One of my all time favorites.

one of my absolute favorites!

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I may have been up really late at night, but I didn't mind 'Alien Species' at all. Its craftsmanship for such a cheap B-movie production was pretty good (although the special effects looked like they were created on a Nintendo or Sega Genesis, and then grafted onto the film), the script was interesting enough in the realm of 'alien hostile takeover' movies, and its pace never lagged for a second. While watching it, the film's ending was very ambiguous, as if this had been planned as a pilot film for a TV-series, or at the very least, a feature-length sequel.I loved the work of veteran character actors Charles Napier and Hoke Howell (the latter died shortly after the film's completion, and the death is mentioned in the end credits). Their consummate professionalism gave a classy sheen that the film otherwise didn't deserve. It's definitely worth a watch, though, to fans of both B-movies and of science fiction.

I just checked the film credits for the two principal female characters in this flick. Ashley Semrick (Stacy) appeared in two movies, nine years apart, while Jodi Seronick (Carol) only has this one. Just goes to show what a picture like this can do for your acting career.But let's not get too carried away. This is NOT the worst picture ever made and doesn't come close to cracking my Top Ten Worst List. For that, you have to go into "She Gods of Shark Reef" territory. Still, there's no way a picture like this should have even been attempted as late as 1996. Seriously, who came up with the idea of transporting convicts in a prison van (no barrier between the cops and the bad guys by the way) and putting it smack dab in the middle of a sci-fi flick?However, if you pay attention, you can have a great time of cataloging the amount of sheer nonsense found here. Like the endless supply of aliens and ammo during the entire cave sequence, the cuts and bruises that come and go on the faces of Carol and Stacy, and the sudden appearance of a grenade launcher pulled out of the back seat of Max's car just before the final confrontation. Really? My candidates though for the most inane single element in the film come down to convict Towers (Marc Robinson) adjusting the rear view mirror trying to outrun the aliens, and Stacy replying that she 'pushed the wrong button' while Max was trying to get a bead on the spacecraft. Oh yeah, and a close contender was when Towers asked Stacy to hold the antenna thingy a little higher, and she went a full arm length. You think it helped that much?But you know, films like this do serve a purpose. They absolutely bring out the best in IMDb movie reviewers, any single one of which is more entertaining than actually watching the picture. How much time we could all save if we just read them first.

When "Alien Species" began, I was surprised at the overall look of crappiness to the film. It was obviously shot as a direct to video film--with production values that you'd normally see in a high school production. The special effects are indeed special--and most look absolutely terrible. It's funny, but today most teenagers could make better effects on their laptop computers with rather inexpensive software. For 1996 it's not 100% terrible, but it was dated even for that time as well as incredibly cheap. The only thing the film has for it, such as it is, is the familiar face of Charles Napier. While he's a mostly one-note guy in this film (snarling and grouchy throughout--like he's struggling with a bad case of the gout), it did make a 100% crappy production look only 98% crappy. Why still 98%? Well, because his performance was THE BEST one in the film, as most of the actors could barely deliver their lines and the sound was pretty bad.The story begins with some 'scientists' (they look more like college undergrads) discovering that something has invaded our planet. What follows is a meandering film with LOTS of macho bull performances (almost like you only cast pro wrestlers in all the roles), explosions, crappy space ships and minimal excitement. Even for a bad movie buff like me, there is a dullness about it that made it more of a chore to watch than anything else.In many ways, this is like a modern day Ed Wood production. Even Wood could get Bela Lugosi and Lyle Talbot to star in "Plan 9 From Outer Space"--so "Alien Species" getting Napier in the movie is a lot less impressive when you think about it. Plus, the pie plates that were literally used for flying UFOs in "Plan 9" weren't really that much worse than the CG alien ships in this 1996 turkey. The overall viewing experience is something you just have to see to believe, as it's bad in every possible way. If more folks saw this film, it would most likely make IMDb's Bottom 100 list...it's that bad.

I love movies where I can honestly say that I would have done a better job directing. Seriously. I'm not Mr. "Oh, I can do better than that" usually. But I think my dog could have directed this movie better, and I don't have a dog. Doesn't make sense, does it? Neither does the director's strategy for making this movie.This is one of those movies that must have a budget of about $10,000 and you wonder "where did the money go"? I can only assume that the explosions in the film were an accident, since nothing else in the movie works, especially the plot. I also think that the actors in the movie were not only not trained in the art of acting, but deliberately taught wrong as a joke.In this movie, you expect a hard-core sex scene to come on at any moment, not because of any sexual tension that has built up, but because the movie looks like it was shot by the same people who brought you anal whores volume seven. They should have paid the actresses an extra $50/day to score some crack and act while high. At least that would have been interesting.To sum up, only see this movie while drunk with friends. Recommend this movies to none but your worst enemies, and see a good movie directly after this to avoid having the badness of this movie contaminate you.