Laserhawk (1997)

Director:

Jean Pellerin

Writer:

John A. Curtis (writer)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi | Action

Tagline:

The war began 250 million years ago...

Plot:

Teenagers in a mid-west town discover that they are destined to fight off an alien invasion as the crew of a spacecraft of unknown origin...

Plot Keywords:

Invasion | Comic Book | Alien | Spacecraft | Teenager

Cast

Jason James Richter	...	Zach Raymond
Melissa Galianos	...	Cara
Gordon Currie	...	M.K. Ultra aka Rodney Terence Stanko
Mark Hamill	...	Bob Sheridan
Ivan Rogers	...	Col. Lewis Teagarden USAF
Joseph Wynne	...	Roach
Richard Zeman	...	Frank Raymond - Zach's Father
Susie Algrem	...	Mrs. Raymond - Zach's Mother
Lila Feng	...	Anchorwoman
Chris Sedens	...	WBTI Ch. 2 Anchorman
Jill Deacon	...	Field Reporter
Marc Poulin	...	Dr. Duvalle
A.J. Cook	...	Pretty Girl #1
Jessica Welch	...	Pretty Girl #2
Kelly Patterson	...	Pretty Girl #3

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some language.

Runtime:

USA:99 min

Country:

Canada

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

USA:PG-13

Filming Locations:

France

Company:

Kingsborough Greenlight Pictures

Trivia:

The character M.K. Ultra, comic book writer Rodney Terence Stanko's (Gordon Currie) pen-name, is taken from the code name for the famous 1950s CIA experiment MK-ULTRA where the CIA gave LSD to unsuspecting soldiers and civilians.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: The film is supposed to be in the United States, with the US Air Force, and kids in a small town in Wisconsin. But, in the hamburger restaurant scene, there is a sign advertising "poutine". Poutine is a favorite in Quebec, it is the Canadian equivalent of French fries, but with brown gravy and cheese curds. A hamburger joint in the U.S. would offer French fries, not poutine.

Movie Connections:

References "McHale's Navy" (1962)

Pretty Good Movie, Considering...

I just finished watching this movie right now on Showcase (Canada). I had no clue what the movie was, but there was nothing much on TV, so I just watched it.

This movie, for what it is, is actually a very decent film. Including the obvious Mark Hamill, I noticed a couple other actors I knew, including the main star, Jason James Richter (from "Free Wily" and "The Neverending Story III"). Richter did well, as did the fiery and cute Melissa Galianos (who played as Cara).

It's a semi-adventurous, semi-science fiction movie with a nice uniqueness to it, as opposed to other alien-type movies. This one focuses more on the characters and their task-at-hand rather than the alien life the movie deals with.

Assuming that there was probably not much funding for this film, there were actually impressive and really decent special effects... much more decent than a lot of other so-called more popular movies/TV shows out there anyway.

In the end, the movie has a couple loose ends that are basically not explained, but who cares... the movie was a good movie overall, in my opinion. It's also an especially good movie if you take it for what it is, and not clumsily compare it to the best-sellers out there... which is highly unfair.

If you're the type of person to be either very picky, or maybe you only like the high-end films, steer clear of this one... but if you're not, and you enjoy the little fun/adventurous-type romps out there for what they're worth (such as "Little Monsters," "Howard the Duck," or even "Goonies"), then you'll like this one, I'm sure. :-)

Thanks, Mike Sorge.