SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Console best movie i've ever seen.

MusicChat It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

mudhoney444 James Caan, Mandy Pintinkin, Terrence Stamp, a great story and production make for a great movie

boydfan-14647 I first fell in love with this movie when i was a kid and we had it on VHS... it is a good mix of drama and heart.... simply put it kept me coming back time and again.

FlashCallahan Caan stars as Sykes, a cop who having seen his partner he has known for years get blown away, gets over him very quickly and takes on a 'newcomer' as his partner.the thing is about this newcomer, it's the club singer from Dick Tracey with some really bad make-up on.together, they must foil a drugs ring led by General Zod and Rudyard Kipling, come to terms with a little diverting sub-plot about race, creed, and the effects it has on society, and of course, realise that at this point in his career, Caan would do almost anything to back into the movies after his little 'problem'.it starts off really well. your typical cop-buddy movie, with all your clichés thrown in from way back since cop movies begun.Sykes hates all newcomers, obviously some sort of xenophobe as he hasn't even left his country, but he teams up with Francisco, not just to get revenge for his partner, but maybe because he wants to get 'one-up' on these aliens, as they are more intelligent than humans.there are some humorous moments and a lot of effort has been put into the story and the script, it's just too short for it's own good. We never get to feel the struggle Sykes goes through, apart from him putting a tape in his pocket, and wearing the same clothes all the time. His relationship with Francisco, evolves too quickly and they become friends too soon, so it makes you care less about what is going on in the film.Stamp is on villain duties, as every English actor at the time played a villain, he is throwaway and not very interesting. the effects are bad, and all in all, it does fail on many levels.

screenman The cross-culture buddy-cop movie is given a slightly implausible make-over.We've seen 'Red Heat' in which Russian cop, Arnie, is teemed-up with American James Belushi. James Belushi has also featured with a canine partner, as indeed has Tom Hanks. There was American/Japanese 'Black Rain' with Micheal Douglas, and even an item called 'Haven' in which one of the cops was an android. I cannot find that movie referenced on the IMDb, though it was quite fun. 'Robocop' pursued the theme with a human, female partner. There has also been '48 Hours' whereby a white cop teemed with a black crook, slob versus slick. This time the aliens really are alien, though sufficiently humanoid to be un-challenging. Apart from a lack of ear-lobes and a tendency to liver-spots on the scalp, they might pass for human beings. And, of course, white ones. Their appearance certainly didn't tax the special-effects department. If one were to cast about, stranger-looking humans could be found. It's a pretty lacklustre effort crammed with clichés, but is lifted out of the ordinary and given serious intent by the choice of James Caan in the starring role. Caan is a man who knows how to act, and he can be very expressive in an oddly undemonstrative way. It's all done with facial expression and body language. His scarcely concealed racism and contempt for cultural nicety is executed with aplomb, and as the aliens are not even humans, the subject is a ripe field for harvest. The chemistry between himself and his alien partner develops well. Both actors deserve good marks. It could hardly have been easy working with that sweaty cranial prosthetic. The other actors play their parts without express merit or criticism. A barely-recognisable Terrence Stamp has a lot more to offer than he was required to give here, and I wonder at his inclusion in such a limited role. I thought he was wasted. But his gravitas and slightly unplaceable English accent helped highlight his alien persona in such a manifestly American movie.Otherwise, you've seen it all a dozen times before. I was disappointed that the aliens brought no new technology. And nothing of any original value appeared to have been scavenged by either them or us, from their downed spaceship. That seemed highly unlikely. Even damaged technology can be understood and replicated. And if they survived, the ship must have been more-or-less intact. The species vive-la-difference routine was - well, routine, and unsurprising in its surprises. The aliens' favourite foods prove disgusting to human sensibilities. Gosh; that's clever. They drink sour milk rather than fresh. But apparently not cheese. They eat raw meat rather than cooked, and so on. They are soluble in sea-water, but not drinking water. Presumably, they themselves do not contain salt then. In a world so dangerously briney as ours (2 thirds of its surface are ocean) perhaps they would be happier and safer on the moon. There's a humdrum joke about the purpose and size of condoms - oh-dear. And - surprise, surprise - their females are vain and bitchy, and play the same 'seductress' card that human females have played since time immemorial, even having jobs as pole-dancers etc. I mean, come on! It's not exactly imaginative, is it? The plot is about the control of dangerous drugs. This time they're dangerous to aliens. And in an inevitably predictable turnaround of learning-curves, the hide-bound, by-the-book, alien side-kick starts to break the rules; the laissez-faire human cop learns to kerb his chauvinism; and in due course there is reconciliation and mutual respect all round. To describe this movie as science fiction is just a pose. There is no scientific/cultural prognosis whatsoever. Any study of our conflicting and contrasting aspirations is barely touched upon, never mind explored. The idea that these people would be allowed to wander freely amongst humans and develop their lives without the most careful scrutiny is quite absurd. Such liberal thinking certainly wouldn't have outlived 9/11. It is irrational socialist twaddle to suppose that two species of intelligent organisms could thrive side by side on the same planet in some sort of harmonious ideal. Just look how often things break down with our own species. Consider how the indigenous American Indian is still treated today. There is no reason to suppose that we would regard them any differently from a mutated chimpanzee, and exploit them for medical and pharmaceutical advantage. After all; even a normal chimp is intelligent, communicative, self-aware and has theory of mind. It is certainly more cognitive than a human with advanced Altzheimer's disease, and yet still no-one would ever dream of elevating its simian status above that of the vegetative human being. And this despite the fact that we have a common ancestral thread. We are, in effect, their animal cousins. Are we going to usurp them then, and confer equality to beings with which we share no heredity whatsoever, whilst still treating our nearest evolutionary relatives as 'animals'? That is neither rational nor just. Besides; Darwinian logic suggests that one species must otherwise out-compete the other, sooner or later. This happened on Earth many times before. Why should things be any different because one species has spotty heads and drinks putrid food? These 'newcomers' were just a ticking time-bomb.As an intelligent evaluation of inter-species relationships, this item was just vacuous and juvenile. Check-out 'The Day Of The Dolphin'; that was streets ahead. On the other hand; taken for what it actually is - a cross-cultural cop movie - it's an entertaining though predictable romp. James Caan alone redeems it from the ordinary. A TV series followed without him, and cemented its formulaic mediocrity for ever.