MY CALL: If you’ve never seen or heard of this movie, make this a priority. This is a goulash of 80s Sci-Fi action influence and a pinata of crazy enjoyment mixing slick drug dealers, alien drug dealers, and cop flick one-liners. MORE MOVIES LIKE Dark Angel: For another cop vs alien movie in which the cop doesn’t know he’s hunting an alien, try Split Second (1992). Maybe also consider Screamers (1995).
Director Craig R. Baxley (The A-Team, Action Jackson) seems to be responding to Die Hard (1988) with his own Christmas action movie as a businessman crashes his car into a Christmas tree lot in the city. Meanwhile, a bunch of criminals sporting welding torches spelunk elevator shafts and air vents just like Bruce Willis and those Germans did a few years prior. Only instead of the giant blonde Viking Karl Vreski we have the alien Talec (Matthias Hues; No Retreat No Surrender 2, Kickboxer 2), and instead of Bearer Bonds we’re heisting stacks of cocaine from the police evidence room with Christmas music playing in the lobby. Even the movie poster smacks of Die Hard (1988) more than just a bit. And did I mention Al Leong (Die Hard, Big Trouble in Little China) is in this, too?
Detective Caine (Dolph Lundgren; Red Scorpion, Rocky IV, Skin Trade, Universal Soldier) gets caught between two crimes happening at once: an armed robbery and an undercover drug sting. While Caine handles the gunmen in the robbery, his undercover partner is murdered by a team of no-nonsense cop-killing criminals in slick suits. But before Caine can respond, a giant white-eyed alien launching a Batman Returns (1992) meets Krull (1983)-bladed frisbee-battarang thing slits the throats of many drug dealers and… takes all the heroine for himself? Caine’s ex happens to be the coroner Diane (Betsy Brantley; The Princess Bride, Deep Impact, Double Jeopardy), and she is baffled by the wounds at the crime scene. I also suspect they deliberately cast someone who looks like Linda Hamilton from The Terminator (1984) down to the hairstyle. After all, it seems like every major Sci-Fi action movie that ever was or will be is echoed in at least some small part in this glorious mash-up.
Forced to team up with the FBI, Caine and special agent Smith (Brian Benben; Dream On) begrudgingly work together to apprehend who they reasonably presume to be more criminals while Talec forcibly overdoses victims on heroin and then sucks out their dopamine-rich brain juice with an effect much like the brain bug in Starship Troopers (1997) using his weaponized bracer like in Predator (1987). And speaking of Predator, Talec’s size, roaring (at minute 73), and tossing around of an otherwise large-muscled Germano-slavic hero also feels distinctly modeled. It’s easy to see what movies influenced this. But did this influence the remote battarang in Batman Returns (1992), or the brain bug’s rostral brain juice straw???
But wait, there’s more. Another giant alien (Jay Bilas), this one balding but with dark long hair and matching white eyes, arrives in a manner reminiscent of the Terminator movies, disintegrating matter in its path of arrival. The brunette alien is here to hunt down the blonde, and seems to be willing to apprehend him at any destructive cost necessary. The whole bad alien hunted by the good alien feels like the Critters (1986) dynamic between the Crites and the Bounty Hunters, or like in The Hidden (1987).
Diane, Caine and Smith are coming to learn that their perp has access to dangerous technology, kills people with heroin, shoots explosive bullets with horrible aim, is even bigger and stronger than Dolph Lundgren, bleeds cottage cheese (maybe an Alien(s) android or Predator nod), and is being chased by the brunette giant alien. Meanwhile, Caine is also being hunted by the criminal syndicate that thinks he stole their heroin! THIS. IS. WILD.
Truly, this is such a super fun movie, and it holds up shockingly well among 80s action movies. The fighting, violence, explosions and effects are all up to snuff. Despite the typical eye-rolling tropes, this is decently written, acted, produced and directed. I love this movie. It may be second tier to the likes of The Terminator (1984), Predator (1987) and Total Recall (1990), but it still deserves a lot of love.
