“Alien Trespass” doesn’t intrude enough in the movie territories it occupies.
It’s not funny or kitschy enough for satire and not scary or exciting enough for simulation. The thriller/comedy is meant to both send up, yet also replicate, the sci-fi B-movies of the 1950s. And at least in its precisely simulated midcentury production design, charisma-free cast of D-list stars and intentionally bad acting stylings, it sure looks familiar.
But paying homage to the old-school alien invasion flicks is not exactly an original concept.
Why, as recently as last week, Dreamworks stormed the box office with its crowd-pleasing cartoon romp “Monsters vs. Aliens” — a pure example of parody. At the other end of the tonal spectrum, contemporary Hollywood has taken the genre seriously with its darkly graphic, super-budgeted, special effects updates, including: last December’s Keanu Reeves redo of 1951’s “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and 2005’s overwrought reboot of 1953’s “War of the Worlds” from Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise.
Although none of these previous examples duplicates the quirky distinctiveness of the originals or would have worked without referencing them, at least they all had the conviction to pick an attitude, pick a concept and stick with it. By contrast, today, director R.W. Goodwin (of TV’s “X-files”) and screenwriter Steven Fisher have fashioned an authentically wrought bore.
Unlike those previous modernized homages, “Alien Trespass” remains set in the 1950s. Eric McCormack, of television’s long-canceled “Will and Grace,” is the “big” headliner here. He plays two parts. His pipe-smoking scientist Ted Lewis first discovers the flying saucer that lands in a gulch near a small isolated town in the western desert. But then Ted’s body becomes the shell possessed by the UFO’s occupant Urp, a “good” if misunderstood alien who uses Ted’s body to unnerve the locals while he tries to stop a killer one-eyed monster from scarfing down humans and cloning itself into a mass planetary threat.
There are direct nods to prototypes like “The Blob.” Meanwhile, the Blonde Heroine (Jenni Baird), the Brunette Sexpot (Lana Lewis), the Frisky Teenagers (Aaron Brooks and Sarah Smyth), the Good Cop (Dan Lauria) and, of course, the Bad Cop (Robert Patrick) fulfill the character archetypes that also pay tribute to the science fiction fare of yore.
But the filmmakers’ obvious affection for it produces an earnest experiment — not a movie.
Quick Info
‘Alien Trespass’
2 out of 5 Stars
Stars: Eric McCormack, Jenni Baird, Dan Lauria, Robert Patrick
Director: R.W. Goodwin
Rated PG for sci-fi action and brief historical smoking
Running Time: 88 minutes
