I was expecting heading into ‘Dr. Alien’ that I was going to get a cheap and cheerful porno affair with maybe a couple of minor plotlines basically existing to make the sex scenes make a bit more sense. And I couldnt have been further from the truth.
While there is a LOT of upper body nudity present here. I could best describe this ‘vibe wise’ as “Imagine if Rick Sloan made a teen sex comedy” Because. Thats basically this film in a nutshell. Its a camp as christmas, over the top, bizarre experience that feels like ‘Hobgoblins’, ‘Weird Science’ and ‘The Nutty Professor’ all got put in a blender and the end results were poured over a SUPER low budget, though, to it’s credit it works with what its got effectively.
Dont get me wrong, this things no masterpiece. In essence its a goofy, cheesy way to kill 85(ish) minutes in a very pleasent and upbeat way. But it wont be winning any awards anytime soon.
The scripts solid enough, We follow a college freshman on his first day back to campus. A few days prior his science teacher got hospitalised after a car accident he says was caused by ‘UFOs’ which everyones pretty suspicious about. Replacing him in the classroom is a new Blonde Bombshell of a science teacher who…seems overly interested in reproduction and is desperately looking for a volunteer to help with some ‘extra credit’ studies.
Enter our freshman, who accidentally ends up putting himself forward and is injected with a strange serum that turns him from dweeby dork to charismatic lethario in less than 10 seconds. As you can imagine it turns out the new science teacher isnt all she seems and sexy hijynx commence.
And I actually really got on with this thing, its total brain rot cinema, but in the best possible way. it’s FUN! it’s not trying to be high art or mainstream fashionable, it’s trying to be a goofy little comedy thats working to try and win over people in the home video market looking for goofs and plenty of T&A. And it makes NO apologies for being that.
The scripts lightweight, nippy and zooms across its 3 acts pretty nimbly, the plots a tad repetative, but the dialogues so odd and charismatic that I was kind of happy to see similar scenarios play out a couple of times just to hear some strange dialogue. It has a clean act structure and it gives us just enough character depth that we feel invested in the world this scripts made, without going SO deep that it becomes too complex or messy.
I was STUNNED to see that David Decoteau directed this, but then after some thought it actually kind of made perfect sense. I personally think it’s my favourite Decoteau movie i’ve ever seen. While its not his best from a technical standpoint (that would be Puppet Master 3 for my money) it’s still visually very interesting, the character direction is rock solid, its nicely styalized and David seems to have worked with all aspects of the production crew in delivering a package thats not exactly going to change the world, but is BLOODY good considering how low on resources they were through this thing.
The cines solid as well, shots do dither a little bit in terms of compositional choices and how they’re cut together in the edit. But Id say there was more hit than miss here and theres even some nice experimentation with both the structure of the edit and in terms of the use of practical effects (Which again actually dont look too bad for a film of this kind of budget).
Theres some rock solid performances here with Billy Jayne as the freshman ‘Wesley’ working a HUGE range performance wise and actually really holding up as a leading man in this thing. I dont *quite* think he fully won me over as lead material here. But I still thought he did an excellent job and showed a real physicality and animation that I thoguht was quite impressive.
Judy Landers as the otherworldly Miss Xenobia equally delights, she doesnt get *too* much to do here, but when shes on screen she really does sell the idea of having a vague understanding about earth culture, but not fully grasping it.
Stuart Fratkin and Raymond O’ Connor equally delight as Wesleys best friend ‘Marvin’ and Miss Xenobia’s assistant ‘Drax’ both playing comedy foils to our leads but both from opposite ends of the spectrum. With Marvin being an easy going, ‘surfer’ type who wrankles Wesley up no end. And ‘Drax’ being incredibly muted and even more ‘fish out of water’ than Xenobia on all things earth culture. They really support the main in a big way and I feel the film would be a poorer experience without them.
In fact, the whole ensemble here are just really quite solid, they’re all clearly enjoying themselves, they’re animated, bright, and campy. they deliver their lines with relish and only adding to that, some nice little cameos from Linnea Quigley and Michelle Bauer only further sold me on this production.
Throw in some mixed to decent 80s synth pop that must have been MASSIVELY out of place for 1989 but fits the tone of this thing perfectly and you have a movie that was about 5 years out of fashion when it came out, but is a near PERFECT 80’s sex comedy in retrospective. Some damn fine work from Decoteau, I had a ball with this thing, and I think if you are okay to switch your brain off for a bit and just let this big daft mess wash over you, you’ll probably have a blast with it too!
TYTD Reviews 