp is unrecognisable under all the make-up.
Alien Nation is an odd film since it is so clichéd & by the numbers except the alien angle which really does transform it from an average buddy buddy cop film to a throughly decent sci-fi thriller. Followed by the Alien Nation (1989) TV series which ran for twenty three episodes & the made-for-TV film Alien Nation (1989) before another five made-for-TV films including Alien Nation: Dark Horizon (1994), Alien Nation: Body and Soul (1995), Alien Nation: Millennium (1996), Alien Nation: The Enemy Within (1996) & finally Alien Nation: The Udara Legacy (1997) seem to have rounded things off.