The Second Arrival (1998)

Simply A Masterpiece

A lot of fun.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

This unwanted film is a sequel to THE ARRIVAL, a neat little science fiction thriller about an alien conspiracy starring Charlie Sheen. While slightly lacking in the special effects department, the film had many good ideas, such as aliens using global warming as a way to take over the earth. That film went straight to video. However, the sequel goes even lower, and has actually gone straight to cable. And if that wasn't enough, THE SECOND ARRIVAL turns out to be one of the worst, lamest films I've ever seen. Talk about the law of diminishing returns, that rule is put into overdrive in this film. The only good aspects are mere rehashes of scenes in the original thriller, and the rest of the film is full of such mind-numbing banality that you'll wake up sweating in the night, after having nightmares about being made to watch this torture endlessly.Forget the plot - it's non-existent. After a few brief set-up moments, the film consists of the 'heroic' pair basically running around, driving, getting attacked in some way by the aliens, thinking up a new plan, getting stopped in their tracks, thinking up a new plan, and then it all unravels and the director has no idea how to finish it, so he just has a big implosion at the end for special effects sake. However, even if the plot was stupendous, it would still be a chore to watch the painfully bad acting of Patrick Muldoon as he labours his way through each scene, staring blank-faced at the camera and making tired jokes which nobody thinks are funny. This guy must have been living on a different planet at the time of filming, he's obviously not inhabiting his own body, as he's stiffer than a plank coated in concrete. Mind you, Jane Sibbett isn't much help either, coming across as a sub-rate Scully, her acting skills consisting of shouting and tossing her hair. The only guy of note is Michael Sarrazin, the single 'name' actor in the entire film, and he gets murdered near the beginning as well.So what is there to watch for? The special effects? They're mostly bad, but bad in a look-at-the-bad-special-effect kind of way. The spinning alien globe is done to death, too, and to add insult to injury, there's only one alien in the entire film! (unless we include some CGI shots lasting for less than a second). The film reaches new lows when it introduces a virtual reality landscape, looking like a late '80s computer program. No, an early '80s computer program. It's that awful. The one good scene in the entire film occurs in the cold storage room, but it lasts quarter of an hour at most and it just goes downhill from there. Added to the blend is a totally gratuitous nude scene with an actress who really shouldn't be appearing naked. If you want backwards-legged aliens then watch the first film, nothing is done here that wasn't done there. In fact, forget that this film exists, because it adds nothing to the mythology apart from some nifty alien devices, and it's an embarrassment all round. Avoid!

The original starring Charlie Sheen was very good. THE SECOND ARRIVAL is not so good. Science fiction is someone's dreams and fantasies...if some chance of believability exist the better. This sequel seems to have nothing but some carried over special effects from the original amped a bit. Don't even look for any logic. After Zane Ziminski is found dead of a heart attack in Alaska, his step brother Jack(Patrick Muldoon), a computer expert and pretty sharp hacker, receives an envelope from his brother with details of an alien invasion. Five other people received the same info and plan to join and do something about it. The earth is on target of dying due to an accelerated global warning. By this time how many aliens have already set up business in disguise? Others in the cast: Jane Sibbett, Michael Sarrazin, Catherine Blythe and Michael Scherer.

I love the first movie. When I was younger, I couldn't wait to this one. I used to love this when I was younger. I used to love anything that was put on in front of me. I didn't see this for a long time. I recently re watched and I have changed my opinion.The story is OK but there was a lot of things that went way over the top. The acting was pretty pore, especially Patrick Maldoon, who cannot act to save his life. Jane Sibbet was OK, Im used to see her in Friends. The villains were evil but in a laughable way, they just happened to be there when the main characters are running away.The special weren't that good, you can easily tell it's CGI. The direction and filming was good by Kevin S Tenny. The main climax was bad and laughable, thats when the bad acting came in at it's worst.The good thing is the alien designs kept it's originality but the CGI was bad for it.Overall, its average but rubbish at the same time. Please see it by all means but I would rather stick to the first movie.

Watched the first movie and had to see the sequel, although most reviewers here warned against it. Let me say I was as stupid as the Aliens in this sequel. Although I don't think it was the worst movie I've seen, and I didn't consider it a complete waste of time, most of you probably will, so be warned. Although the actors in this movie weren't that bad, their script was. Jack, the programmer, was no programmer, believe me, I am. If I would act like this guy in my office, I would be sacked for sure. And then the characters... this guy is upset about the death of his step brother, he hasn't seen in 7 years, and who he kind of hated. To top it off, he goes to bed with the very first woman he meets in a bar who feels sorry for him. Though the nudity involved in this scene was nice, it made the whole character unbelievable. At a certain point Jack gets drugged by the Aliens. And guess what, this drug isn't strong enough to keep him sedated, so he manages to escape, because they didn't tie him up. How stupid can these Aliens be? Who write these scripts? One more point, at the end of the movie, Jack is able to program a device, which acts like a giant vacuum cleaner. How is he able to do that? No security there? My notebook is equipped with fingerprint checking to keep out strangers, and this computer who programs these dangerous gizmo's isn't? Who write these scripts? If you got time to waste, watch this movie on TV, but do yourself a favor and don't waste money on it.