There is a certain member of movie fandom that loves old movies. And each genre has its own devotees. Classic musical fans love the MGM musicals. Horror fans the Universal classics. And science fiction fans love those bug eyed monsters invading earth from the stars. The film ALIEN TRESPASS pays homage to those films while placing a tongue firmly in cheek.The story begins (in the extended version) with the grandson of the film's producer and the grandson of the film's star introducing the picture. Of course they carry on the fight that began with their grandfathers over the film and then allow it to begin. The film had been shelved for years and now they'd decided to release it.
The story begins with astronomer/professor Ted Lewis (Eric McCormack) watching the skies while cooking on the grill as a meteor shower begins. But when a large meteor lands nearby, he abandons his wife at home to investigate.
As we already know, the meteor was actually a spaceship crashing. And while we watch, an alien in space gear exits the ship and wanders about. When Lewis shows up, his mouth opens to scream but before we can hear the scene changes.
Cut to lovers lane where teens Dick and Penny are parked. They have seen the crash as well but think it was just a meteor. As Penny pushes away Dick's advances and encourages him to leave the area, they are confronted by a 6 foot tall, one eyed, tentacled creature. The care starts and they escape. But who to tell? No one will believe two teens in the 1950's.
The local police think it's all a prank when people begin missing and the teens tell their tale of a monster on the loose. But all the while Lewis, now possessed by the alien, hunts down this monster. With the help of waitress and aspiring artist Tammy, he tracks down the alien and explains what is going on.
It turns out the alien's name is Urp and he was transporting the Ghota to a prison planet when it forced his craft to crash. Now they have just a few hours before the Ghota divides and begins a quest for world domination based on its hunger. They only have a small amount of time to save the planet, but how can they do so with no help from the local law?
The movie plays it straight as if this actually was a film made during the science fiction craze of the fifties. Everything from the sets to the styles to the acting screams low budget B-movie cheese. The people who made those films truly thought they were making something special, which we now can recognize that they did. At the same time they were making some of the campiest messes ever placed on celluloid.
The movie doesn't knock those early films though. Instead it is paying tribute to the films that came before, giving a wink and a nod to film buffs along for the ride. The actors actually act as we recall the actors from that time period acting in these films. The monster is extremely low budget looking but functional. Amazingly enough the only thing that doesn't look lifted from that time period is the cinematography.
McCormack does a great job as grandfather/grandson. While the elder of the two spoke as if he was the greatest actor alive, McCormack shows his pompous side as is that of his grandson. Robert Patrick shows up as an obnoxious sheriff who takes the teens in town to task just for being young. Dan Lauria turns in a steady performance as the town sheriff who doesn't believe but begins to do so as the body count rises and pools of goo are left in the wake of the Ghota.
Directed by R. W. Goodwin who wrote several period piece episodes of THE X-FILES, the film shows his love of movies like THE BLOB and IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE with a touch of I MARRIED A MAN FROM OUTER SPACE tossed in. You get the sense he has a true admiration of the genre and perhaps can encourage a new generation to seek them out.
ALIEN TRESPASS isn't a perfect film. It also might not be for certain tastes. But it does offer an entertaining evening for rental that the entire family can watch together. Fun, homage and the confrontation between man and alien make for a film worth watching.
Stiff Acting ... Check
Cheesy Special Effects ... Check
Hip Kids in Cool Cars ... Check
Square Cops ... Check
Rubber Suite Monsters ... Check
Weird SciFi'ish Music ... Check
Well, I guess that's all that's needed, we have a 1950's monster movie.
No plot spoilers from me, and none are needed if you ever saw even one of those old movies, the movie is "actually" a 1957 Hollywood movie that never got released, as explained in a newsreel style format at the beginning. The main plot follows Ted Lewis (Eric McCormack), a mild mannered astronomer, as the small town experiences a wave of strange events and disappearances that seem to be related to a meteor crash in the desert. Character actors Robert Patrick and Dan Lauria are the local police, and Jody Thompson as Lana, Ted's wife. R.W. Goodwin (The X-Files) produced and directed the movie.
The cinematography was fairly good and I liked the use of oversaturated colors to give that 1950 feel. The music score was exactly what you would expect from this type of movie and really set the right tone. There was very little to take offence to in the movie besides some very vague suggestive remarks and one biological reference.
Overall, this was a fun movie that might be lost on younger viewers but was very enjoyable to me. Recommended!Alien Trespass is a fun movie. It's a quirky film that playfully tries to pass itself off as a "lost" sci-fi epic from 1957 that has recently been discovered. Well, the bright color and limited use of computer effects blow that out of the water. Not to mention a character saying, "I gotta take a whiz". But this movie isn't trying to replicate a 50s film to the letter, instead it's done in the same style as far as the storyline goes, as well as the acting style.
