Plot:
An alien creature, bloodthirsty and pregnant, goes on a violent killing spree after managing to escape from the infamous air force base in Nevada. A hardboiled female scientist and the local sheriff take up the hunt through the desert in an attempt to prevent more murders, and to catch it before the greedy folk from a nearby freak show manage to get their exploitative little hands on it.
My awesome opinion:
This movie's rating, presently at 2.1, is quite a bit misleading, I think. Sure, the plot's just a loose chain of contrivances for the colorful cast of characters to fall prey to the monster, the characters themselves are total caricatures, and the acting triggers the occasional cringe reflex, but overall, this really wasn't so bad.
One thing that I very much enjoyed was that, just like with their previous movie "El Chupacabra", the makers of "Alien 51" have largely abstained from the use of CGI. Now whether this was a production design decision, or just a financial necessity, I do not know, but the end result is an alien that's quite obviously just an actor in a rubber costume. Some may perceive this as silly, but personally, I find it relatively refreshing to still find some practical effects among the influx of recent indie horror/sci-fi flicks that rely almost exclusively on computer generated content. It's just nice to see a guy in a rubber suit every now and then. Eh, that didn't sound right.
Anyway, in closing, "Alien 51" is a shameless, unapologetic b-movie that certainly knows its place in the cinematic hierarchy. It never tries to be anything more than just a cheap, Direct-to-DVD monster flick, and if that's all you're after, you could do a whole lot worse than this.
An alien creature, bloodthirsty and pregnant, goes on a violent killing spree after managing to escape from the infamous air force base in Nevada. A hardboiled female scientist and the local sheriff take up the hunt through the desert in an attempt to prevent more murders, and to catch it before the greedy folk from a nearby freak show manage to get their exploitative little hands on it.
My awesome opinion:
This movie's rating, presently at 2.1, is quite a bit misleading, I think. Sure, the plot's just a loose chain of contrivances for the colorful cast of characters to fall prey to the monster, the characters themselves are total caricatures, and the acting triggers the occasional cringe reflex, but overall, this really wasn't so bad.
One thing that I very much enjoyed was that, just like with their previous movie "El Chupacabra", the makers of "Alien 51" have largely abstained from the use of CGI. Now whether this was a production design decision, or just a financial necessity, I do not know, but the end result is an alien that's quite obviously just an actor in a rubber costume. Some may perceive this as silly, but personally, I find it relatively refreshing to still find some practical effects among the influx of recent indie horror/sci-fi flicks that rely almost exclusively on computer generated content. It's just nice to see a guy in a rubber suit every now and then. Eh, that didn't sound right.
Anyway, in closing, "Alien 51" is a shameless, unapologetic b-movie that certainly knows its place in the cinematic hierarchy. It never tries to be anything more than just a cheap, Direct-to-DVD monster flick, and if that's all you're after, you could do a whole lot worse than this.