Teddie Blake
The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.
Brenda
The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one
Nicole
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
deanlach
A relaxed James Caan and the warm voice his co-star and cop-partner Mandy Patinkin help drive the story. I recognized one of the bad guys from the Death Wish 2 movie. Kevyn Major Howard was also in Full Metal Jacket.The Aliens (Newcomers)were given funky names by their homeland hosts. This is kind of a wink to the old immigration standards of Ellis Island. I'm sure the writers had fun assigning names to their Alien Characters, like the infamous writer "Kipling."The choice of names in the film was a light-hearted effect throughout the film. For example, Sam Franciso was Patinkin's given name. Effects wise, this movie was good for an 80's film. But I wasn't entirely happy with the Alien makeup, which reminded me of a hair-cap.I do like this movie much more than the TV series.
Theo Robertson
The buddy cop movie was a popular and short lived genre from the late 1980s early 1990s . It was obvious why it was so short lived because it followed a standard formula of a hard bitten veteran cop getting teamed up with an innocent or unlikely partner . Veteran doesn't like innocent partner but they bond and innocent partner wins veteran's respect as they crack the case together ALIEN NATION brings a gimmick to this formula and that is one of them is an alien ! You see an alien race have come to Earth and Ronald Reagen allows them to stay and a few years later the aliens try to assimilate to Earth ways . James Cann plays tough cop Matthew Sykes whose partner is killed in a shoot out and gets partnered by alien newcomer Sam Francisco One can't help noticing the potential to ALIEN NATION . We don't learn much about the aliens and perhaps mindful of this the producers thought there'd be a lot of mileage in bringing out more sequels expanding upon the aliens culture . As it stood the film didn't do very well but a television series was quickly commissioned and just as quickly cancelled but did lead to a continuation via a series of made for television films It's easy to understand why ALIEN NATION wasn't a big box office success . Film makers like Paul Verhoeven were really pushing the boat out with violence round about this time and even when it was released ALIEN NATION seemed slightly tame . It's also a film that tries to bring a bit of satirical humour such as a scene where RAMBO 6 is advertised at the cinema and the humorous names of the visitors " Rudyard Kipling no sh*t ! " but there isn't enough of this in the film
Neil Welch
Alien Nation is based on a simple premise - 300,000 humanoid aliens land on Earth and are offered sanctuary and their assimilation into society is inevitably coloured by racial prejudice. A prejudiced policeman is teamed up with an alien partner to investigate criminal activity within the alien subgroup.The joy of this movie is that it makes no big deal out of the aliens - they are treated, for the purposes of the film, like any other racial subgroup might be, and the racial prejudice allegory (and the dramatic thrust of the movie overall) is that much stronger as a result.This is effectively a relatively straightforward police crime thriller with scifi trappings and an intelligent subtext, and it succeeds well on all levels.The alien makeup is simple but effective.James Caan's weary detective is among his best work and Mandy Patinkin, unrecognisable beneath the latex prosthetics, is excellent as Sam Francisco (yes, really).
Paul Andrews
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.
