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Reviews
The Alien Encounters (1979)
An odd little film
After his wife and son are killed by a stray meteor (or was it a mis-guided alien probe?) an unemployed astronomer begins to research UFO sightings, starting to imagine that aliens are among us and that he is being watched. He goes on a five year quest to understand why his family had to die and finally finds a book that may hold clues to the answer, but now the author is dead. So he befriends the author's son in an effort to learn more. The answer is surprising.
The movie was described as an "Adventure Documentary." No kidding, they really called it that, but it was shown late at night at the same hour I used to watch "Creature Features" and "Fright Night," so I think you get the idea. But anyone expecting to be scared by this film, even a little bit, will be disappointed.
What you will get are a bunch of conspiracy theories about how the aliens are among us, and that ghost sightings or sightings of Big Foot are examples of those aliens, and that the Men in Black are spying on us.
If this movie wasn't so weird it would not have been worth watching at all. Also, seeing a man slowing claw his way out of the grips of insanity has it's merits I suppose.
Crossed Over (2002)
A forgettable film, except for
The only noteworthy part of this film is that it shows Karla in a different light that the warm fuzzy cuddly Karla that was in the interviews with Larry King and others. Evidently, she acted a bit different when the cameras were off. Or it could have been that most attention was focused on her after her conversion, and not before.
According to the story by Lowry, she had just lost a son to a drunk driver who was never caught. So, wondering what kind of guilt this person may or may not be feeling she looks for a criminal to talk to, and finds Karla. And this is 3 years before the media attention. And the two women become "pals." I have nothing good or bad to say about this film except that Leigh, who seems to do an excellent job of capturing the persona of Karla Faye, looks nothing like her and this sort of spoiled everything for me. All and all the story gives a different insight, perhaps one that people did not get to see as much. She was rude, bad tempered, and also not very smart.
One of the most telling moments was when she tells the story about how she taught her Mom how to shoot drugs, because she really loved her Mom and did not want her do do it wrong and possibly kill herself. Hmm, I guess it should be remembered that Karla, unlike other monsters, was not a serial killer but someone who made a stupid decision after a giant binge on drugs and was quickly caught thereafter. I guess I just think it's too bad that she could not have met some more of the right kind of people before all of this happened, but it seems that her world was like an alien planet compared to most of ours.