Alien Cargo (1999 TV Movie) User Reviews

Alien Cargo: Passable sci-fi effort

[Platypuschow · 5/10 · 24 July 2018]

Starring the less drug addled of the London twins and Australian acting legend Alan Dale this little sci-fi movie is better than you'd likely assume.

It tells the overused concept of folks in "Hyper sleep" during a long journey through space. Two of them awaken only to learn that they should have woken up many months earlier, the crew are eerily missing and for some reason their tempers seem to be flaring.

Truth be told I'm sure I've seen this before, maybe an old Outer Limits episode or something similiar. The concept is bareable and competently enough handled but I couldn't get past the nagging feeling that it was more than slightly recycled.

Building to a less than predictible finale this impressed me, and that's hard to do considering I'm really not a sci-fi guy.

It still does rate just about an average film overall, but I appreciate the effort and it's certainly better than you'd expect it to be.

The Good:

Quite well made

The Bad:

Feels recycled

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

USA turns out to be responsible for every major movie conspiracy

This movie is underrated

[anonreviewer · 6/10 · 19 July 2003]

Not a bad movie at all. Hey, it's not Citizen Kane, I admit. But there certainly is character development and a fairly original plot.

Non-Hollywood type ending, too.

I recommend it.....

Alien Luggage

[BakuryuuTyranno · 6/10 · 23 March 2012]

At first the film had me expecting yet another variant on the "alien" formula. However, that turned out to be untrue. Actually, the movie's pretty atypical.

Essentially, there are people transporting supplies. Due to the long journey the crew enter hyper-sleep in shifts. The second shift people awoke and found they'd been asleep longer than had been intended. The first shift people were missing.

From there the mystery develops. There's no creature lurking around, though. Actually the threat is bacterial in nature. Meanwhile there's another ship attempting a rescue mission. The hyper-sleep crew are kept asleep, those being awake not wanting to introduce these people to a probably hopeless situation (the ship's low on energy and/or fuel).

Although the contamination behaves oddly - apparently infection can render someone delusional in seconds, and also get cured in seconds which strains credibility (it's also not clear exactly what the delusional people were thinking), ultimately I was interested in these people and what their eventual fate would be, so ultimately the premise is effective.

pretty decent, under-rated sci-fi movie

[kcwells · 26 April 2003]

I just watched this movie again, this time on the Sci-Fi channel, and I came on here to see what others thought. Frankly, I'm surprised it has such a low rating on here. It's certainly not flawless, but I think it's actually pretty darn good. There really wasn't anything BAD about it, either--nothing really to complain about at all. The acting was all pretty well done; perhaps not Oscar-winning, but not unbelievable at all. The plot, dialogue, and story all made sense too. The special effects--though there weren't really much of these to comment on--were all better than you'd expect for a movie you'd see on TV, and even the prop corpses looked reasonably as you'd expect them to look. I was impressed at how logical they made it all: the way the cargo system on the ship worked, the way the ship computer interacted with them, the way they moved around outside the ship (it didn't look like they were on strings when they were slightly hovering around), the way they realistically handled all of the situations, everything. Seriously, this movie isn't bad at all. It's certainly not the MOST creative or original movie out there, but I really don't understand why anyone would give it a 4.8/10 (which is the user rating on here at the time of me writing this). Although I would find it hard for someone to say this is their FAVORITE movie, it certainly shouldn't get anything lower than a 6. Personally, I'm giving it a 7. It's entertaining, pretty well acted and written, and it doesn't contain any gratuitous gore, nudity, or foul language either to bring down its quality level. Heck, it's even thought-provoking. *shrugs* I like it, and if you like sci-fi movies (or even if you don't), I bet you'd probably like it too. Don't let the abnormally low user rating scare you, this is a good movie. Oh, and it's not a creature flick either--there are no monsters or aliens or anything to make it hokey. It's a pretty good movie, try it out for yourself.

Space commerce may be hazardous to your health.

[michaelRokeefe · 3/10 · 20 April 2002]

Two members of a cargo spaceship awake from hyper sleep and realize they not only have over slept, but are also way off intended course. If this is not problematic enough the two astronauts fear their craft is contaminated by some of the outer space cargo collected. This movie is not a waste of time, but does not really offer much new. Some of the F/X are really good, but the project on a whole seems laking of real interest especially since there are NO aliens like the title may suggest. Jason London garners just enough to deserve star billing. Missy Crider is outstanding and is very easy on the eye. Nothing to go into orbit about.

Not half bad!

[Rob_Taylor · 7/10 · 6 December 2012]

For a TV movie, and a SciFi Channel one at that, I believe, this was a very pleasant surprise.

