Peacemaker (1990)

Excellent but underrated film

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

A mysterious alien lands on earth and is seemingly unstoppable by the cops because on the planet he comes from, any kind of wound can be quickly healed. He ends up convincing Dori Caisson (Shepard) to help him get back to his home planet. Learning English overnight from watching TV, he ends up calling himself Townsend (Edwards). You can't really blame him, Robert Townsend was huge at the time. But there's trouble in the form of fellow alien Yates (Forster), who Townsend claims is an intergalactic serial killer and must be brought back to justice. But it's not going to be easy, as the two are causing all sorts of havoc all over L.A. But who can Dori trust? Both claim to be "Peacemakers", their planet's version of police officers. One must be lying, and Dori is caught in the middle. Meanwhile, Sgt. Ramos (Davi) is trying to put law enforcement into the middle of this mess, all the while hitting on Dori. Who is the real Peacemaker? Find out today! Fries Home Video was never a major player back in the video store days. They were just one of many labels vying for the patron's dollar. Peacemaker seems to be their attempt at competing with very similar but higher-tier titles like I Come In Peace (1990), The Hidden (1987), The Borrower (1991) and even Critters (1986). Plus Lance Edwards' accent and overall demeanor is unquestionably Terminator (1984)-esque. Thankfully, it's all done with enough energy, enthusiasm and humor, ensuring that this movie is not a slog at all; it's actually quite enjoyable. In our personal estimation, one of the main reasons for that is that it's more of an action thriller, and the sci-fi elements, such as they are, aren't oppressive, they're just enough to support the plot. Stunts (courtesy of BJ Davis and Mike Norris, among many others), chases, shooting and other action scenes firmly place Peacemaker in the action camp, and we're grateful it weighs more heavily on that end of the scales.Robert Forster looks cool with his bomber jacket and giant gun, and fan-favorite Robert Davi puts in an interestingly low-key performance. We were also very thankful that the character of Dori was not annoying. So many times before we've seen situations where that type of character is always irreparably confused or whining the whole time. But Dori is likable, perhaps because she was a classic 90's-style jokester. 1990 was when having a wry, referential and somewhat cynical sense of humor was cool, before it became overdone, and before things were dripping with irony. Dori, like the movie itself, hits that sweet spot before things went to hell because of MTV and such. Come on, apparently this movie was made at a time when cops at the precinct still smoked pipes for goodness' sake. Pipes! Well, at least one guy did. This "PipeCop" as we called him, intrigued us and we wished we knew more about him. Perhaps a spin off TV show would have answered all of our questions. Sadly, to date this has not happened. But with Hollywood dredging up everything from cartoons to board games because they're bereft of ideas, hasn't PipeCop's day truly come? Peacemaker is well-made and fun to watch. While they may have overdone the twist of "who's really the bad guy?" (you can't keep doing that over and over - it would have been more effective if they had done it less, in our opinion) there are far more positives than negatives here. We say check it out.

First of all, let me proclaim my bias: I am the President and CEO of the Kevin Tenney Fan Club, therefore I enjoy his work. Granted, the man has never made a blockbuster, but his work is far more entertaining than anything Woody Allen or Michael Bay could ever dream of making. That being said, I enjoyed this flick but not quite as much as I enjoyed Pinnochio's Revenge or Witchboard.In this film we have a doctor (Hilary Shepard) torn between two aliens, both claiming to be police officers from another planet. Hilary has a hard time trusting the aliens in human form since they are both tricky and each have the same story - flipping roles to confuse Ms. Shepard. Hilary changes her allegiance to the men on several occasions throughout the film, but you really can't blame her. Although this isn't Tenney's finest film, it is much better than other sci-fi films out there.VIOLENCE: $$$$ (I swear, this film employed more stunt men than any other film in the history of cinema. There are numerous car chase scenes, which I don't usually enjoy, but Kevin makes them great, as well as several explosions. SInce the aliens can regenerate, Tenney shoots Robert Forster and Lance Edwards about a thousand times each).NUDITY: $$ (Hilary Shepard removes a robe and steps into the shower with one of the aliens and then makes love to him. Tenney's love scenes are never gratuitous. You hardly see any of the forbidden flesh).STORY: $$$ (Although the main premise is a recycled one, Tenney is a master story-teller with a superior knack for writing one-liners. Most of the jokes are spoken through Hilary Shepard's character since the aliens don't have jokes and pranks on their planet. Unlike most writers, Tenney doesn't write females as the helpless, screaming, wait-for-the-man-to-save-me characters. He gives his female characters substance).ACTING: $$$ (The acting is alright. I've always been a fan of the Dos Roberts - Forster and Davi. Robert Davi's role isn't very substantial but he is solid in it. Lance Edwards got on my nerves with his alien accent and his acting is a tad stiff. Hilary Shepard proves to have a knack at delivery one-liners. She could be described as a female Bruce Campbell. She does a wonderful job with Tenney's dialogue).

Okay, the story is kind of dumb (funny how one of the aliens doesn't know what a "joke" is, yet he can use words like "rejuvenate") and won't please sci-fi purists, but if you're more of an action fan, you should find this film unexpectedly entertaining. It has some truly amazing stunts (including the best motorcycle-passes-under-truck stunt I've ever seen), and it's clever in one respect at least: it jerks us around until the end regarding the question of which of the two aliens is really the "good" one. "Peacemaker" is a prime example of a movie that is made with a little (money), but works hard and accomplishes a lot. In fact, it's hard to believe that this film was directed by the same man who made the awful "Night of the Demons". It's also hard to believe that it's so little-known. (**1/2)

1st watched 10/18/2001 - 4 out of 10 (Dir- Kevin Tenney): One of the many regenerating alien that never dies movie's has some good scenes and a little bit of whodunit(being tricked into who is the bad alien and who is the good alien). Despite a few good scenes, overall this is pretty much a retread from many of the same kinds of movies. It has a few car crashes, chase scenes, violent fights with of course the ever-popular regenerating aliens which we've all seen before, and of course there has to be alien-sex (leaving the possibility for a sequel.) And finally, an Arnold Schwarzenegger sound-alike complete with speech impedement who happens to be the good alien. If this all doesn't sound familiar you haven't been watching some of the most popular science fiction movies of all time. Go back and watch them instead.