Alien Lockdown (2004)

Crappy film

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Indian Jones digs up an ark that has a stone in it. Stone is used to create Predator in a facility in the part of Colorado "near the Earth's magnetic core." TV version of a hot Asian chick (Michelle Goh) leads a group to kill Predator, a hide-and -seek game that consumes the bulk f the film. Some boring twists too.This is a made for US TV film. Might pass as decent sci-fi horror for a nine year old.

This is a B-Movie and to be quite honest, it's pretty good.The acting isn't exactly on par with performances from the Hollywood greats but for the most part is OK and the majority of the main characters remain believable throughout the film. This alone gives it a leg up on half of the other B-Movies out there. The director manages to keep the movie flowing without too many plot holes, irrelevant scenes or cheesy moments (although there are some present) which makes the movie quite entertaining. What I found to be quite astonishing though is the quality of the sets, special effects and costumes. When you consider the small budget for this film it really does hit home that they've done a rather impressive job in this respect.The film has quite clearly "borrowed" elements and ideas from other films such as Alien, Predator, Resident evil and perhaps even the matrix. However, it doesn't spoil the movie and it's not too difficult to ignore the blatant copying and just get on with watching the film.A film for purists this is not. It's a B-Movie and doesn't pretend to be anything else but it's entertaining and worth a watch.

Alien Lockdown starts as high ranking military geezer General Anslow (Martin Kove) orders a bunch of marines into a top secret Government laboratory to hunt down & kill an escaped genetically created creature that had been developed to be used in battle & become the ultimate predator. Commander Talon (Michelle Goh) & her team enter the isolated facility & find two survivors, ex-military convict Charlie Dryfus (James Marshall) & the scientist who created the creature Dr. Woodman (John Savage). Dr. Woodman has sabotaged all the facilities major operating systems, he deliberately set the creature free & plans on protecting his creation. Talon & her team must kill the creature & clean up any loose ends before the facility is blown to kingdom come in 12 hours...This made-for-TV sci-fi horror film was directed by Tim Cox & is yet another Nu Image creature feature although to be fair it's a decent enough time waster that isn't anything special but isn't too bad & it's better than a lot of Nu Image's generic creature feature flicks. The script by Ross Helford & T.M. Van Ostrand is basically an Aliens (1986) rip-off, you know in writing comments for horror & sci-fi films it's incredible how many times I've written the words 'Aliens rip-off' which says just how influential James Camerons brilliant film actually is considering the amount of other films that blatantly steal from it. In the case of Alien Lockdown there's the troop of American marines, the initial battle where many are ambushed & picked off unawares while their screams are heard over the intercoms by the other character's, there's the scene when the creature crawls through the ceiling as a means of surprise as well as numerous other scenes which remind heavily of Aliens. To be fair this moves along at a reasonable pace, it never bores to the point of distraction, the character's are OK & there are some nice moments in it. Alien Lockdown is nothing original but I still quite liked it all the same.Director Cox does a very good job here & the film is actually pretty stylish as it's lit in cool blue & green hues which look visually interesting. He manages to generate some tension, there's a decent atmosphere & some reasonable action scenes. The creature itself looks very, very good & is best described as an Alien with it's elongated head & exo-skeleton crossed with a Predator with it's claw like mandibles on it's face in particular. Most of the special effects for it are created with a man in a rubber suit which I always prefer to rubbishy CGI computer effects, there are also loads of baby creatures which CGI is used for although to be fair they look very good as well. There's some gore here, there are various dead bodies in different states of mutilation like having been torn in half & having limbs missing. There is a shot of the creature eating someones intestines & luckily the filmmakers weren't shy with the fake blood.Technically the film is fine & considering it's a Nu Image production it's rather impressive with nice cinematography, decent sets & neat special effects. As usual for these Nu Image productions this was shot in Sofia in Bulgaria. The acting is alright but nothing special & it's not like the actor's had a lot to work with, Martin Kove is the 'name' actor.Alien Lockdown is a decent cross between Aliens & Predator (1987) & while it isn't anything original it's perfectly passable sci-fi horror entertainment, it is what it is & doesn't try to be anything else. Worth watching if you can find it cheap or catch it on TV.

Rented this one last night after having only seen the cover of the DVD. I thought, what the hell, might even like it. First off, the lead has some sort of Lucy Liu meets Ellen Ripley vibe going on...weird! And the supporting cast, well lets say they've got as much talent as an extra on a bad Star Trek episode (the one who gets killed right away). Except for John Savage and James Marschall,who have obviously have sunk to an all time low. But hey, what about the effects? Things look like a TV show so don't expect anything flashy. If they show this movie on late night TV, I might even consider it as above average. And that's because of the atmosphere which is actually pretty good, but turn off the sounds because the music just made me wanna kill myself...Note to soundguy: A sci-fi movie is not a Simpsons episode! So if your a sci-fi/light horror fan and you want to see something totally unoriginal, check this one out! I've rented it together with Starship Troopers 2...hope that it's better than this one, or maybe I should stop renting crap...hmmmm?