Alien Avengers (TV Movie 1996) Poster

(1996 TV Movie)

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7/10
Predator 2 with a big smile and a tourist camera
ingemar-48 January 2012
For a movie with a close-to-nothing budget, this is surprisingly good. Special effects are somewhere between cheap and nonexistent, the whole movie is carried by the actors and the script.

But both the actors and the script are good. George Wendt (as Charlie) is a John Goodman-lookalike and uses that very well. Shanna Reed (Rhonda) is his happy tourist wife, if possible more gleeful about their backstreet adventures. Anastasia Sakelaris plays their beautiful daughter Daphne, also really well, and Christopher M. Brown is the "straight man" Joseph, the nice black guy who tries to understand what is happening around him. Joseph is a particularly vital part, the straight man who gives us a normal person point of view to the events, and also the character who benefits from the aliens. These four actors are the backbone that carries the film.

The obvious B-movie status and low budget limits the possibilities, and sometimes the lack of effects is disturbing. But most of the time it doesn't matter too much (as long as you are prepared for it). We see some blood, and hear some profane language plus see some semi-nudity, but I was happy to see that neither were over-used but used for a reason. And this is one sign of the good script. It doesn't need to use cheap unmotivated sex and under-the-belt-jokes, it uses these themes sparingly in logical and therefore funny ways.

I find it amusing to compare the movie to Predator 2. The basic plots is the same, aliens come to the slum to hunt some wildlife. But from that point, they are totally different. Imagine a Predator posing by the victim, smiling, being photographed with a cheap tourist camera. And imagine it walking around in the open, looking like an average tourist. Hard to imagine? But there you have the basic premise. Same... but totally different.
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7/10
Holy crap...it's a GOOD Roger Corman flick!
cwgand28 April 2006
This little goofball won me over somehow. Watching Shanna Reed kill that guy with her excellent thighs was worth my time on it's own :-) Anyway, amazingly this was an entertaining movie. It appears everybody had a good time so I think that probably helped tremendously.

And of course.

The thighs scene man!! I can't remember the last time I watched a Roger Corman flick, and didn't feel I killed any brain cells. It was nice to see Norm (Norrrm!!!) get to ham it up in what ended up being a fairly well put together script.

This is on Showtime throughout April, and worth some giggles.
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6/10
Campy and cute
smatysia2 January 2015
One of the better entries in Roger Corman's seemingly endless series of low-budget films. This one has a slumming George Wendt and Shanna Reed playing aliens here on Earth vacationing. Apparently violence and crime are unknown on their world. Their idea of fun is provoking various low-lifes to assault them (not that it takes much provocation for these types) and then killing them. They snap tourist photos of the corpses with a cheap camera that has the cube flash attachment. (Remember those?) The film totally aims for camp, and largely hits a bullseye. And I must comment on Anastasia Sakelaris, who plays the alien daughter. She was just the prettiest thing ever. Too wide in the mouth to be a classic beauty, but to me it makes her more real, less the usual plastic Hollywood creation. Really too bad that she did not have a wider film career. I would have loved to have seen her in more stuff.
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"That motherf**ker cut me!"
pitchthedevil16 September 2004
Wow...what a great movie! The first 15 minutes are a little heavy handed, with the whole "struggling young black man" thing. Trying to stay true to himself without becoming a crack dealer and then, his momma dies. Bummer. But once George Wendt and family show up it gets friggin' righteous! They really look like they had a good time making this movie. When George rips off a skinheads leg and beats him over the head with it, well, that's just golden...Roger Corman is hit or miss (but he does pump out, like, 17 movies a year) but he's pretty much on the nose with this flick. I've not seen the sequel, but I'll be seeking it out. The dialogue is pretty great and the bloodshed is AOK. The wife is by far the best, with her smokes, cat eye sunglasses and camera. If you like the idea of the mean streets of South LA being cleaned up by a pack of retro aliens this is a dream come true. Also worth it is the wife's dressing down of the druggies in the crack house, and the explanation given to an inmate as to why they get visitation rights with each other. "Cause we're special...and you're just a piece of sh*t child molester that should have been castrated with a dull knife before being executed", the line is delivered with the gleeful anticipation of a 9 year old on Christmas morning...truly, da bomb.
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7/10
weird weird movie (but reasonably enjoyable)
marcus-2729 December 1998
Ok,

This movie is WEIRD. It tells the story of a family of aliens that come to earth on vacation. There they meet a guy who has just inherited his grandmother's hotel (which is in the middle of a "you don't want to live here" suburb riddled with crime).

They seem quite nice and fix up the old hotel in one night(!), but then we discover the darker side of these people. They LOVE violence (it's not done where they come from).

So they go out regularly to find trouble and have some nice violence, you could say.

It's not a good movie, but very original. Funny to see norm doing something else than cheers for a change. 7.
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7/10
Funny as B Movies go
ramulin3 February 2002
If you like sci-fi and/or horror, this exuberantly "B" movie will delight you, since it combines both. Was disappointing to have such graphic violence, but then see very little of the beautiful Anastasia Sakeleris, but a decently funny movie overall.
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10/10
A Comedy Out Of This World!
TheDraytonSawyer13 March 2008
Alien Avengers aka Welcome To Planet Earth is one funny comedy. It's not your average comedy though. It's a pretty dark horror comedy. It's about these aliens that come to earth for a vacation with their daughter. They end up showing up at this guy named Joseph's door asking for a room. That's where all the fun begins! Charlie and Rhonda are hilarious; they say some of the funniest things and do some pretty violent things to criminals. If you enjoy Roger Corman flicks, I think you'll like this one. It is full of comedy, action and has some very funny lines. If you liked this movie, definitely check out the sequel Alien Avengers II, it's pretty funny too.

