A Friend from Inner Space (1984)

Best movie of this year hands down!

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

This is a film about a young boy whose parents are separated and he tries to find happiness. He wanders off at a school nature trip and ends up in a haunted mansion where he is saved by ghost Jian Ren. The ghost becomes his friend, since the kids at school don't like him because he is rich. His cowboy hat wearing father is too busy making money while his mother is a fashion designer, also very busy. The ghost helps the kid try to get his parents back together, the thing which would make him truly happy. This film would be for kids except for a few scary moments. The plot is universal, the poor little rich kid with a supposedly imaginary friend. There are some decent special effects, especially for the time, in this film. The best character is the mom, played by Josephine Siu, who looks stylish, sexy and yet has a heart. The film is not great, but its the kind of film you saw when you were younger and not so critical of every little detail in a film and then watched it twenty years later and remember the story. Entertaining but not essential, its okay.

SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!!SPOILERS!!! Considerably better than the sequel, but only for the quality of the actors. Francis Ng is seldom a disappointment. Some nice shots but in general frustrating as the tensions seems to come more from frustration at the key characters keen ability to remain inactive and stand by stupidly while their friends are slowly, horribly killing themselves one way or another. Really annoying and difficult to buy into. Some fun scary ghost shots derived directly from Japan's The Ring, including a very funny bit where a character receives a VHS tape that actually has footage from The Ring's infamous scare sequence on it, followed by a cute punchline with Francis Ng inviting the hapless viewer to lunch. I respect a film that will acknowledge who it is ripping off within it's own content openly. Then the audience can accept the liberation of creative content as simple respectful homage. One the flipside, the poster for this film is the BOMB. Love it. Oh well.