Delayed Reaction: Alien Nation

What I Guessed It Was About: A movie about a nation of aliens. Maybe they've been quarantined somewhere, like District 9. As for the plot, it could go nearly anywhere as long as the makeup is good.

How I Came Into It: I didn't know much of anything about this movie. I imagined it was in some nether-region between Earth Girls Are Easy and *batteries not included. In other words, things were not looking up. I like Mandy Patinkin and I see the appeal of James Caan. That's a better starting point.

Why I Saw It: (Club 50) I liked a lot of the ideas in the movie better than the final product itself. Science Fiction, in its highest form, aims to reflect something on society and this aimed to do exactly that. For a 90 minute movie, it builds a surprising amount of this world with the Newcomers. Using that merely as exposition for an otherwise cut-and-dry cop movie is an interesting choice. James Caan and Mandy Patinkin make a good buddy cop duo. I'd watch them do a Lethal Weapon rip-off even without this gimmick.

Why I Wish I Hadn't: This was really lazy social commentary. Everything about the Newcomers was surface level. It's an apples to oranges swap out for anything. We have acid, they have saltwater (which also doesn't really make sense - think, Signs). We have alcohol, they have sour milk. It even has that required scene where a Newcomers talks about how special humans are (We're not). When you take away the ineffectiveness of the Newcomer element, all that is left is a generic buddy cop movie. I like the sub-genre a good deal, but there needs to be something interesting about it that I like for me to enjoy it.

Verdict (?): Weakly Don't Recommend