agentmaxsmart I saw this movie on the shelf at my local video store & it looked like a good choice for a "sit back & watch a silly comedy" rental. The movie starts off pretty good & some of the dialogue is pretty funny. But I noticed two things right off the back. #1: The music in the movie is so much louder than the dialogue, that I was constantly raising & lowering my volume. It was either "blow out my speakers" loud, or "mumble mumble" low. So, this was annoying. #2: The guy that played Phil was terrible. He's like Jaimie Kennedy without the talent. I see he was not only the main actor, but also writer & director. Which usually doesn't work to begin with. Like I said, I thought some of the dialogue was good & the directing was alright. If he had hired someone else to play Phil, it may have turned out a little better. It's a shame because most of the supporting actors stand out more than Phil. In fact, throw out the whole alien part of the story & it may have been a great movie. Well, that & the sound problems.As a plus though, the chick that played Ezri Dax on Deep Space Nine is in the film & she looks NICE!

Crap_Connoisseur The best of Canadian cinema offers a uniquely demented vision of the world - think the films of David Cronenberg and Atom Egoyan. The worst of Canadian cinema usually stars Matthew Ferguson or Lothaire Bluteau. There is no doubt that Rob Stefaniuk's wonderfully original and hugely entertaining Phil the Alien well and truly belongs in the former category.Phil the Alien is a film that could have gone incredibly wrong. It takes a truck load of gumption and panache to pull off a movie about a shape-changing alien who crash lands on earth, becomes an alcoholic and joins a Christian rock band. Not to mention a film that includes a subplot about a talking beaver, colour coded alien assassins and a child/whore love story. Somehow the film works and manages to be not only hilarious but also surprisingly insightful and sweet natured.I'm not sure why Will Ferrell is allowed to ruin every comedy produced in North America by his sheer presence, while Rob Stefaniuk remains in relative obscurity. This guy makes Jim Carrey look about as funny as Tom Arnold, and unlike the majority of his colleagues in the comedy world, he can actually act. The supporting cast are all great and the film really profits from their consistently strong performances.Phil the Alien is the kind of movie you will either love or hate. I obviously loved just about everything about it, from the cool puppetry (Rob Stefaniuk, take another bow) to the old school special effects and even the band's crappy music. I kept expecting the joke to wear thin but it never did. Phil the Alien is unlike any of the dire comedies that have been excreted from the bowels of Hollywood in recent years. For that reason alone, it deserves to be praised and admired by the largest possible audience.

tazzascp After putting myself through this movie, I've asked what is this all about? Well I don;t know how to describe this movie, but I've came to one conclusion "Phil the alien" is gay. And this movie sheds an interesting light at how can one fit into a new environment without trying to put to many heads outta place.This is the only thing I could truly think of as an overall plot for the movie. Expect for some rather qwerky moments I wouldn't rate this movie highly at all those, most will disagree. This biggest let down is how the movie keeps cutting in n out with scenes, specially a lot that meant nothing to the overall movie. The music also was annoying after a while, that was louder than anythin else so my guess this is a student type of film who are trying also to promote a band.At the end of the day I feel more attention to this movie as whole, more thinking could of made a more of meaninful movie.

calgarian3432 This is a typical Canadian indy film. It's cheap. Real cheap. It has some humor, which is the only redeeming feature.Appearance: Most movies try to look good. This film doesn't even try. The actors almost all look terrible. They don't even try to look good. They must be wearing "ugly" make-up. The setting (Canadian wilderness) had beautiful potential, but they chose to not have a single appealing "nature shot". Here's a free tip for all low-budget Canadian films: There's one really stunningly beautiful thing that you can put in your film, which costs nothing, it's called the Canadian Outdoors. Movies that don't want to look good, do not belong on film; they belong on VHS.Action: boraramma. Not much happens. Not much suspense. Now I can accept low-action when a film when it tries to avoid violence to be "family safe". But, this film has the odd distinction of having a few scenes of ultra-violence with virtually no action. Remember how A-Team had continuous action for the whole show, but nobody got a scratch on them. This is the *exact* opposite.Sex: This film has just enough implied sex to be gross (like an underage boy sees a hooker and falls in love, yuk). There are some other tasteless sexual references. Yet, there is of course absolutely nothing "sexy" about this film.Continuity: Now it's accepted that a film like this (aliens) can never be fully logical. But, without spoiling anything, it tosses a plot twist or two that just doesn't get set-up properly. Don't watch this for the story.Special Effects: If you don't have a budget, don't do effects. The talking beaver was pathetic. The puppet/thing they had was so bad, that a real beaver, with no lip-syncing, would have done a better job. Now some people might excuse the film, by saying that's the "style" they were going for. But that doesn't fit with the rest of the film. I was really surprised to see the full list of credits at the end of the film. They put a lot into this film, but the beaver was junk.Humor: some good jokes. That's all this film has.I paid only six bucks to see this film. It's worth that, no more, no less.