Once you make the adjustment to the low-budget effects and graphics, and start paying attention to the story, it all hangs together very nicely.

What's more, the plot is nicely handled. There aren't any crazy monsters, people behave in a sensible fashion, basic physics is obeyed and nothing jumps out at you as horribly inept. In short, the writer had more than a basic grasp of the environment the movie is set in.

Acting is passable, though Jason London will never be an A lister, and the plot progresses logically and without much contrivance at all.

In short, cheap though it is, Alien Cargo never offends the intellect. The beginning drags a little, but bear with it because it improves constantly as it goes along.

I was particularly pleased to see the use of a non-happy ending. They telegraph it fairly heavily from a long way off, but I kept expecting some kind of deus-ex machina to save the day. It never did and the movie is better for it.

SUMMARY: A pleasant surprise! Sensible, logical and genuinely likable. If only the more recent SciFi channel productions were as well written. Not ground-breaking, but worthwhile.

Okay plot but poorly executed

[thniels · 3/10 · 5 November 1999]

The plot was okay. Nothing new but with a few neat twists. That said, I found it utterly unentertaining. The acting was poor and unengaged. The effects where cheap and obvious. Worst of all - the keyboards were old PC keyboards. At least they could have used new ones. Desoldering tools for syringes? Please!! One thing was very effectfull, though - the zero gravity scenes. They were very convincing and had some humorous touches to them.

Nothing special but not bad either

[Iron-10 · 6/10 · 13 May 2001]

It is definitely not one of the movies that you can watch over and over again but it wasn't really bad. I didn't get bored though I expected to see an alien because of the title. So that's what we have: An interesting plot (after two members of a starship crew wake from the hyper sleep they realise they've been traveling in space for one year instead of 2 months which is the time they need to get to Mars which is colonised in the future), an average direction and an average casting, an awfully reduced set, an alien cargo with no alien, but yet a nice way to spend a couple of hours. It is certainly inspired by "Alien", but don't watch it if you're into aliens because you won't see any alien, it was more like a starship adventure. (The F/X wasn't bad). 6/10.

Better than 75% of the films you'll find that are made for SyFy

[one9eighty · 5/10 · 16 September 2020]

When I start a review stating that this film wasn't that bad, it's probably obvious that I was expecting a steaming pile of... Sometime in the future, an interplanetary cargo vessel experiences problems. Waking from hyper sleep two crew members, Chris McNiel (Jason London) and Theta Kaplan (Missy Crider) find out that they have been woken up 10 months later than planned, that they are off course, the ship is damaged, and their colleagues in the previous shift are nowhere to be found. As things develop it turns out that the first shift killed each other and the ship is carrying something nasty, a substance that can elicit hostility and violence. With only nine hours of life support left, and getting angrier by the minute, all hope seems to be gone - that is until a nearby research ship identifies them and offers a pickup. They must find away to survive until then, but they have also got colleague still in hyper sleep that could do with being rescued too. Will anybody be alive when the rescue ship arrives?

Directed by Mark Haber and written by Carla Wagner, this 1999 film is a sci-fi adventure that received a PG rating on it is release. This is a low budget film which relies more on an interesting story and script, than it does on effects and appearance, which at times do look a little cheap. Hardly surprising as this was a made for "SyFy" film. While some people might think this is an "Alien" rip-off I can assure you that it is not. It is fair to say that the film takes some inspiration from other sci-fi films, but it never really does it too brazenly. Despite that I always felt that I had seen it or experienced the film somewhere else before. I could not escape the feeling of Deja-vu throughout and while I cannot directly say I have seen it in a film before, perhaps I have played the scenario out in a video game. That would explain the random pacing of the film too, there were times were everything slowed down so that the audience could catch up, and there were times were things were a little more frantic. Jason London and Missy Crider do good in the lead roles and seem to play off each other well, cheesy in the troughs off their performances, but authentic in their peaks.

