This is what happens when you give a director $100,000 or so and tell him you want a movie in ten days...Some folks just don't appreciate bad films. I do. I've been an extra in a couple of them myself and, believe me, the people who makes these Grade Z pictures (the cast and the crew) aren't fooling around. They work hard at their craft, as hard as the people who make "real" movies, and with the added burden that they know the result is going to be pretty awful. They are basically professionals who have fallen on hard times or semi-professionals hoping to make it to Hollywood proper. When you watch ALIEN OUTLAW pay attention to the scene where the heroine is discussing her new contract with the head of the management agency. It's an interminable scene, with some of the worst dialogue ever written, but the two actresses give it everything they've got. You really have to give them credit for professionalism and effort. That being said, if you think you're going to be treated to something like the Sigourney Weaver ALIEN pictures you're going to be sadly disappointed. ALIEN OUTLAW is a mindless story about marauding extraterrestrials whose idea of attacking the Earth is, essentially, to sneak around the middle of nowhere bush-whacking Appalachian stereotypes and vandalizing parked cars. They make the aliens from PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE look like evil masterminds. They don't even have ray guns or blasters, but try instead to use Western six-shooters they clearly have no idea how to handle, as every second or third shot results in a jam. At which point they toss the weapon down in disgust and run slowly away from danger, no doubt squealing the alien equivalent of "Boy, we're in trouble now!" Earth should be so lucky as to be attacked by these guys. The film has a few good points. The heroine is quite sexy and not a bad actress. Most of the other actors (including several legendary B-Western stars at the end of their careers) at least give it a good effort. And for those viewers who might someday want to make their own picture, it carries a very clear lesson: no matter how small the budget, hire a decent screenwriter before you do anything else.

This one is beyond awful. The aliens look like guys dressed in frog suits with cheap Halloween masks and seem to have no purpose on earth but to twirl six guns (for real, that old fashioned swing the gun by its trigger guard thing), bust out windshields on cars (interstellar vandalism...huh?) and from time to time, shoot people for no particular reason (do these guys not have laser guns or any weapons other than what they find laying around?) Not to worry, tho...awful acting and cornball plot fill in the very large blank spaces between action scenes. You'll be so desperate for something to happen that you'll find yourself cheering the car destroying scene. And then turning the movie off because not even Rifftrax makes this steaming pile worth finishing.

Where else would you get a mix of aliens wielding .44 Magnums and old cowboy stars coming to the rescue? You owe it to yourself to see what kind of fun can be produced on a shoestring. Phil Smoot rocks! Check out "The Dark Power" for more proof... He really knows how to dish up camp with his over-the-top directorial style. This was Sunset Carson's, Wild Bill Cody's and Lash LaRue's last film before their deaths. They may or may not have been proud of that fact, but at least it gave another generation a bit of insight into the black-and-white "B" Western genre. A bit of trivia, this movie was filmed in and around the Glade Valley School in Sparta, NC. Sparta is the county seat of Alleghany County, the home of more Christmas tree farms than any other county in the country.

This sci-fi/comedy/western could've been a lot more entertaining with some expert editing, the performances by a cast of unknowns leave a lot to be desired also. Plot lines that lead no where, and a plodding story line make the 90 minutes seem like 3 hours. But if you like cheesy grade z action, with a tiny bit of gratuitous T&A thrown in you might want to lose 90 minutes you'll never get back. The entertainment I got from this shoe string budgeted flick was in watching the beautiful, almost scantily clad Kari Anderson (this was her only movie appearance??), and the chance to see two old (fairly well preserved) cowboy stars from the 40's Sunset Carson and Lash LaRue. An extra bonus for cowboy fans is the interview (more of a informal reminiscence for the old days of the B western) between Sunset and Lash.