The Sender is godawful Z-Grade SciFi with cloying, grating intentions, a script with War Of The World's type ambitions that was given an allowance of like ten bucks to come into fruition, and the result is a windows 98 screensaver with a fraction of a pulse. It's a shame because they scored two dope actors in Michael Madsen and R. Lee Ermey, but as good as they are they're both sheepishly notorious for appearing in bottom feeding diarrhea like this to put food on the table. Madsen strains his tear ducts as the sympathetic father whose adorable daughter has mysterious connections to extraterrestrial activity from years before. He's on the run from all kinds of government folks including Ermey's gonzo, overzealous military asshole, a one dimensional fire and brimstone go-getter who hunts them six ways to Sunday. That's about all you'll get, besides cameos from Dyan Cannon and golden oldie Robert Vaughn, as well as some Fisher Price worthy UFO effects and an all round lack of pride in the craft from everyone involved. Poo.

Wow! This is one of the most amazing films I've ever seen. And I don't mean that in a good way. (grin) Once you get past the endless car chases and senseless shoot-em-ups, you have to shake your head in amazement at just how badly this film was botched. I mean, it had the stench of rotting cheese you could smell all the way back to the alien's home planet.If I had to guess, I'd say this was a first-time effort for the director, the screenwriter, AND the musical effects people. It just reeked of "We have NO clue what we're doing", which made it pretty darn funny, once you got over the expectation that you were going to see a "real movie".It's difficult to capture the essence of how this film plays out, but I'd characterize it best by saying, ...what would happen if you got a bunch of actors together, didn't let them read a script, then handed them their lines one page at a time, just before shooting each scene? They'd have no idea what was going on. They'd ask, "what's my motivation here?", to which the director would respond, "forget motivation, just say your lines". And that's exactly what the "actors" here do, 90% of the time. They just say lines. They don't act, they don't react, they don't respond to what's going on around them, there's no emotion. It's just bizarre. And the movie is full of these "WTF? moments". I kept asking myself, "Are these human beings, or zombies?". The one exception being R. Lee Ermy, who goes postal at the drop of a hat, with no provocation whatsoever.I'm baffled how someone could get funding to make a film this poorly, but I'd guess they didn't get to make any more. So here's your opportunity to catch a real schlock-fest. If you go into it with no expectations; like lots of action, with no suspense; don't mind gaping plot holes and a senseless script, you could be in for an amusing hour and a half of shaking your head and saying "unfreaking-believable!". I can't believe I watched the WHOLE thing. (smile)

This isn't the worst movie I have watched this year - but pretty close.Totally moronic "entertainment".Stupidities include our hero shooting the air hoses on the back of a truck to de-couple the trailer - huh? How is cutting the air to the brakes going to make the tractor unit and the flatbed part company?There is a prolonged fight on the back of a (not very) speeding flatbed truck in which our hero (played by Michael Madsen) is punched in the face several times and doesn't loose his sunglasses. Most people's glasses will fall off if they sneeze too hard. This guy's must have been stapled to his head, or maybe nailed - because Madsen's performance makes the hero look like a potato faced plank of wood. He reacts to everything that happens to him and around him with a blank non-reaction that is incredible to watch. During the course of the movie this guy's daughter is kidnapped, his house blown up, he's shot three times in the chest, resurrected by an shape-shifting alien, told his daughter is capable of interstellar travel by thought alone, he sees innocent members of the public gunned down, is nearly killed several times, sees old friends betray him and then get killed in front of him, kills many many people with an endlessly self-reloading hand gun and throughout all this mayhem and carnage, wanders around looking like he is suffering from constipation. Nothing seems to surprise, shock, baffle, or amaze him. Nothing registers but blank bovine stupidity. The only time he becomes at all animated is during one of the interminable car chase sequences when one of the bad guy's endless supply of black vans explodes right in front of him. Woooohoooo! Mongo like car crash!The ending is horrendously overlong and Michael Madsen's acting at the sight of his supposedly long dead father is a wonder to behold. His character has been supposedly obsessed by his father's death and when he, miraculously, gets to meet him, what does he do? Sort of grunts a bit and looks even more constipated than normal for a moment then sends his daughter over: "Go meet your grandfather" He doesn't even take his fecking sunglasses off!I had previously thought Sterling Hayden was the worst actor in the history of ever (apart from me) but on the strength of this movie alone his position has been usurped by Madsen. At least you could hear what Hayden said. His lines may have been delivered like the mail but at least they were delivered and not mumbled into the top of his shirt.Though, having said all that, the best bit of bad acting in this film comes pretty early on from someone else, Steven Williams as the evil Lockwood. Lockwood is asked a question by his evil underling and does some quick thinking. You can tell he is doing some quick thinking because his eyes quickly move from side to side like he's watching an off-screen ping-pong game.I wish I had been watching it with him and not this piece of sh!t. (The music is awful as well).

Granted, this isn't the greatest sci-fi film ever made, but it's not the worst, either. Yes, the plot is derivative, but how often do you see an original plot these days? Sure, it's not an excuse, but in a small picture like this it all works out. The weakest thing about this movie is that the whole "wow" in characters' reactions to the aliens is missing. However, I like the warm feeling this relatively low-budget flick gives you, and the action scenes are not bad at all. 8/10