Alien Nation (1988)

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.