Alien Nation

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Alien Nation, the movie that spawned a short-lived TV series of the same name and 5 made-for-TV films, is essentially a science fiction crime drama with a spin on the buddy cop trope-Sam "George" Francisco is a Newcomer, a stronger-than-human alien who's a member of a formerly enslaved race who teams up with a hard-boiled, gruff human police detective named Matthew Sykes to serve the diverse people of Los Angeles where the aliens have settled. The two must move past their differences in order to stop a murderous drug ring aimed at taking advantage of the aliens' conditioning. Audiences today might find this 1980s film a bit slow, the makeup effects now not-so-remarkable, and the stereotypes obvious, but it was ambitious to create a race that resembled us yet were different enough to discuss and explore issues of immigration and discrimination/marginalization at that time...topics relevant enough today that there's been talk of a reboot/remake as of 2015. Fans of 1980s action/science fiction/cop films as well as those who might enjoy this "Lethal Weapon-but with an alien partner" should give this a look; James Caan and Mandy Patinkin provide an interesting, if familiar, cop pairing. Others might see the film as "too familiar" and find it a tad dull, however.

Erik M.

Det. Samuel 'George' Francisco: You humans are very curious to us. You invite us to live among you in an atmosphere of equality that we've never known before. You give us ownership of our own lives for the first time and you ask no more of us than you do of yourselves. I hope you understand how special your world is, how unique a people you humans are. Which is why it is all the more painful and confusing to us that so few of you seem capable of living up to the ideals you set for yourselves.

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Trivia: Stan Winston, Tom Woodruff, Jr. and Gale Ann Hurd - the special effects team and producer behind Aliens, were all involved with Alien Nation as well. James Cameron, of Aliens, had written an early draft of the film.

Erik M.

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