I give these aliens a 10/10
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6/10
Absurdly funny but may offend some with its subtle racism
inkblot114 May 2015
Warning: Spoilers
Joseph (Christopher M. Brown) inherits a boarding house from his newly deceased mother. He, Joe, is a two-bit criminal who hasn't returned to South Los Angeles for awhile. Yet, that's where the house is. Just as he decides to repair the home and make a go of being a landlord, a "happy" threesome come looking for rooms. They are "whitebread" folks; Charlie (George Wendt) the dad, Mother Rhonda (Shanna Reed), and lovely young adult daughter Daphne. Looking like they just stepped out of the Donna Reed show, Joe is perplexed about why they would want rooms in this location. Yet, rent to them he does, in part because Daphne is SO beautiful. What isn't known is that they are aliens on vacation who chose this planet and this rough neighborhood so they could do what they like best. You guessed it, they just love bumping off the bad guys of any world. So, even as they take "we were here" pictures with the Skid Row homeless, they also take down any muggers or lowlifes that cross their path. This, while Joseph takes out Daphne and romances her. Will anyone discover their, uh, big secret? This absurdly funny movie is a minor hoot, with Wendt, Reed, and Brown doing nice work. As it was a television film, the production values are not those of a feature film but they are acceptable nonetheless. Costumes are nice, especially Rhonda's Betty Crocker look while the sets are typical of urban life. However, since MOST of the bad dudes they take down are African American, the film is subtly racist, even though Joseph is shown as a guy trying to do things the right way. Maybe it would have been better to have the alien couple land on Wall Street and take down a few of those "white collar" dirtbags. Nevertheless, most folks will laugh over these Alien Avengers.
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9/10
easily the most enjoyable b-movie in recent years
miguelsanchez6916 October 2003
Low budget sci-fi genre has tended to be a breeding ground for some of the most awful films on the planet. Sometimes though, a movie like this comes and uses clever dialogue and scripting as well as a sense of humor about itself to overcome fairly shoddy special effects and set limitations and create a great piece of entertainment. This movie showcases what you can do with a shoestring budget, a great script with some campy dialogue and some decent actors. If you like campy dark comedy genre films (a la rocky horror, dead alive, evil dead) and B-movie sci-fi, rent this film. This movie is way over the top, and I was laughing hysterically through most of it. Deserves to be a cult classic. The sequel is also good, though not as good as the original (though its first 5 minutes are inspired and Julie Brown is much funnier, IMHO).
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10/10
Already an underground cult classic, and for good reason.
dspiro21 May 1999
Evoking the dark humor of Foucault, and the directorial genius of Bunuel, this filmic take-off of modern alienation and the human condition is already an underground cult classic for good reason. A "must-see" for trend-setting intellectuals who want a good laugh.
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10/10
GREAT MOVIE
psycolops34718 August 2004
This movie is GREAT. The characters in the movie are great. The plot is also good. It was one of the funniest movie I have seen.

The location of the part that had the high speed car chase was about 8 miles from were i live!

Anastasia (Daphne) is extremely beautiful and beats all the other female in looks in my opinion.

I would like to see #3 but maybe thats too much to ask. If no #3, Anastasia should be in more movies than she currently is in.

This movie and part 2 are in my top 10 favorite movies EVER.
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This was a great movie to make and watch
rperez-37 July 2004
We had a blast with the creation of Alien Avenger as the movie was a unique experience to film daily. I was fortunate enough to play Officer Park, who was mostly seen in the station making copies and showing facial expression and slimed to death on the floor as Daphne jumped over me many times as I lay still, that was fun to make and I am hopeful everyone enjoys this classic. Roger Korman added his movie mystique to the filming and we filmed this mostly in the suburb of Los Angeles called Cypress Park at on old building that was and has since been rehabilitated on Ave 26 at I-5. Since moving to Las Vegas making the movie was a unique experience for me as this was an area in which I grew up in as well so it made the making of the movie that much more enjoyable. This was a great break for me from the daily sports world that I live and work in...I can only hope I can do some more movies such as this in the future.-Rich Perez
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9/10
Little Boarding House of Horrors
johannesaquila25 April 2022
This comedy is a low-budget gem that instantly reminded me of The Little Shop of Horrors (1960). So it was no surprise at all when I found that Roger Corman is listed as its executive producer. (This time not a director.)

This film is another proof that the Corman recipe for creating a great movie with almost no money can produce wonderful results. I would give 10 stars for a perfect premise and script and for Shanna Reed, who nailed her role as the perfect 1960s-style mother (apparently the educational material that prepared the family for their stay was slightly outdated) who is also an alien -- always on the lookout for a morally acceptable reason to kill and maim.

Everything else about the film is more in the 6-star range, but that's totally sufficient. There are no real weaknesses of any importance. The four main actors work together as an ensemble; they are not well known, but they are competent. (And they seem to actually have fun!)

Overall, this film is really excellent. Totally fresh, eminently rewatchable. I give it only 9 stars because it isn't quite perfect. It would likely be even better with even more outstanding acting.
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