The ‘80s and ‘90s were filled with films featuring
mismatched cop partners and an alien threat – The Hidden (1987) and I Come
in Peace (1990) immediately spring to mind, but these were just two of
many. The Bill Paxton starring Monolith (1993) is yet another one which
is not as much a cult film as the previously mentioned films.
In this film, Paxton is rogue cop Tucker who’s Captain
(played by Louis Gossett Jr. – also very familiar with this genre) has saddled
him up with Terri Flynn (Lindsay Frost) who has the exact opposite style as
him. After a scientist kills a small
boy, they are put on the case to discover the truth but a secret government
agency lead by Villano (John Hurt) intercedes and stops them in their
tracks. It seems that the small boy is
part of a top secret government experiment of which Villano will not allow
anyone to get in his way. What follows
is a chase throughout the city for an alien that can switch bodies at will and
time is running out as this alien has an end goal that threatens to kill
everyone that gets in its way.
Now this film is every bit the typical buddy-cop film that
made Lethal Weapon, Rush Hour, Beverly Hills Cop and The
Heat such enduring films. What
this film lacks is a strong story.
Paxton and Frost actually make for a very good mismatched pair but the
body swapping alien story has aged the film horribly. It also doesn’t help that the screenplay
written by Stephen Lister and Eric Poppen has also aged horribly making the
film come off as a cheap TV movie.
Overall this is a pretty forgettable film that may be more
fondly remembered by those who actually saw it when it was originally released
(such as myself) but this is not a film to seek out if you’ve never seen nor
heard of it.
No comments:
Post a Comment