Wow, this is a REALLY bad movie!

Simply Perfect

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

When his partner is killed, racist and prejudiced cop Matthew Sykes (James Caan) teams up with an alien newcomer cop Sam Francisco(Mandy Patinkin) to try to find those that were responsible for killing his partner. Animosity is rife between the two cops almost immediately as it was one of Francisco's 'kind' that was responsible for his partner's death.For the first 5 minutes or so this film was great and it reminded me of the sort of thing that Paul Verhoeven might have directed - it suggests that there is going to be some satire between aliens and humans and humans being forced to integrate with the aliens, but this seems to have been established for no real reason other than Baker ripping off Verhoeven as this has precious bearing on the story....And what a pity because had Baker gone down this road then it certainly would have made the film a lot more fun. The problem with this film is that it is silly and daft, but when watching it I couldn't help but feel that no-one had let the director in on the joke? The whole film is dull and lacking in energy and it seems as though Baker was on Prozac when he directed this film. It is also drab and cheap looking (although this may be due to budget constraints). Baker isn't entirely to blame for this picture as the script doesn't have much to it either - given how daft the film is I didn't expect a lot of depth, but it perhaps would have been fun or interesting to show some of the cultural differences between the aliens and the humans or anything that might have made their co-existence together amusing.The really sad thing about this film is that it doesn't even get the best out of what can be considered as generally 'talented actors' - James Caan looked bored and mildly embarrassed throughout the film as well as putting in a pretty poor performance. Terrence Stamp (under heavy prosthetics) is playing the villain (again) which is something that he can do in his sleep, but even he isn't as effective or menacing as he normally is - although he still gives the best performance by a country mile. The chemistry between Caan and Patinkin is weak with only the odd exchange being amusing.Effectively what you have here is a reasonably good concept which is wasted on a director with no vision and a screenwriter with no imagination. Had it been a bit more fun and had the story been slightly more developed then it might have been passable, but in playing it straight as a 'buddy cop' film with next to none of the redeeming qualities of a good 'buddy cop' film Alien Nation simply doesn't work.

The idea for this movie is brilliant , yet sadly wasted . This movie is basically your typical cop thriller only with aliens in it . The story isn't too interesting and it's a cliché one . "District 9" made a better use of the "aliens living with us" idea . Here it seems half-baked. You could easily imagine this story without them.It's bizarre enough to keep you interested , it's funny at times . James Caan ("The Godfather") is nice in the main role. The idea here is pretty great , too bad it's wasted on such a conventional thriller. It's so cliché it almost hurts . Done by the numbers , there is nothing new here that you haven't seen in thousands other cop thrillers , nothing stands out. Such a shame.A cheesy , rather routine cop thriller dressed up as science fiction movie . A simple story about tolerance and buddy-cop movie all in one. Nothing more , nothing less. I give it 3/10.

The idea of a fleet of spaceships bringing(literal) alien(renamed newcomers) refugees seeking asylum on Earth, and the inevitable culture clashes and problems this would bring is a good one, and the film does have good performances(stars James Caan & Mandy Patinkin as cop and alien partner) but it is such a pity that this is thrown away so that they could be shoehorned into a standard "buddy" comedy/thriller involving both human and newcomer drug lords exploiting a weakness of the Aliens by recreating an addictive drug to hook them on. Nothing new or compelling emerges as a result. Too bad it becomes so predictable and obvious.Still, this did inspire a TV series with a loyal following(Haven't seen it though!)

I remember how fascinated I was with the concepts explored in this picture back in the day - the idea of curdled milk as refreshing, and sea water corrosive to an alien race. The idea of extra-terrestrials living and working among us, assimilating into society while confronting a similar type of racism that all 'different' cultures experience when settling in a new environment. It's what gives focus to the relationship between detective Matt Sykes (James Caan) and his 'Newcomer' partner Sam Francisco (Mandy Patinkin). That's a great speech by Sam/George where he laments how humans have failed to live up to the same potential they have offered the aliens. Makes you think about how we really haven't improved all that much as a society over the past twenty years.Watching the film the other night, I was struck by how much blatant product placement went on in the picture - subtle ads for stuff like Tasters Choice Coffee, Smirnoff Vodka, and repeated images of those Bartles and James guys before they went down in a hail of gunfire during the convenience store robbery. There was even a marquee for Rambo III playing in theaters at the time; I wonder why they offered free time to a competitor.I was probably more intrigued by the memory of this picture than the film itself; as I watched it the other night I thought that the second half moved rather slowly. I'm having a hard time understanding why the villain Harcourt (Terence Stamp) went to such great lengths to protect his investment in Jabluka, when for all intents and purposes, the aliens could get it anywhere. I mean really, today you can buy Tide in a dozen assorted flavors.And speaking of tides, it was rather noble to see George risk his life to save a buddy by hanging out over an ocean full of battery acid. You don't have to be an alien to know that that was a wild and crazy thing to do. I thought about how all that salt spray should have been hitting George in the face, but then you wouldn't have had the dramatic save for this buddy movie to end on a high note.