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DVD Review
| Alien Lockdown
Written by: Kage
Alan
Film Rating:
B-
DVD Special Features: TBD
I love it when SciFi/Horror people have to come
up with titles for their films. Anything with the word “Alien” in
their title will have people inevitably comparing their work to the
“Alien” quadrilogy. Okay, so then what? In the case of “Alien
Lockdown,” it was called “Creature” outside of the US. Hmm… Wasn’t
there already a film called Creature back in the mid 1980s? Oh,
yeah. And that was called “Titan Find” outside the US. Who knew we
could recycle names so well? So it’s back to Alien, only this is an
Alien on the edge, not a sequel to Sylvester Stallone’s “Lockdown.”
Oh, wait. That’s “Lock Up.” It’s a little difficult to remember
since we haven’t seen Sly in a while. Maybe he should have been
asked to guest star in this project.
While Earth usually sends information out to
the rest of the galaxy and waits for an answer, another civilization
has sent something to us. It takes a couple thousand years for us
to catch up with even being able to decrypt the object, but we do.
Fortunately, while our mad scientist (John Savage) is assembling all
the predatory DNA from around the world in order to create the
ultimate killing machine, he can do so in a secret lab tucked far,
far away in a glacier. What he succeeds in creating is a really
large bug with a face reminiscent of the title creature in
“Predator,” an nearly impenetrable outer shell, fast healing
abilities and a thirst to breed and kill. It’s all fun and games,
though, until the damn thing gets loose in the base.
Enter top assassin Talon (Michelle Goh) and her
elite squad sent by the enigmatic Anslow (Martin Kove) to neutralize
the creature and those still left alive. What they find is enough
to seriously inconvenience them since the beast starts picking them
off one by one. Complicating matters further is that certain
members of the team may or may not have an ulterior agenda.
Fortunately, they’ve got the doctor’s helper, Charlie (James
Marshall), who is more than willing to do what he can in order to
ensure his survival. Even with all of their weaponry, it’s not
enough to help them kill one creature let alone all of her
offspring.
Sure, we’ve seen this plot a hundred times in
the past, so there aren’t many surprises left. Fortunately,
director Tim Cox provides us with some decent action sequences and
there’s some solid atmosphere created with the eerie green lighting,
quick editing and camera angles. Even the CGI is pretty decent. As
for our cast, Michelle Goh does worlds better here than she did in
the Steven Seagal quickie “Out For A Kill,” John Savage and Martin
Kove provide some familiar faces and what in the heck was James
Marshall doing in this? This can’t be the same actor who was in
“Twin Peaks” and “Gladiator.” He’s too young to be taking on roles
like this. All-in-all, though, I rather enjoyed kicking back and
settling in for 90 minutes of monster mayhem.
First Look Entertainment has released “Alien
Lockdown” in its original made-for-TV Widescreen ratio. Video
quality is actually quite solid, especially where colors are
concerned. Audio quality is as good as one can expect, but not
overly dynamic. As for special features, the screener copy I was
sent only had a couple of trailers and I don’t believe the finished
product had much more.
Despite the number of films out there about
aliens, ultimate predators and all of that, “Alien Lockdown”
actually has enough going for it visually to detract from the
by-the-numbers script. The creature’s facial similarities to
“Predator” didn’t do it any further favors in terms of originality,
but the fact it takes itself seriously certainly helps. If you’re
looking for something to rent on a Friday or Saturday night and your
local Lackluster Video is out their usual stock of Family-oriented
videos, you could much worse than give this one a shot.
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