In the "future" year of 1991, an alien race arrives on Earth. After a period of quarantine has passed, the aliens - dubbed "Newcomers" - are being integrated into regular life on Earth. However, this merely causes a new form of intolerance and bigotry to emerge, as some humans REALLY don't care for this species, dismissing them and calling them "Slags". One such human is weary veteran police detective Matthew Sykes (a solid James Caan), who decides to work with his units' first Newcomer detective (an engaging Mandy Patinkin, as "Sam Francisco") because he believes that the alien will naturally have an inside track into the killing of his previous partner (Roger Aaron Brown).
"Alien Nation" takes what is a fairly standard cop movie plot - with a standard sort of hero - and gives it a degree of freshness by blending in the science-fiction genre and infusing it with some social commentary. Some of the fun also lies in the details that screenwriter Rockne S. O'Bannon comes up with: Newcomers get drunk on sour milk, what constitutes a powerful drug to them merely tastes like detergent to us, the males' vulnerable spot is NOT between their legs, and their fatal weakness is likewise unusual. But at the core of the films' appeal, what we have is simply great odd-couple chemistry between Caan and Patinkin. They're surrounded by a rich variety of character actors playing both human and Newcomer roles: Kevyn Major Howard, Peter Jason, Conrad Dunn, Jeff Kober, Brian Thompson, Francis X. McCarthy, Earl Boen, Frank Collison, et al. Leslie Bevis is sexy as a Newcomer who dances in a club.
The alien makeup by the people at Stan Winstons' studio is well done, and it's worth noting just what an excellent pace this story has. Clocking in at a reasonable hour and a half, the film is over before you know it. The under-rated filmmaker Graham Baker ("The Final Conflict", "Impulse") is in the directors' chair here, and he does a capable job, cutting to the chase quite nicely. The script certainly has its amusements, such as humans giving the Newcomers human names like the aforementioned "Sam Francisco" and "Rudyard Kipling".
This concept definitely endured for a number of years, as "Alien Nation" led to a TV series a year later as well as several TV movies.
Seven out of 10.
"Alien Nation" takes what is a fairly standard cop movie plot - with a standard sort of hero - and gives it a degree of freshness by blending in the science-fiction genre and infusing it with some social commentary. Some of the fun also lies in the details that screenwriter Rockne S. O'Bannon comes up with: Newcomers get drunk on sour milk, what constitutes a powerful drug to them merely tastes like detergent to us, the males' vulnerable spot is NOT between their legs, and their fatal weakness is likewise unusual. But at the core of the films' appeal, what we have is simply great odd-couple chemistry between Caan and Patinkin. They're surrounded by a rich variety of character actors playing both human and Newcomer roles: Kevyn Major Howard, Peter Jason, Conrad Dunn, Jeff Kober, Brian Thompson, Francis X. McCarthy, Earl Boen, Frank Collison, et al. Leslie Bevis is sexy as a Newcomer who dances in a club.
The alien makeup by the people at Stan Winstons' studio is well done, and it's worth noting just what an excellent pace this story has. Clocking in at a reasonable hour and a half, the film is over before you know it. The under-rated filmmaker Graham Baker ("The Final Conflict", "Impulse") is in the directors' chair here, and he does a capable job, cutting to the chase quite nicely. The script certainly has its amusements, such as humans giving the Newcomers human names like the aforementioned "Sam Francisco" and "Rudyard Kipling".
This concept definitely endured for a number of years, as "Alien Nation" led to a TV series a year later as well as several TV movies.
Seven out of 10.