The Sender (1998)

Thanks for the memories!

Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

THE SENDER is a cheesy and unintentionally funny late '90s sci-fi thriller, clearly made to tap into the success of THE X-FILES around that time. Hell, it even has Steven Williams ('Mr. X' from the show) present, complete with ridiculously dyed white hair.Sadly this is a goofy messy of a movie, only worth watching to laugh at. Michael Madsen continues a trend of appearing in cheap B-movie action flicks and gives what can only be termed a wooden performance. There are some surprising faces in support, including Robert Vaughn and R. Lee Ermey, but it's no surprise that the characters they're playing are so stereotyped.THE SENDER adopts an action template throughout, with lots of senseless shoot-outs and some ridiculous vehicle chases to enjoy. Also, you can play 'spot Madsen's stuntman' throughout. Worst of all is the female alien, who turns up wearing a silver lame dress and glitter wig. At this point, you just know you're not going to be able to take this film seriously anymore.

I just have to say this: The worst thing about this movie was Michael Madsen acting. Does this guy even have any expressions? During the entire movie the feeling I got from him was "yeah, so?".Never excited, never raises his voice, never acts like any more than a cardboard cutout. The movie would have been a lot better if he wasn't in it.Overall, this movie wasn't quite as bad as some of the others would have you believe. I had just bought 4 stinkers to watch during the weekend (I like watching bad movies). This movie was the best of the lot (which tells you how bad the other movies were).In this movie, aliens can travel anywhere because their females have a "sender gene". They had made sure that over the years no humans with this gene were allowed to continue on, although they never explain exactly how that was accomplished. Enter Michael Madsen's character and his daughter, who of course has the gene. The government wants her, and the aliens are trying to strengthen her gift because they accidentally killed her grandfather. The hottie alien in this case has gotten to know humans and now believes they aren't as bad as previously thought.So, we have (too many) gun battles where Michael Madsen likes to hold his gun sideways like an idiot "gangsta" or something. They never run out of ammo (hey, isn't that so last century?). Of course, no one but the heroes ever hit anything even though they are up against soldiers with M16s. Speaking of soldiers, they should have gotten them uniforms that fit. They looked pretty dumb. Also too many car chases where our heroes always get away.This could have been a good movie. There were some good actors in it, and overall the acting was OK (except for Michael Madsen).Also, they should have gotten rid of the bleached blond black guy with the one earring who was supposed to be in charge. He was a horrible actor, and his "look" didn't fit the part at all. He looked like he should be dressing the performers back stage at a theatrical stage show.The best actor in the movie (and I guess he's a bit of a character actor) was R. Lee Ermey as the bad ass Colonel Rosewater, but I've never seen him be bad at any part he's played.Got nothing to do? Bored? Only movie in the $3 bin you haven't seen? Buy it and watch it once. Better than nothing.

Now don't get me wrong - I like Michael Madsen; He has a certain screen presence about him that always somewhat lifts any production he appears in. However, one thing I don't like about the chap is his ostensible arrogance and aloofness as regards certain films in which he has found himself. In fact he is very openly and vocally critical regarding many of the productions with which he has been involved. Certainly I appreciate honesty (and in the ghastly false world of Hollywood it is truly a rare phenomenon!) but I have always found the WAY in which Madsen airs his disdain to be highly disrespectful to all those who have no doubt worked hard around him. In fact Madsen himself has been quoted as citing, '...These horrifying straight-to-video things'(!) for which he received 'Very little money'. Such is obviously the case in point with the film in question in fact; Clearly, this is one of the very films he refers to and his subsequent response to ending up in such a production? - He gives a deliberately dreadful performance so as to indicate his vast superiority to the relevant material. OK, so Madsen at his very best could hardly be listed anywhere remotely near in the same ranks as the Olivier's or the Brandon's of the world but there is simply no excuse for such a monumentally lazy performance as he turns in here.Rant over now and what of the actual film aside from Madsen's lacklustre effort? Well, it's a fairly run of the mill affair at best in fact (but this STILL does not excuse Madsen's antics!) but is harmless enough viewing for ninety or so minutes. With director Richard Pepin on board you can of course count on some good action scenes and he doesn't disappoint including some cool freeway chases (and explosive crashes!) However, the best thing about this for me was the absolutely beautiful alien lady in it! - Truly she is stunning to behold and lit up the screen every time she appeared.For fellow PM fans, this is sadly probably one of their weakest efforts it has to be said, yet it isn't without its moments.

This film is typical of what the Americans seem to like - to their shame. Lots of car chases, a very high body count and leading characters possessing an immunity to machine gun bullets whilst making every shot from their handguns hit its target. Also I believe that automatic pistols do need reloading before firing 100 shots. The plot was OK but there were many loopholes. The only thing making this film worth watching is Shelli Lether who is very easy on the eye. Glamour is one thing that the Yanks do well but how many times have we seen immune heroes like Rambo dodging multiple machine gun fire with no damage! 1/10(for Shelli Lether)