I happened into the middle of "Alien Opponent" by accident while channel surfing one Sunday, and something about it caught my interest. So I watched it all the way through the next time it was on the Chiller channel to see if my initial impressions were correct.
This is not a "good" movie in any sense of the word, but it has some nice setups, some decent moments here and there, some quirky (if broadly defined) performances, and it obviously isn't meant to be taken seriously. (For instance, it doesn't really answer the question of where a junkyard owner would get 100 grand in cash or why she doesn't just call the Feds if she wants the alien out of her garage.) There's a very cynical and nihilistic screenplay which is built around the theme of most cynical direct-to-cable releases, "Kill them all and let God sort them out." It populates the movie with the most generic character stereotypes you can imagine and gives them the most banal (but mean hearted) dialog to mouth.
But the director keeps things moving along briskly enough to keep things from getting too annoying, the actors are good enough to keep the energy going during most of the scenes, and (as I said) there's a gallows humor that ties the movie elements together.
So I'd call this an OK time-waster. Watching it will kill 90+ minutes effectively enough on a slow evening, and if you are watching it for free on cable, you'll feel as if you got your money's worth,if you know what I mean.
This is not a "good" movie in any sense of the word, but it has some nice setups, some decent moments here and there, some quirky (if broadly defined) performances, and it obviously isn't meant to be taken seriously. (For instance, it doesn't really answer the question of where a junkyard owner would get 100 grand in cash or why she doesn't just call the Feds if she wants the alien out of her garage.) There's a very cynical and nihilistic screenplay which is built around the theme of most cynical direct-to-cable releases, "Kill them all and let God sort them out." It populates the movie with the most generic character stereotypes you can imagine and gives them the most banal (but mean hearted) dialog to mouth.
But the director keeps things moving along briskly enough to keep things from getting too annoying, the actors are good enough to keep the energy going during most of the scenes, and (as I said) there's a gallows humor that ties the movie elements together.
So I'd call this an OK time-waster. Watching it will kill 90+ minutes effectively enough on a slow evening, and if you are watching it for free on cable, you'll feel as if you got your money's worth,if you know what I mean.