ALIEN APOCALYPSE (2005)

Bruce Campbell saves the world. There, what more do you want?

If you DO want something else well, chances are, you won’t find it in Alien Apocalypse. It’s not so much a ‘B’ movie as a ‘Z’ movie (made for the Sci-Fi TV Channel). There isn’t much evidence of a budget on display anywhere, from the laughable false beards to the crappy special effects to the badly dubbed Bulgarian extras…

But bugger me, it’s a lot of fun. Of course it is – it has Bruce Campbell. Saving the world! Get into the right frame of mind (turn it off) and there are a lot of laughs to be had here, including some great lines from Bruce, delivered in his own inimitable style – which leads to one of the funniest summary executions I’ve ever seen on film.

The story starts in a PlanetoftheApesstyle, with Bruce and his crew returning to earth to find it in ruins, and humanity (i.e. about 12 Bulgarian extras) enslaved. Turns out that some wood-loving (no sexual pun involved) aliens have invaded, and put humanity at work in saw-mills, so that they can transport their precious wood (which is worth it’s weight in diamonds or something) back to their planet.

All of which makes perfect sense to me. Bruce doesn’t take to being enslaved and escapes, goes off on a merry quest to find the president, and returns to wreak some vengeance upon the aliens, which results in an epic, EPIC battle (over 14 extras involved). It’s truly inspiring stuff.

So to summarise then, this film is rubbish and it’s great. It’s awful and it’s marvellous. If you hate it you’re right. And if you love it you’re not wrong. At the end of the day, if the sight of false beard in movies makes your day, as it does mine, then this might very well be the film for you.



PS Here’s a list of goofs from IMDB… shame on them for only listing 5! What the hell are they playing at over there?

Factual errors: With fires and torches burning in the underground holding cell all the time, the people being held there should have suffocated.

Continuity: When the escape hole is begun, it's dug into the wall so that one would have to step up into it, Later on, it’s at floor level.

Revealing mistakes: Obviously fake beards on most of the extras.

Plot holes: The aliens invaded twenty years ago, yet simple gestures such as handshakes have been completely forgotten. Even though much of the cast had to have been alive before the invasion.

Continuity: When the free humans raid the alien camps, the first shot of the humans breaking into the slave camp through a fence is re-used, even though not all of the camps have fences.