geminiredblue
Whoa man, have two words ever described a movie better?! Ironically, one of the characters in the film says just that. And is he ever right! It's gone under several names but in English, it's commonly known as either the UNEARTHLING or POD PEOPLE. Years ago, Mystery Science Theater 3000 tackled this one. And, as usual, struck comedic gold! There are three stories that are supposed to tie everything together. I say "supposed to" because it's not always clear what's going on.STORY 1: A trio of poachers sneak into a darkened forest. However, they witness something crash land. Upon investigating, they discover a cave of eggs and a very unhappy alien. STORY 2: A little boy happens upon one of the eggs and takes it back. It hatches, producing a cute cuddly alien that he annoyingly calls Trumpy. Why? Probably because the writers wanted to cash in on the "lovable Alien" theme started a year earlier by E.T. STORY 3: A rock band goes for a vacation in the woods and... *Sigh* Must I go on? Eventually all three stories collide. And the survivors must protect themselves from the rampaging alien outside. All the while, the boy does his best at hiding Trumpy indoors. Until... This pitiful French/ Spanish co-production has little to recommend it. None of the characters are interesting, the alien is obviously a man (or perhaps a midget) in a suit, the stories are dull, and the ending (though it's supposed to be cute and preachy) just feels so false and tacked on. However, if you're planning to bash it with a 10-ton anvil of wit, then invite over your friends and bash away!!!
BA_Harrison
Clearly inspired by Spielberg's E.T., Extraterrestrial Visitors sees young lad Tommy befriending an alien that hatches from a strange egg he discovers in a cave. 'Trumpy', as the alien is named, is an expressionless, hairy, biped with a rubbery trunk who likes to snort peanuts, play pranks with his supernatural powers, and create slamming beats with the use of popular 80s Milton Bradley computer game Simon. Meanwhile, Trumpy's bigger and far meaner relation is causing havoc in the woods, terrorising a pair of poachers and members of a really bad 80s pop group.Juan Piquer Simón's 1982 slasher Pieces is a classic example of 'so bad, it's good' cinema (wherein a movie transcends its awfulness by being unintentionally hilarious throughout and consequently very enjoyable). The director's next film, Extraterrestrial Visitors, is also absolutely terrible but it fails to pull off the same trick as its predecessor: while there are one or two inept moments that will no doubt raise the occasional smile, the entertainment factor overall is extremely low. Trumpy's silly antics, amusing to begin with, rapidly become irritating, the story is dull, the direction listless, and nearly all of the characters are thoroughly unlikable.For me, the best (i.e. funniest) thing about the whole sorry mess is Piquer Simon's excessive use of smoke for atmospheric effect: the people in this film are completely unfazed by the ever present billowing clouds of the stuff; I know if I saw that much smoke while walking through the woods, I'd think that there was a forest fire and get myself the hell outta there pronto.
Scarecrow-88
Laughably atrocious pile of excrement from infamous cult director Juan Piquer Simón has a rock band(whose music predates the surf music of yesteryear; "It stinks!")going on a camping trip, running into a mother alien who resembles a walking aardvark. They hole up in the cabin of a cantankerous drunk, his wife and a kid(whose voice is dubbed by an adult women!). Like in Spielberg's ET, the kid befriends another aardvark alien he hatches from an egg he finds in a red-glowing cavern. Mama alien aardvark seeks out her child alien aardvark. The mama alien aardvark kills anyone who stands in her way. The cast is about as likable as an embedded thorn in the ass. The monster and it's costume is a howler. For some ungodly reason the filmmakers use stock footage from a film unrelated to this one for the opening and closing credits! Dreck of the lowest order. The buildings in the film have walls dressed with pictures of US Presidents like George Washington and Ronald Reagan! The eye-opener has one scene where the child alien aardvark goes berserk in the kid's room, causing all the objects to spin around. Another scene sure to cause giggles, the child alien aardvark sucks up peanuts with a snout which works like a vacuum cleaner!
MinusMikey
Pod People??? Humnnnnnn. Well, if Pat and Chris from Saturday Night Live-fame had a child, it would resemble Pod People's little femme boy waif, Tommy... a bug collecting, perky little blonde he/she that spends too much time to itself... of whom finds itself more comfortable with circa 1970's shag-carpeted, peanut-snorting, karate chopping aliens, rather than his alcohol-soaked uncle (I think) and his Bonnie Frankin (One Day at a Time TV series) haired mother. And how about that rock band? Let's hear it for the "Loverboy" look of love... leg warmers, headbands, Toni-Perms and snappy dialog. "Hear the Engines Roll Now", their claim to fame sounded to me like... "Idiots in Trona" (If you knew what & where Trona is, you would completely understand). The fog scenes were really well done. I highly recommend that wonderful little movie off that had been passed on as being "written". Definitely... "Must See TV"
