Round Three of my unofficial monster movie triple feature (accidentally featuring films whose titles all are The ________).
I ask you: What more can you possibly require of a movie than a slimy, grey, sluglike alien, roughly the size of a large dachshund, that inhabits people’s bodies through their mouths and loves Ferraris, hookers, rock music, and killing people? With a bazooka?
For some reason, I hadn’t seen this film in full since its original video release, which was itself contemporary with my Twin Peaks obsession. Here, Kyle MacLachlan is a differently weird FBI guy — that is, an alien one — and instead of flashlighting the murky forests of the PNW with Michael Ontkean (a poor man’s Tom Berenger), he plods the streets of LA with Michael Nouri (a poor man’s Michael Ontkean).
And I’m happy to report that the film has lost nothing of its entertainment value, and watching it now, the distinct patina of 1987 Los Angeles only enhances its essential comedy and mindboggling gratuity (snorting cocaine in the back offices of a Ferrari dealership being the definitive mark of human awesomeness). This is unmistakably the work of a master of the cinematic arts (all two or three of ‘em!), so it is a wonder that, to my knowledge, Jack Sholder is the director of only one other film masterpiece.
by Leo Goldsmith | Source: New Line Home Video VHS (Two-Cassette Special Edition!)
13 Mar 2007 4:26 PM | Submit Comment
