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Overall Rating : 3.5/10
Directed By : Dustin Rikert
Avery Clyde (Dawson Creek (TV) )
Sam McConkey (The Nowhere Man)
Dan Southworth (Demon Hunter)
Supplied By : Lionsgate Films
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
Date Reviewed : Apr. 18, 2007
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| PLOT After a mysterious extraterrestrial object lands in the mining town of Selena, Arizona, the government dispatches a team of Marines to contain the possible threat. Meanwhile, a group of death row inmates ambush their prison bus, taking the guards and personnel aboard hostage. Upon arriving in the seemingly deserted town, they come across a Special Ops captain, the sole survivor of a horrible carnage that’s decimated the rest of his unit. With time running out, the group must unite to combat the savage aliens that hunt them from the mine tunnels below before a squad of fighter planes bombs the town into oblivion from the skies above. |
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| THE REVIEW In ALIEN INVASION ARIZONA(previously known as THE SALENA INCIDENT) two stories come together, Our primary story involves a bus load of convicts being transported. It turns out the convicts have conjured up a plan to escape, something the officials transporting them are unaware of. When the bus gets a flat tire, the stranded officials are approached by two young females who ask them to inspect their care for a problem, but as we see the females are all in on the plan. By coincidence or whatever it may be, the females' car won't start, forcing them all to pursue the next town of Salena on foot. In Salina military units have been fighting of vicious alien creatures and by the time the convicts arrive the whole town has been wiped out.... all but Captain John Bradley. In the end John Bradley whom has lost his whole team to the deadly alien horde, predictably runs into the convicts fronted by Dr. Taylor Kacey, and together they try their very best to make it out of the town alive. I know Lionsgate's marketing scheme by now, and since ALIEN INVASION ARIZONA has a rather impressive cover, I figured this was just another throw away flick with pretty wrapping(as such the case with the oh so horrible MR. JINGLES). Spending a few minutes watching this one would tell you that this is such a film, not to mention that most, if not all of the acting is terrible, and the setup to get us to the main plot is just plain cheap and almost laughable. But even so, there are in fact some very watchable moments here, as I have to say that this is a truly ambitious independent film. Instead of doing a half assed job in it's execution because it already knows the budget is limited, I was at least impressed that the film went all the way and tried to make a good action/horror film out of what it had. The plot sort of reminded me of two films in which I already reviewed, those being HOUSE OF BLOOD and 7 MUMMIES. Both of those said films involve a bus load of prisoners breaking down and then the prisoners ending up in a far worse situation than they were in. Well I didn't care for HOUSE OF BLOOD and no matter what other people have said about it - I really liked 7 MUMMIES, because at the time, the plot I am speaking of was original(I believe) ALIEN INVASION ARIZONA falls in the middle as it is not as good as 7 MUMMIES but I did find it to be better than HOUSE OF BLOOD. As far as a low budget film is concern, ALIEN INVASION ARIZONA is not very good acting -wise, but some moderately entertaining action makes it a little better than it should be. From what I remember the film has three types of aliens; a tentacled like creature, a smaller alien and the full blown alien(they look sort of like SPIDERMAN's "Venom" character actually.) not to mention when consumed by an alien the humans could turn into flesh eating monsters themselves. But looking at all of the "in film" creatures, again it is not surprising to find out that none of these happen to look like the kick ass alien of the DVD's front cover - way to go(once again) to the Lionsgate marketing team! - they always make the film seem cooler than it really is. I guess ALIEN INVASION ARIZONA would be one of those films that you know are bad, but you just cab't help but find it, even if just a little entertaining. The plot is nothing new, or else I wouldn't have been able to point out similar films so easily. In the last couple of scenes they throw out some extra information about the aliens that - a space ship carrying the aliens had crashed in Salena. It goes on to explain that this ship is the equivalent of the bus that crashed that was transporting the criminals, that the ship was transporting alien convicts. This angle was indeed sort of clever as I don't recall ever seeing it before, but it was just not enough to make this film very much more entertaining than it is. |
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| GORE
METER 3/10 Not as gory as you'd expect, we get a severed hand, and a body that's cut in half, and other occurrences that I can't really remember. |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 3.5/10 The score was a mix of rock and various up-beat tunes, although some tunes are pretty good, I feel the score is mismatched as a whole.... |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM When speaking of ALIEN INVASION ARIZONA, there is bad acting, a rushed script(come on, when to two vehicles just "happen" to break down at the same time?), a few good action sequences but not enough to make this film a must see by any standards. This film was ok the first watch, but I don't see this as something that would warrant multiple viewings as there are films out there far better than this. But if it counts for anything, there are films out there that are far worse as well.....viewing this is up to you! |
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