Please check out my review of this film and many others on The Looseleaf Report. Thanks a lot, and let me know what you think.
http://thelooseleafreport.blogspot.com/2009/03/homage-to-genre.html
That's the first intelligent review of the film I've read so far. Most of the others were made by people who only know 50s science fiction films from parodies of the genre by modern filmmakers.
shareI just saw it today. Your statement was right. This is not a spoof or a remake. It's as if they plucked a sci-fi monster movie from the Eisenhower era into 2009. I am so glad they decided to use the cheesy, cheap effects for the Ghota (the bad alien they're all chasing, or running away from). They could have easily loaned it out to a special effects house and in turn those folks would have made it CGI. Same thing for Urp in his original form. Just a guy dressed up in a silvery suit with a silver helmet, like what would have happened in a 50's movie of this type.
The stereotypical town residents were there as you mentioned, and they all did a fine job. Even the exaggerated "scared" facial expressions were very B movie like. All in all, a nice bit of nostalgia brought to 2009.
I just saw it tonight
loved it :)
"Why would they want the Duke's...son killed?"
I saw Alien Trespass in 35mm back in March at a pre-release screening and enjoyed the film, BUT.....
I came away wondering about its purpose. Clearly the director and star were enamored of the same fun films from the '50s that I enjoyed, and that visitors to these boards liked too. Their success in tv gave them the opportunity to get backing for a film. However, is liking something enough to justify making a film, just to pay a tribute of sorts? The result is pastiche, not originality.
Of course, if you've got the bucks, you are free to create anything you please, but filmmaking, especially now, is expensive. It's not like writing the Great American Novel, or more to the point, sitting down and blogging. It involves hundreds of people, and the result is exposed to the whole wide world (hopefully) for approval.
So my misgivings have proved to be true -check out the grosses on this film and you will see it was heartily rejected by the filmgoing public of 2009. Such an extreme flop that you can't help but feel sorry for the theater owners who booked it, rather than the filmmakers. In a world of entertainment saturated with sensationalism, a film that errs on the side of MILD like Alien Trespass is doomed.
At any rate, I highly recommend to all fans of Alien Trespass that they check out Joe Dante's Matinee, a film I saw back in first-run in 1993 which sank without much of a trace, but was also a tribute to this genre. Joe is a true film buff when it comes to fantasy, and perhaps he could have given Alien Trespass the spark, the pizzazz, the je ne sais quoi that was lacking.
Love itWhen there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...