Alien Nation (1988)

...in this sci-fi action film that spawned one of the best TV series ever. The chemistry between James Caan and Mandy Patinkin in this film is amazing. The plot is familiar buddy cop stuff but it's done in way that it's different and entertaining. I remember watching it for the first time not having any clue to what it was about, who was in it etc. and I just enjoyed it a lot. Shame Fox cancelled the series so soon in it's tenure, but that was in the early years of Fox before they stuck by shows that were quality shows despite early low ratings(like Party of Five). Rent it if you've never seen it, you'll enjoy it. 8/10

Fmovies: I've always liked this film despite its flaws. It is an interesting allegory of racial conflict, using a sci-fi premise and a "buddy-cop" formula. You have the minority rookie cop assigned to the bigoted partner, who are then assigned a case involving the minority group. The rookie proves to the bigot that people are the same, despite their physical differences and they slowly become friends.

Mandy Patinkin is great here, conveying the idea of an outsider who is not totally familiar with his new environment. James Caan is fine, but doesn't seem committed to the film, and his performance is a bit uneven. Terence Stamp is hurt by his makeup, as his face is one of his greatest strengths as an actor. Much of his characters come from his facial expressions and the makeup inhibits this.

The story is a bit cliched, but the sci-fi gloss keeps things from falling flat. The tv series was better able to explore the racial allegory, as the film just doesn't have enough screen time. The mystery component is pretty much standard fare. If you look beyond the surface of this film, there are some worthwhile ideas here. They just get a bit lost in the "cop" trappings.

This is a great movie, and has and great series to go with it. Also the Social backdrop is cleverly handled and not to blatant, Concentrating mainly on the stupidity of bigotry and showing it to be a product of fear, its fun with plenty of action some of which is quite realistic, without being gruesome. The movie also contains a little humour, some quiet subtle, and is well paced. The only downside is you will want to know what happened next.

it also works as a drama due to the nicely scripted family scenes, which are not to sugary. Obligatory bad guys, with wonderfully bad guy plans, and cop to cop jibes, which are not lame.

So if you like Sci-fi, drama and cop movies you will love this, the makeup is decent, and the 80's fashion is not overdone, so does not date the movie.

Also it has some real stars in it, see the IMDb site for the cast list.

Alien Nation fmovies. The reason I liked the movie and hated all the subsequent tv stuff is the movie had James Caan. He is what I enjoyed most about the movie and he was not in any of the tv stuff as far as I know. The interplay between him and Patinkin was great. The movie revolves around aliens who are living on earth...Caan can't stand these aliens, and really takes to disliking them when his partner is killed by one. He volunteers to be the partner of one of the aliens so that he can use the alien to find out what and who was behind his partner's death. During this time being partnered with the alien Caan's character learns to actually like being around him and they end up becoming friends. This movie has good action and comedy as Caan's character tries to figure things out and learns about his alien friend's different weaknesses and strengths. Basically it is a buddy cop movie that has an alien teamed with a human.

This is like a lot of movies where the premise is more interesting than the plot. The arrival of the "Newcomers" seems to be a metaphor for the immigrant experience in America, but this is not followed up. It goes from a sci-fi movie into a cop-buddy movie, and it's really not bad on that level. It seems, however that the filmmakers passed on an opportunity to make a really significant commentary. One wishes for the film that got away.

Considering that it is little more than your standard cop buddy movie, the slight variation being that the buddies are a tough seen-it-all cop and a by-the-books rookie who is an alien, Alien Nation ends up being a pretty good film. You can give a lot of credit to James Caan and Mandy Patankin for that. They have great chemistry as the partners. Both are very accomplished actors, and they make a very cliched script into something well worth watching. 7/10