Extraterrestrial Visitors (1983)

Lack of good storyline.

Brilliant and touching

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

With all of the borderline unwatchable Z-grade garbage I've subjected myself to in recent months, I've been tormented often with the question of "Who is this movie for, anyway?" Never has that question been as booming in my mind as it was when watching EXTRA TERRESTRIAL VISITORS. I can't remember the last time a movie was so tonally disjointed. This movie came hot on the tails of E.T. from the prior year and you can tell the filmmakers were hoping to capitalize on the success of that lovable little alien. It goes without saying, but they failed miserably. I'm not entirely sure anyone involved in EXTRA TERRESTRIAL VISITORS ever actually watched E.T.; I expect one of them saw the trailer and figured they knew enough to make their own. There are two seemingly separate movies happening here (until it all "comes together" in the final act), focused on a meteorite crash in a forest that brings with it a series of alien eggs. The first thread has to do with a little boy finding one of these eggs and bringing it home to raise with his other pets. The egg hatches and the little boy names the alien Trumpy; hijinks ensue. The second thread follows one of Trumpy's more murderous siblings and the havoc it reeks on a group of poachers and, eventually, a group of musicians who've come to the woods for a camping trip. When one of their friends is injured, they find shelter with the little boy and his family in their remote cabin. These two plot threads continue almost completely independently of each other until the end for the anticlimactic conclusion.Let's start with the fact that these aliens look ridiculous. Trumpy and his kin are a bizarre mixture of Greedo (from the cantina scene in STAR WARS) and ALF. They can't speak but they're apparently born with hyper intelligence because Trumpy understands little Tommy just fine. They've also got a vague set of powers that are never really defined. Every so often Trumpy's eyes will begin to glow awkwardly and then he'll bust out with telekinesis or mental projections, and it's always accompanied with the absolute worst flatulent synth music. Trumpy displays his powers through playful means, such as parading Tommy's clothes out of his closet or projecting images of wild African animals (with which Trumpy has no reason to be familiar) into Tommy's telescope. He also has the ability to kill with his glowing eyes, as we learn when he fries one of Tommy's toy robots. Nothing ever comes of that, or any of his powers, ever again. Trumpy also seems to understand that he's an alien and can point out which star system he comes from on a map. Again, how he knows any of this is never explained. Not that it matters anyway because he arrived via meteorite in egg form so he really has no means of leaving Earth anyway. Instead he hides in Tommy's closet and narrowly avoids discovery by Tommy's mom between such classic scenes as Trumpy snorting a line of Planters peanuts with his snout or Trumpy completing a jigsaw puzzle with his mind. Oh, the fun to be had. And real quick, on the subject of Tommy, I don't know who dubbed his voice but I swear I've heard it in other crap movies and I hate it. I hate it so much.While Trumpy is engaging in non-adventures with his new friend Tommy, his evil twin is wandering around the woods in a state of bloodlust. After slaughtering his way through a team of poachers (and dragging their bodies to a ranger station solely so other characters can stumble across them when looking for help later in the film), it turns its attention to the group of musicians who've taken shelter in Tommy's home. These are some of the most unlikeable characters ever put to screen. The lead singer, Rick (Ian Sera), is a major tool and it's baffling that his backup singers and engineer are bothering to spend time with him outside the studio to begin with. As far as I'm concerned, they're all interchangeable and I have no idea who is who when bodies start to drop. The portion of the movie dealing with these idiots is obviously meant to lean more toward horror, which makes it all the more confusing when we cut away from these people dying off to revisit Trumpy and his ability to snort a bowl of milk. I'm pretty sure one of these people also manage to drop an F-bomb into the dialogue when the "tension" reaches its boiling point so, again, who is this movie for anyway? The Trumpy stuff is definitely for kids. Tommy's innocence, Trumpy's goofy nature, the stupid hijinks…these are tropes for a kids' movie. But then spliced in right alongside it is this poorly made alien horror. Neither story thread functions well enough on its own to be interesting and, smashed together, it's almost painful to sit through. I've managed to do so twice now and each time I'm too mentally checked out by the end to remember how it all concludes. Skip it.

