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Stardate 10.07.2021.A: 1988's 'Alien Nation' Turns 33 Years Young Today!

10/7/2021

2 Comments

 
Picture
Gotta be honest, peeps: 1988's Alien Nation was not a flick I was all that fond of when I first say it on home video back in the day.  I hate to say it, but I think I saw it as a little bit lazy.

I thought the pairing of James Caan and Mandy Patinkin was great.  I thought the two played very well off one another in the script from the great Rockne S. O'Bannon.  They had some reliable banter for the 'two fish out of water' mash-up, and I think these two acting greats (each in their own separate ways as well as careers) knew precisely what moments to 'hit' in the quest to bring this somewhat curious oddity to life the way they did for 20th Century Fox.

It's just that ... argh ... I think I expected more than a somewhat routine police procedural.

Alien Nation came about at a time when many in the industry were attempting to force the formula buddy picture into every single mold imaginable; and I think I kinda/sorta rebelled against it for that reason.  If I remember my impression from back then, then I'd have to say that there just wasn't enough of what I thought was truly "Science Fiction" to satiate my appetite.  The motion picture went small when I was thinking 'go big,' so I mostly tuned it out.

A few years back, I rediscovered it with a whole new Blu-ray release; and I remember loving it.  Granted, I was older and much wiser -- haha -- and my old eyes actually took to it nicely.  I saw the actors as having the same chemistry I remembered from a few decades before, but now I was totally in sync with what I think director Graham Baker tried to bring to the silver screen from O'Bannon's script.

And, frankly, I'm thrilled that I did rediscover it because it actually put me on a bit of a quest to seek out the single-season television series, which I found pretty interesting in its own way, too.  Alas, I haven't been able to see the telefilms that I've been told resolves some of the threads left dangling when the weekly show was canceled (curse the televisio gods!), but I'm glad to know that there's still something to be said for second chances.

So happy thirty-third birthday to this little gem!  If you haven't seen it, then do so at your earliest convenience!

As always, thanks for reading ... and live long and prosper!

-- EZ
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2 Comments
R.D Francis link
10/7/2021 05:53:11 am

I agree. James Caan was the enticement. I was excited to see him in sci-fi again, after Rollerball. (Off hand, I can't recall if he was in any sci-fi, in between.) But at first watch: this was just Lethal Weapon -- with aliens. (Well, maybe a-not-as-comedic Freebie and the Bean, natch, with Caan.) But I liked the, well, "undocumented workers" and racism subtext. In the end, it was "meh," and I was shocked when this was adapted to TV. I guess it was more successful than I realized.

Now, I enjoy Gary Graham (Robo Jox, forever) in Caan's role, but I, as with Battlestar Galactica: TOS, I felt the series ran out of steam and I never finished the season. However, the movie, after picking it up on VHS, it has since grown on me. It is, in fact, a "gem" of a sci-fi flick, as it is a well made and acted picture.

I did pick up on the telefilms, but I don't remember them as being a "wow" moment. As far as the theatrical original: not a "classic" but "worth checking out," to quote our fellow WP critic Melanie Novak over at her review site.

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Ed Zimmerman
10/7/2021 07:57:48 am

Caan definitely does nice work in Alien Nation, though I've read he doesn't like to talk about the film, almost as if it's an embarassment to a guy who was in The Godfather ... but that's OK. At his age, he's earned the right to have regrets. Gary Graham is a great actor, too. Always admired his almost blue-collar attitude to his work.

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