Overrated

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

FUGITIVE ALIEN is a film apparently edited together from episodes of an obscure 1978 Japanese television series hastily made on the cheap in the post-STAR WARS rush for sci-fi flicks. It goes without saying that the result doesn't make much sense, and it doesn't even have a conclusion - the antics would continue in STAR FORCE: FUGITIVE ALIEN II, which thankfully I haven't seen as yet. Not that I'll be rushing out to buy a copy, because FUGITIVE ALIEN is a pretty abysmal film. Abysmally dull, that is. Although there are space battles, lasers, and people killing each other with would-be light sabers, FUGITIVE ALIEN is one big bore.For a start, it looks cheap. The interior of the ship is cheap, the planets are cheap, and the special effects are horrendously tacky and inferior. Sure, cheap effects can be a lot of fun, but not here. They just look cheap, poor and unremarkable, with little or no imagination being used on them. People are shot with lasers, flash blue for a couple of seconds and then drop down dead. An effect already clichéd by 1978, when the TV series was made. Watch out for the model spaceship which actually turns transparent for a moment when flying through space. There aren't even as many explosions as you would expect from a Japanese movie.Another problem is the film's running time - at 103 minutes, it's overlong, and drags incessantly. It invariably feels episodic in nature, with three or four sub-plots (one for each episode) to make things that little bit more confusing. At points the film threatens to becoming an amusing sci-fi variant of the hit TV series THE FUGITIVE, but it always lapses back into mediocre sci-fi action the next minute.Scenes are ripped off directly from STAR WARS (another bad scene, another guy coming up and saying "I don't like you") and gadgets are stolen from Bond and other assorted spy movies. Sure, a few things are weird - background turning blue, people shining white in dream sequences, the space raiders wearing blonde wigs for some reason under their helmets - but it's never enough. And with cardboard cut-outs for the characters, it's hard to keep watching. I would only recommend this to be watched by small children who are really easily pleased by what they see on television.

This unbearable, campy sci-fi action film was seemingly created by editing together several episodes from a Japanese TV series. The result is a very bad film. Its story thrusts you into things with little in the way of explanation. Some aliens called the Wolf Raiders wage war on humanity and attack the Earth. One of the Raiders called Ken refuses to kill an Earth child called Ken, and in doing so angers his people, hence making him...the fugitive alien! It's a nonsense plot but I've encountered way worse. The problem was it made me feel so bored. On paper, quite a lot actually happens in this film but in practice, it's never very interesting.Matters aren't really helped by the dubbing, which is carried out by a group of extremely terrible voice actors. The voices in this film are heavy going on the ears and really try your patience. What doesn't exactly improve matters is the fact that the running time is 102 minutes, which is just way too long for something this crappy. The special effects and costumes are all bargain basement too. But the most disappointing thing about the entire film was the fact that the Wolf Raiders did not sport poodle perm hairdos. Bizarrely, and nonsensically, they seem to merely have wigs attached to their combat helmets. Why this should be is simply one of the mysteries of Fugitive Alien. A mystery I will never solve as I have no intention of revisiting this dreck ever again.

....and none of my feverish hallucinations ever came close to the sheer insane absurdity of this complete nonsense. This is definitely one of Sandy Frank's most entertaining - admittedly for all the wrong reason - efforts (although that is a little like saying that this is one of Coleman Francis' most fun-filled features); certainly better than the steaming pile of acidic manure that is Time of the Apes. Seriously, that movie made my eyes hurt. At least Fugitive Alien, for all its incoherent attempts at plot lines, for all its sloppily spliced together scenes from some cheesy Japanese TV series, for all its insanely awful dialogue ("You're stuck here!"), is unintentionally hilarious. And I mean HILARIOUS. As in, John-Cleese-eat-your-heart-out, knee-slappingly, air-gaspingly laugh out loud hilarious. If you have to choose between watching the latest shrug-worthy Adam Sandler/Vince Vaughn/Ben Stiller "comedy" or this... choose this. It's colourful, stupid as hell, and unbelievably entertaining for the most part. Wait, am I recommending a Sandy Frank movie? Oh well, I guess it's finally happened. I've gone insane. There is no hope left for me now. I guess I'll just go and watch Fugitive Alien again. It makes my brain... comfortably numb.

I very short lived TV series packaged into a movie brought to us by Sandy Frank; who has brought the Gamera films and Time of The Apes overseas. This movie(?) actually isn't all that painful. The plot makes sense, and you can actually tell who the characters are. So it is watchable, just rediculous. Several things aren't explained. Like who exactly these Wolf Raiders are, why they wear wigs to the battlefield, and several behavoiral patterns that just make you go "huh?". Also the hero has the strengh of ten men and can stop forklifts at full acceleration, yet falls down from a clean punch.The most frustrating thing i found with this movie and plenty of the Sandy Frank films i've seen is this "failed plan" thats in each movie. Here's an example: Our hereo is trapped in prison, so he supports himself up against the top corner of the cell hiding from view. The guard is about to open the door to search the cell and inadvertantly let the captive go. But he spots his foot first, as says "get down from there." end scene. What was the point of that scene? Next he ties an explosive to a cell door to bust it open, and it fails. So we watch him carefully take his time and wire another two explosives to open the door. Another waste of time! It's just disguised film padding.This movie stands on it's own as something to pass time on a rainy day, but the MST3K version is golden. Probably my favorite episode ever because of Joel Hodgson's dead on and hilarious impersonation of Captain Joe from the movie. No matter which version you watch I'll guarantee you'll be quoting "haa-hahahahahaha-haha-haaahahahaYOU'RESTUCKHERE!"