Witnessing a hand-animated 'meteor' flying about and crashing down in nearby woods, a teenage boy - David Harmon - calls his ex-teacher, as he knows that Dr. William Tracy is into the UFO thing. Tracy instructs Dave to wait for him on the side of the road - for 6 hours while he travels there. Hope he packed a sandwich.
Wouldn't you know it, the meteor was a crashing spaceship; from another galaxy no doubt.
From the point of view of the ship's occupant, the pilot staggers through the woods, breathing heavily. We are yet to see this potentially hideous creature.
Finding his way into the basement of a nearby house, the residents are alerted when he kicks over a pile of junk. Concerned, the home owners sneak down the stairs armed with a large kitchen knife. With tension mounting, they head towards a second noise from the other side of the basement. Without warning, they are attacked by last year's Halloween costume.
Using a shovel, the man belts the alien a few times before being clubbed to the floor, and into bloodied unconsciousness. The young woman takes over with a small table lamp she happened upon, and continues the retaliation. She joins the man shortly after in a similar condition. Triumphant, the alien scarpers.
Ah, the Montague family. A wholesome family... or are they? Seated around the kitchen table, in what looks and sounds like it could be a television commercial for breakfast cereal, the father - Joe - discovers something that he's not quite happy about.
For reasons I just can't be bothered going into - basically it's a family feud - Carol storms out of the house. Joe leaves the room briefly, returns with a double-barrel shotgun and goes after her - something he's done three or four times before apparently. Joe is subsequently followed by son, J.J.
The chase is on. Accompanied by an awesome, "being-chased-through-the-woods" soundtrack, Joe fires a warning shot, stating that Carol wont get away. Emerging from some bracken, Joe is stopped in his tracks on sighting the alien. With J.J. now caught up, Joe takes aim and fires at the creature - a great example of, "Shoot first, ask questions later."
Startled by the bullet, the alien retreats into the forest. The shot did however, dislodge a piece of science that the alien had strapped to his harness. Forgetting about Carol, J.J. and Pa Montague's attention turns to the mysterious glowing ball the alien dropped. Figuring it could be worth a lot of money, they return to the house to get a wheel-barrow.
"Deeeer, what is it Pa?"Dave's wait is finally over, and Dr. Tracy arrives in a very cool car that sounds like a tank parking. After asking David whether he'd talked to anyone else about the meteor, he reveals that it may be more than just another garden variety comet. According to Tracy's sources, the meteor had an unusual mass. With that in mind, they head off into the forest.
Meanwhile at the Montague residence...
Joe calls in Frank. A man clearly punching above his weight, has a dolled up girlfriend and a magical length-changing cigar. Frank is interested in the mystery glow-ball, especially when it's power is demonstrated; it sputters and shoots sparks and makes a, 'wooo, wooo' sound.
Deciding that capturing the green man it belonged to would yield a higher cash prize, he and Joe head off into town to recruit some local heavies for the job. J.J. is left to secure the glow-ball in the garage.
On his way there, J.J. is zapped with a weapon of some sort by the alien. He'd been waiting to get his ball back all afternoon. In the forest, Dr. Tracy and David give up their search for the meteor due to lack of daylight.
In a bar, set firmly in the mid-1980s, Joe and Frank round up a handful of thugs for a night hunt. He hasn't told them what they'd be hunt'n. That was to be revealed at 9pm. Realizing that J.J. had lost the glow-ball to the alien, Joe is pissed and now worried about his financial future.
It's now 9pm, and Joe's front lawn populates with gun-toting hillbillies. Among the mutterings of the crowd, they discover that what they'd be hunting, ain't no human.
Back at the pub, David and the Doc, overhear a drunk-talking Vickie - Frank's girlfriend - spilling the beans about the green spaceman Frank and Joe were hunting. Like Holmes and Watson, they dash off to the location Vickie spoke of.
Spotting the creature in the foggy woods and hollering like a gang on the way to a lynching, the twenty or so men chase and corner the alien. Shots are exchanged; traditional bullets, versus the alien's flare-gun styled rounds.
Bam! One of the guys gets it in the chest. The rest of the group open fire, ignoring Frank's orders of wanting the creature alive. Bam! Another one drops into the cinematic void.
During the shoot-out and killings, Dr. Tracy and David look on from a safe spot behind a bush, marveling at the fact that an alien species has finally arrived on Earth.
Pow! Another one floored by the alien's blaster, followed by two more and then a third.
With the creature distracted, Frank, J.J. and Joe catch the alien in a ropey tangle. The feeble struggling of the alien creature is apparently no match for a band of drunk rednecks with a length of twine.
With the gun fight over, they haul the green spaceman away to Joe's. Doctor Tracy and David follow. Fiddling the lock of the garage, they break in to find the creature lying on the floor, still bound in ropes and his glow-ball missing.
They flee with the alien back into the woods, and Carol restores the gun and ball to the green invader.With Frank and Joe in pursuit, Frank fires a shot and Dr. Tracy drops to the ground dead. The alien fires back and hits Frank. "Awwww, jeeeeez", he says while dying. Another shot, this time by Joe, hits the alien.
With the glow-ball and ray gun - yay! - back with Joe, David and Carol turn to Michael - Carol's boyfriend - for help. They need to get the alien's equipment back to him, pronto!
Bare with me, it's almost over.
Back at the house, Joe is woken by Vickie, desperately looking for Frank. In his inebriated state, Joe forces himself on Vickie saying that she doesn't need Frank anymore.
Running for her life, Joe unloads an alien round into her back.
While passed out on the couch, the family Montague relieve Joe of the alien weaponry and search for the off-world owner in the woods.
Discovering this, Joe sets out to track down Michael, Carol and David with his shotgun - and the same torn white t-shirt he's had on since the beginning of the film. Cornering them at gun-point, the alien makes a surprise appearance. Joe hastily gives him both barrels and a few rounds from the blaster. With the creature dead, a fist fight starts up between Michael and Joe.
To put an end to the situation, coupled with being feed up with years of abuse, Ma Montague picks up the shotgun, and in slow-motion, clobbers Joe around the head causing him to fall to his death over the nearby cliff.
Don Dohler wrote, directed and produced many films throughout the 1980's and 90's, and again in the early to mid-2000's. The Galaxy Invader is known as one of the more "goofy" of the lot, but he scores highly for D.I.Y. and the passion for film making. Well done Don.
The oddest entry in the IMDB cast list, is that of Glenn Barnes. He not only played the alien, but also the, "Couple at bar." Clever chap.
Gadgetry: The glow-ball and the zappy flare-gun. The ball powers the gun.
Favorite quote: Hmmm, favorite quote.... A few times now, I've had options. There's always more than one and it gets hard to choose - just look at the review for "Menace from Outer Space."
For this feature, I'll go with, "I'm as nervous as a hog on a grill", spoken by Joe they day after capturing the alien. Or maybe, "Where's the gun from the spaceman!" shouted drunkenly by Joe.
Favorite bit: The slow-motion revenge of Ma Montgomery.
Bottom line: Terrible!
No comments:
Post a Comment