Alien Trespass (2008)
Average Rating: 4.8/10
Reviews Counted: 67
Fresh: 23 | Rotten: 44
An earnest attempt to parody campy 1950s sci-fi films, Alien Trespass eventually loses its charm among tedious dialogue and cheesy special effects.
Average Rating: 4.5/10
Critic Reviews: 21
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 17
An earnest attempt to parody campy 1950s sci-fi films, Alien Trespass eventually loses its charm among tedious dialogue and cheesy special effects.
liked it
Average Rating: 2.8/5
User Ratings: 11,837
My Rating
Movie Info
Will & Grace star Eric McCormack headlines X-Files veteran R.W. Goodwin's feature directorial debut, a playful send-up of 1950s-era sci-fi films tracing the bizarre events that unfold after a mysterious space object crashes into a California mountaintop. Based on a story by James Swift and Steven Fisher (who also penned the screenplay), the Technicolor-flavored genre-bender follows a benevolent alien (McCormack) as he attempts to fend off a seriously strange invader. Robert Patrick, Jenni Baird,
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Cast
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Eric McCormack
Ted Lewis -
Jenni Baird
Tammy -
Dan Lauria
Chief Dawson -
Robert Patrick
Vernon -
Jody Thompson
Lana Lewis -
Andrew Dunbar
Dick -
Sarah Smyth
Penny -
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Alien Trespass Trailer & Photos
All Critics (68) | Top Critics (21) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (44) | DVD (4)
This lazy effort gets points only for truly loving -- perhaps to a fault -- the cheapo creature flicks of the 1950s.
Alien Trespass, with a rating notice that mentions 'brief historical smoking,' is at least better than last year's official remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.
Top CriticIt's a satire without laughs, a parody without punch lines, a careful copy that replicates everything except the original's life.
It's comfy. It's kitschy. There are lovely enticements but also much that is simply put and beautifully, beguilingly silly.
While there's a lot to admire, it all feels like an engaging though needless academic exercise.
Sinks under the weight of its homage.
The movie can't decide if it's an homage to 1950s sci-fi genre or a "new" kind of story.
An oddity from another time and place, and well worth a look because of it.
The patience and concentration of the film to not wink itself into a coma is amazing to behold, and I was flabbergasted over just how engrossing and playful the picture is.
Not nearly as awful as it could have been...it at least knows that it's cheesy, which makes it more fun.
It's not really clear why this movie was necessary %u2013 it does not reinvent the 50's movie so much as do a highly faithful cover version of it. (Gus Van Sandy's shot-for-shot remake of Psycho is a similar pointless academic exercise.)
If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, It Came From Outer Space should be blushing like a schoolgirl, because this deadpan recreation of 1950s sci-fi movies is a tribute to its low-budget, high minded charms.
...gently wacky. Although breezy and sketchy on the easy laughs at times, Alien Trespass does promise to entertain for the sole purpose of its campy off-kilter makeup.
If the film succeeds perfectly in its aim, to recreate exactly a genre of films noted for how shoddy and boring they were, is it then fair to complain when the film is itself boring?
Neither legit parody nor loving sci-fi homage; a movie with no firm reference point, [and] lacking the breezy wit or clever execution that might otherwise provide a reason for its standalone existence.
Alien Trespass won't let our knowledge of the stereotypes it incorporates do the work and make the critique.
It doesn't want to be camp, but it inevitably becomes so, because the very effort to replicate its models is so knowing that it comes across as insufferably arch.
If you're willing to check your brain at the door and to suspend a lot of your disbelief, Alien Trespass manages to be a delightfully zany and campy satire best experienced at midnight with a group of friends.
The filmmakers have an obvious love for their work and its source material and it shows.
A true love letter to genre days gone by, Alien Trespass delivers on its promise to bring back a slice of the good old days to horror cinema.
While it never rises to the level of Galaxy Quest, my gold standard for funny sci-fi films, Alien Trespass consistently delights and amuses.
Retro-style sci-fi action spoof tries hard but doesn't work.
A highly entertaining retro Sci-fi blast from the past that is loads of fun, an endearing tribute to all those bad movies we just loved.
Audience Reviews for Alien Trespass
Super Reviewer
After crash landing near a desert town, an alien enlists the help of a local waitress to re-capture a monster that escaped from the wreckage of his space ship.
REVIEW
I started watching Alien Trespass with some reservations: I'm definitely a fan of the "source material" for this movie, but I haven't really enjoyed many of the handful of retro/homage/pastiche 50s-style genre films I've seen in the past decade.
In the early going, if you're inclined to be suspicious of the movie's intent (and I was), you may find some technical details that are sort of jarring: "cheap" CGI substituting for the papier-mâché-string-and-sparklers school of SFX, matte paintings and studio backdrops that somehow don't feel period-authentic (might be that the compositing is too good, even when it's intentionally "bad?"); that sort of thing.
However, once I was introduced to the excellent and very likable cast, and allowed myself to settle into the rhythm of the dialogue, none of that mattered. There's a gentleness in the style and humour that just felt right to me. Of course "right" is completely subjective, and all but useless in determining if you will like the movie; I'll say instead that if you're not in a technical-nitpicking frame of mind (or if you are, but you're willing and able to get past that), it's a very easy movie to enjoy, especially if you're relaxing with it on a lazy Sunday afternoon.
There's a lot of sharp, caustic humour to be found on TV and in movies these days, and that's not a criticism - I guess I enjoy ironic detachment, sarcasm, and "snark" as much as the next guy - but if you come to this movie expecting that kind of experience, I think you're going to be disappointed. If, on the other hand, you genuinely like the source material, and you're willing to enjoy something pretty much on its own terms, without the broad safety net of winking self-awareness that most "retro" films seem to employ, then I think you'll have a good time with Alien Trespass.
Super Reviewer
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