Alien Nation

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: October 7, 1988

CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION

45	METASCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews

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Mixed:

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Critic Reviews

Critic score Publication By date

Ted Mahar

While the whole film is well-made, it has surprisingly few surprises. There are some small ones, but the plot and many details are predictable down to small details. [7 Oct 1988, p.F13]

Janet Maslin

Eventually, though it happens later rather than sooner, the conventional aspects of Alien Nation overwhelm the novelty. Read full review

Staff [Not Credited]

Solid performances by leads James Caan and his humanoid buddy-cop partner Mandy Patinkin move this production beyond special effects, clever alien makeup and car chases. Read full review

Dave Kehr

Alien Nation is a sluggish, forced and hopelessly derivative action thriller, sporadically redeemed by the wit of its stars and the velvety sheen of Greenberg's night photography. Read full review

Kevin Thomas

There are, thankfully, a few humorous and imaginative touches here and there, but Alien Nation is hardly inspired. Read full review

Bill Cosford

Though there's some wit on the fringes (including splendid use of a Reagan stump-speech line), the whole thing plays a lot like a Miami Vice via Star Trek. [7 Oct 1988, p.E10]

Roger Ebert

The movie is simply a failure of imagination. Nobody looked at the screenplay and observed that it didn’t try hard enough, that it had no surprises, that it didn’t attempt to delight its audiences with twists and turns on the phoned-in plotline. Read full review

Rita Kempley

Alien Nation wants to be "In the Heat of the Night" as science fiction, but it's neither morally instructive nor prophetic. It proves a lumbering marriage of action and sci-fi that alienates both audiences. It's too dull for one and too dumb for the other. Read full review

Jay Carr

Alien Nation quickly abandons any possibility of an equivalently fascinating world for the formulas of a routine cop movie. [7 Oct 1988, p.40]

Rick Groen

Alien Nation lives out precisely the fate of the alien nation it depicts - both full of potential, both hoping to please, and both immediately co-opted, enslaved by the same commercial forces that granted their release. [12 Oct 1988]