The plot takes elements from classic 50s sci-fi films and puts them in a blender for an entertaining story. In the film, an intergalactic "federal marshal" named Urp lands on Earth to apprehend a Ghota, which looks like a large pickle with tentacles and one eye. Temporarily using the body of a pipe smoking astronomer, Ted Lewis, the spacecop clumsily makes his way through town, knowing practically nothing about how to interact with human beings. Meanwhile, the dreaded Ghota is going on a killing spree, eating everyone in it's path and leaving only slimy puddles behind. The disappearances get the police thinking the culprit may be Lewis, as his new and bizarre behavior is suspicious. Plus, there are various people including two teenage lovers, who have seen the Ghota and are trying to convince people. The only one who seems to believe the incredible story is a waitress at the local diner who teams up with Urp for the big showdown with the Ghota.
This film is a tribute and an homage, but it is not a parody or spoof exactly. I've never been all that fond of spoofs of this kind of material as they seem unnecessary. After all, you're trying to spoof something that was already funny to begin with. Since the acting and writing style here are in the vein of the 50s, the laughs don't come from wink-winks and nudge-nudges to the audience, but instead come from the same things that made you laugh at those old movies. The acting is impressive(especially from lead Eric McCormack) considering that trying to learn the acting style of this time period and genre can't be as easy as it looks.
It's not perfect by any means. I feel it should have been done in Black & White and eliminated the scarce computer graphics altogether, as it tends to go against the overall cheapness the movie is going for. Oh, well.
The disc has some nice extras with "vintage" interviews with the cast as well as legitimate interviews with director Goodwin and Eric McCormack.
Many folks are gonna walk away from this thinking it's terrible, especially if they have no clue what the whole thing was supposed to be. But to us oddballs that adore the schlocky sci-fi films of the 50s, Alien Trespass is a real treat.
Read Best Reviews of Alien Trespass (2009) Here
Okay why did I rate it so high?Three reason;
#1 It doesn't not intend, nor does it try, to take itself seriously. It is a 'serious' parody of the classic sci-fi films of the 40's, 50's and 60's. It made me smile many times and even laugh out loud at how many of the older films in this genre really did these gimicks. (And they WERE taking themselves very serious!)
#2 It's colorful. Watching this farse of a parody makes the colors jump at you from the screen. The costumes, cars, sets, props and even the decore are all smack out of 50's Life Magazine. You can't help but look at everything in the frame.
#3 Eric McCormack Always a fan of his in the 'Will & Grace' TV show I feel he was taking a very serious approach to the project. 'Playing' it as if it were real and being shot in the 50's. Playing a duel role Im sure he had a greta time doing it.
In fact he did. How do I know he told me at a pannel at the 2009 Comic Con convention for the Alien Tresspass assembly. Along with the director and orginal artwork from the film they gave the information and great detail as to what went into it.
The story is simple: Aliens need humans for food. An alien policeman is defending Earth from invasion and he is in the form of a human he takes over (surprise!) Eric McCormack. Of course he......well I don't want to ruin it for you!
I can appreciate the performances and the people on the production side very much, but watching made me look at some of the old classic films (Forbidden Planet, Them, The Fly, The Day The Earth Stood Still) and wonder did they know what they were making at the time?
I liked it for its pure non-sensical form, mimicking style and bright colors. I think you will too. 6-8-10
Want Alien Trespass (2009) Discount?
Five stars for what this movie is, a humorous, tongue-in-cheek sendup of the sci-fi films of the 1950's. To its evocations of other films that other reviewers have mentioned I would add "The Day The Earth Stood Still."If you're old enough to remember the 1950's you will love the verisimiltude in this movie. The cops' car is a 1953 four-door Model 210 Chevrolet (6-cylinder Blue Flame engine, 115 hp., 6-volt electrical system). The professor's car is a 1956 Buick Special Hardtop, 220 hp. My family in Boston had both those models when I was a kid. You can recall some of the sloppy production on those 1950's beasts when U.S. automakers were on top of the world and let their quality control slip. If you look closely at the side trim on a scene of a '57 Ford you will see that the pieces don't quite match up. That was frequently so true back then.
The set dressing of the cafe is delicious. Look at the signs and the prices! Also some of the house-interior scenes. Brought back memories.
All and all this film is a light, good and nostalgic evening's entertainment.
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