Alien Hunter

Alien Hunter (2003) I only rented this movie because it stars James Spader and I knew an actor of his quality would never get mixed up in a crappy low budget Sci-Fi movie……on the other hand with all the computer generated effects in movies these days, perhaps the need for good actors is declining in Hollywood. It sure looks like old James up and took off for Buglaria or Yugo-sumfin over there in Balkinland somewhere. You can tell because 95% of the movie’s credits are for people with last names ending in OV.
In any event, this movie steals liberally from “The Thing from Another World”, ‘Alien”, “ET”, “Gilligan’s Island”, “The Andromeda Strain”, and other decent Sci-Fi flicks of the past. However, stirring this porridge into a coherent movie was apparently beyond the director and screenwriter’s ability.
The plot goes something like this: Somewhat discredited ex SETI scientist/professor (program to search for signs of Extraterrestrial life) with a history of having symptoms of the Clinton Intern Syndrome is sent to an isolated scientific base in Antarctica after signals are picked up from an object found buried in the ice flow. They somehow tie it all back to an incident in Roswell, NM years before and find a ‘pod’ that may contain an alien life form. The station is experimenting with cloned crops and has an ‘under the ice’ farm growing corn, wheat, and other veggie stuff. One of the crew is a former student that was doing unauthorized sheet research with Spader back in her good old undergraduate days. She is now sheet researching with one of the other macho corn growing scientists and irrational jealousy quickly erupts, along with the pod, aliens, viruses, nuclear attacks, and other minor distractions.
Now I admit, if you are trapped in an isolated scientific station in Antarctica with a rival for your girlfriend recently arrived, an alien running loose, a mysterious lethal virus spreading rapidly, a Russian sub about to launch nuclear missiles on your location, and being told you can’t leave…..well I might lose a few marbles myself, but some of the characters go straight from reserved scientists to loony tune paranoids, or run for your lives at all costs cowards in a nanosecond. Some of the characters are just not believable and that is the main problem with this movie. It could have been very good with better character development but misses the mark. The movie is recommended only for Sci-Fi fans and is rated R for: Violence, dissolving humans, excessive wilting corn, gooey glop from the pod, unwise wise men, high cast mortality, and for the outfits the female scientists wear while fertilizing the corn.