Amy Adler
Joseph (Christopher M. Brown) inherits a boarding house from his newly deceased mother. He, Joe, is a two-bit criminal who hasn't returned to South Los Angeles for awhile. Yet, that's where the house is. Just as he decides to repair the home and make a go of being a landlord, a "happy" threesome come looking for rooms. They are "whitebread" folks; Charlie (George Wendt) the dad, Mother Rhonda (Shanna Reed), and lovely young adult daughter Daphne. Looking like they just stepped out of the Donna Reed show, Joe is perplexed about why they would want rooms in this location. Yet, rent to them he does, in part because Daphne is SO beautiful. What isn't known is that they are aliens on vacation who chose this planet and this rough neighborhood so they could do what they like best. You guessed it, they just love bumping off the bad guys of any world. So, even as they take "we were here" pictures with the Skid Row homeless, they also take down any muggers or lowlifes that cross their path. This, while Joseph takes out Daphne and romances her. Will anyone discover their, uh, big secret? This absurdly funny movie is a minor hoot, with Wendt, Reed, and Brown doing nice work. As it was a television film, the production values are not those of a feature film but they are acceptable nonetheless. Costumes are nice, especially Rhonda's Betty Crocker look while the sets are typical of urban life. However, since MOST of the bad dudes they take down are African American, the film is subtly racist, even though Joseph is shown as a guy trying to do things the right way. Maybe it would have been better to have the alien couple land on Wall Street and take down a few of those "white collar" dirtbags. Nevertheless, most folks will laugh over these Alien Avengers.
smatysia
One of the better entries in Roger Corman's seemingly endless series of low-budget films. This one has a slumming George Wendt and Shanna Reed playing aliens here on Earth vacationing. Apparently violence and crime are unknown on their world. Their idea of fun is provoking various low-lifes to assault them (not that it takes much provocation for these types) and then killing them. They snap tourist photos of the corpses with a cheap camera that has the cube flash attachment. (Remember those?) The film totally aims for camp, and largely hits a bullseye. And I must comment on Anastasia Sakelaris, who plays the alien daughter. She was just the prettiest thing ever. Too wide in the mouth to be a classic beauty, but to me it makes her more real, less the usual plastic Hollywood creation. Really too bad that she did not have a wider film career. I would have loved to have seen her in more stuff.
pitchthedevil
Wow...what a great movie! The first 15 minutes are a little heavy handed, with the whole "struggling young black man" thing. Trying to stay true to himself without becoming a crack dealer and then, his momma dies. Bummer. But once George Wendt and family show up it gets friggin' righteous! They really look like they had a good time making this movie. When George rips off a skinheads leg and beats him over the head with it, well, that's just golden...Roger Corman is hit or miss (but he does pump out, like, 17 movies a year) but he's pretty much on the nose with this flick. I've not seen the sequel, but I'll be seeking it out. The dialogue is pretty great and the bloodshed is AOK. The wife is by far the best, with her smokes, cat eye sunglasses and camera. If you like the idea of the mean streets of South LA being cleaned up by a pack of retro aliens this is a dream come true. Also worth it is the wife's dressing down of the druggies in the crack house, and the explanation given to an inmate as to why they get visitation rights with each other. "Cause we're special...and you're just a piece of sh*t child molester that should have been castrated with a dull knife before being executed", the line is delivered with the gleeful anticipation of a 9 year old on Christmas morning...truly, da bomb.
miguelsanchez69
Low budget sci-fi genre has tended to be a breeding ground for some of the most awful films on the planet. Sometimes though, a movie like this comes and uses clever dialogue and scripting as well as a sense of humor about itself to overcome fairly shoddy special effects and set limitations and create a great piece of entertainment. This movie showcases what you can do with a shoestring budget, a great script with some campy dialogue and some decent actors. If you like campy dark comedy genre films (a la rocky horror, dead alive, evil dead) and B-movie sci-fi, rent this film. This movie is way over the top, and I was laughing hysterically through most of it. Deserves to be a cult classic. The sequel is also good, though not as good as the original (though its first 5 minutes are inspired and Julie Brown is much funnier, IMHO).