Not The Bill Collins Blog No.11: "Alien Nation"

In the seventies there was a time when the hard man/serious actor was very much in vogue. The more brutal and less rewarding theatrically included the likes of Charles Bronson and Burt Reynolds. Then there was the likes of Gene Hackman who could be a real hard arse (as seen in his role of Popeye Doyle in "The French Connection") and Clint Eastwood (the Dirty Harry sequence of films) and James Caan. Caan hit several high points with such features as "The Godfather", "Rollerball" as well as low points such as "The Killer Elite", playing the tough guy. His face and voice suited these casting choices well, and it was perhaps inevitable that with the advent of the eighties when Hollywood started to search for more rounded male characters in their leading men that Caan feel out of favour. "Alien Nation" may not be the best of his return films in the latter part of this decade ("Gardens of Stone" is far better), but it served as a reasoanble vehicle to return him to a reasonably successful box office vehicle.



So, what is "Alien Nation" about. Basically it is a sci-fi film with obvious cop/buddy flick references. As critics such as Roger Ebert have pointed out, the two premises (i.e. a cop loses his partner and looks for revenge and a group of aliens on earth have an insidious plot developing) are meshed in a movie that takes Caan as the embittered detective and partners him with the newcomer alien Sam Francisco (Mandy Patinkin). The bad guy (a drug czar amongst the aliens) is played by old British hard case from the 60s Terence Stamp, and that is really just about it. We're not talking a multi-layered and densely created narrative.

If one accepts that well there are some things to appreciate about the movie. Caan and Patinkin form a pleasantly amusing pair (reminding me a little of Alan Arkin and Caan in "Freebie and The Bean"). The Newcomers a.k.a. 'slags' have some interesting traits (they get drunk on sour milk, sea water is like acid to them), and there are some sly references to the aliens being treated almost like Latino immigrants into the US (getting the worst jobs, being exploited for cheap labour and by criminal elements). But as always the film is arguably no better than a riff of the "Lethal Weapon"/"Running Scared" type of movie where two unlikely partners fight the bad guys, except one of the partners has some serious prothesis work.

I find "Alien Nation" to be generally okay, and Caan and Patinkin are easily the best parts of the film. I've not gotten into the whole "Alien Nation" franchise (developed into a TV series that ran for two years from 1989), and the DVD isn't on high rotation in my player. I've grown to enjoy Patinkin's acting (he was certainly an eye-catching performer in "The Princess Bride" as well as the TV shows "Chicago Hope" and "Dead Like Me"). Caan on the other hand seems to have become a parody of the great hard arse he used to be (the less said about "Micky Blue Eyes" and "Honeymoon in Vegas" the better). If you want to let the brain slide into neutral for a few hours then "Alien Nation" is quite a reasonable way to achieve this end. Otherwise watch something like a Bergman or fellini film if you need some great artistic statement about the meaning of life...

My Rating: 2.5 Bills