Whoa man, have two words ever described a movie better?! Ironically, one of the characters in the film says just that. And is he ever right! It's gone under several names but in English, it's commonly known as either the UNEARTHLING or POD PEOPLE. Years ago, Mystery Science Theater 3000 tackled this one. And, as usual, struck comedic gold! There are three stories that are supposed to tie everything together. I say "supposed to" because it's not always clear what's going on.STORY 1: A trio of poachers sneak into a darkened forest. However, they witness something crash land. Upon investigating, they discover a cave of eggs and a very unhappy alien. STORY 2: A little boy happens upon one of the eggs and takes it back. It hatches, producing a cute cuddly alien that he annoyingly calls Trumpy. Why? Probably because the writers wanted to cash in on the "lovable Alien" theme started a year earlier by E.T. STORY 3: A rock band goes for a vacation in the woods and... *Sigh* Must I go on? Eventually all three stories collide. And the survivors must protect themselves from the rampaging alien outside. All the while, the boy does his best at hiding Trumpy indoors. Until... This pitiful French/ Spanish co-production has little to recommend it. None of the characters are interesting, the alien is obviously a man (or perhaps a midget) in a suit, the stories are dull, and the ending (though it's supposed to be cute and preachy) just feels so false and tacked on. However, if you're planning to bash it with a 10-ton anvil of wit, then invite over your friends and bash away!!!

The Pod People is kind of like a movie shake, as if someone took three entirely different movies (or is it five?), and threw them into a blender. The first part is about a couple of hunters stumbling around in the fog and not shooting any of the deer they see; the second part is about a lame rock band going camping in the same foggy woods; the third part is about a strange kid called Tommy, who keeps a veritable zoo in his bedroom.Eventually one of the rock band comes across the hunters and gets hurt, so the gang take her to house where Tommy lives with his mom and uncle where they spend most of the time discussing how to get help. Parallel to this story, Tommy has found an egg that hatches into an elephant faced alien creature that makes toys levitate and what not. Meanwhile the hunters have come across another elephant snout alien, but this one is less benevolent, and starts killing people. So we have tree stories going on at the same time, one E.T. type "friendly (seriously creepy looking) alien and kid" story, one "teenagers stuck in the woods" type thing and one "hunters become the hunted" monster flick. It all sort of comes together in the end, with the teenagers and Tommys drunk uncle going to kill the alien, while Tommy is trying to protect his pet.What I'm trying to get across here is that its all very, very confusing, and the tone and feel of the whole thing gets very muddled. Questions like, "what is going on?" and "what movie are we in?" kept popping up in my head throughout. That most of the movie is shot in a thick cloud of fog, and the lack of distinction between day and night, winter or summer doesn't exactly help either.

Hoo dawgies, what can I say about this movie that has been said before and better by other people? I'm not sure. Well, I'll tryTo start off with, I'm not sure why the aliens in the film are the Titular "Pod People". The "pods" they come from look very much like overlarge chickens eggs. When I think of pods, I think of long sacs or chrysilii (whatever the plural for that is) that the aliens burst out of. Thus, we get no Pod People. We get Egg People. Secondly, while we're on the alien kick, FEEL I HAVE BEEN CHEATED. The opening sequence shows scenes of green, sinister-looking aliens putting hurt on some camper-type people. Unfortunately, it seems this is the only point in the film we see these scenes. The aliens we get are not green and menacing, but brown, hirsute, and ALF-rip-offing. Sure, they can put up a fight and leave glowing spots on their victims foreheads for no other reason than to give the special effects department something to do, but most of the time they just jam with a Simon game and make stop-motion stuff happen all around an effeminate boy's room. And the campers they encounter couldn't be more irritating. There's a pop group and friends that sings a confusing song, three clumsy poachers of varying scary facial-hairyness (one having too much, one having none at all, and one just looking "blah"), and a family consisting of said girlboy (who has a pet for each day of the week, plus "Trumpy" the alien.), his mother (who always seems to call him from the door entering the hallway to his room, rather than stand in his doorway OR ENTERING THE FRIGGIN HALLWAY HERSELF), and a grumpy old uncle (who loves his booze.)I'm not sure what else to say. It's just a mess. If you're with a group and you're rather giddy, you might have some fun taking potshots at it. If not, "It STINKS!"