All in all, this was better than I expected it to be. After the 90 minutes of runtime I did not feel too robbed - if anything pleasantly surprised. As a PG rated film there is not much worrying in this film that would upset various age demographics. A good story with a few interesting twists and developments.

surprise

[quasides · 7/10 · 8 August 2016]

have to totally agree with kcwells

well i think the only problem of the movie was it didn't really know where to go.

it started like alien but nonono, no space alien horror is coming there (thank god). plot twist turned it into space survival. nice surprise

sadly it couldn't really take of from there. also the key factors - the deceases and the alien cargo still played a minor role, a starting point for the space survival plot.

the plot wasn't very thick. its hard enough to transport the tensions in a space emergency situation, even harder in such a futuristic environment. but in this movie it didn't really came across at all.

thats sad, because as kcwells already said it was technically very good. resonable believable characters - i hate those movies where people are bitten by a zombie and don't tell the group in self denial just to bring everybody in danger - here they act more logic, no they did it heroic

it was a great, not so much happy end, partly uncertain partly certain death and still left not a bad feeling.

sadly the movie was missing atmosphere too.

the alien plot was to quick,not mysterious enough, to much boring space survival... and still i cant rate this movie under 6

to - finally - too good the technical aspects, the actors also deserve 6.5-7. no nonsense just a bit better writing and this could have been a real bombatic movie

and if we consider this one was a TV its even more surprising. a 7 seven to compensate unjustified poor rating, a honest 6-6.5

5 out of 10 is about as good as these ones get...

[ksaelagnulraon · 5/10 · 16 February 2002]

Don't worry, if you miss this it's nothing you haven't seen before. They've tried to spice up a fairly typical sci-fi script with some fast music (ala BABYLON 5) and some commendable effects (for a telemovie, obviously with a limited budget, due to the fact it was shot in Australia for tax reasons and used mainly Australian actors). Mixed results, but far better than (for example) AIRTIGHT.

A Pleasant Surprise!

[M&J · 8/10 · 20 April 2002]

It's a lazy Saturday and I'm at home, not expecting to find anything worth watching on the tube when I stumbled upon this movie. I have to say that I was very surprised by this film. It's really pretty good. The problem with a lot of sci-fi pictures today is that they fail to create a believable fantasy world. Bad sci-fi flicks suffer from gaping plot holes or scientific impossibilities that anyone who paid attention to 4th grade science could figure out. This film doesn't suffer from such ailments. The writer and director painted a believable picture of a future where humans live on Earth, Mars, and mine the moons of Saturn and interplanetary shipping of cargo is a high pay / high risk job. The two lead characters awake from hyper-sleep 10 months past their scheduled date only to discover that the ship has been ravaged by the two members of the previous shift... both of whom are missing. The suspense starts from there continues to build for remainder of the film. It was pretty suspenseful flick. A lot of that is due to excellent acting jobs by Missy Crider (Frailty, Powder, the TV series The Others) and Jason London (The Rage: Carrie 2, Safe Passage) and a script by Carla Jean Wagner that didn't sacrifice accuracy for an abundant amount of official sounding techno-babble. Put the acting and writing together and you actually end up caring about the lead characters. If this movie a larger budget for props and special effects, it could have ranked up there with films like Alien, or Blade Runner. The ending isn't typical, which only adds to the class of this film. The only problem I can see with the flick are the external CGI shots of the ships... they are good for television, but still obviously generated by computer. Regardless, I still recommend this film. Enjoy!

Promising story but a bit, well, dull...

[Leofwine_draca · 5/10 · 4 April 2015]

ALIEN CARGO certainly has a wicked little story going for it. It involves the crew of a "deep space trucking company", all but two of whom are put into hypersleep for the most part of a year in order to cut down on costs. During a seemingly ordinary trip, two of the sleepers wake up to discover they've slept too long and their ship is now way off course. The members who are supposed to be on active duty are missing. Even worse, they don't have a great deal of fuel or oxygen left...

With that premise it's hard to get things wrong and ALIEN CARGO boasts a fine and spooky atmosphere, at least for the first half. I love the sense of foreboding that's carefully built up, and the unknown menace lurking in the background. The acting, from Jason London and Missy Crider, isn't too bad by genre standards either.

What a shame, then, that things fall apart in the second half when the source of the mystery is finally explained and it all becomes rather humdrum. It's at this point where the acting falls flat and the sense of menace dissipates in favour of TV movie cheesiness. The moral-flavoured climax is a little better, and I appreciate the downbeat ending, but in the end this is a film lesser than the sum of its parts. Watch out for NEIGHBOURS star Alan Dale (Jim!) as a hard-ass rival crew member.

Expect the unexpected

[hightide · 9/10 · 10 October 2001]

The beginning is an example of corporate tinkering. They felt they needed a formula hook so they editted one up front. But after that it really keeps you awake. Like an early Roger Corman film ("House of Usher") about half way thru, you realize they have been keeping the story going with smoke and mirrors, just 2 actors in this case carrying the whole film. But it works because the acting, the dialog, the direction, are great and the basic concept is solid and they dont screw it up. Then at the end you realize they arent going to cop out and it's really going to go where you never thot it was going to go. I really appreciate the minimalism and what they did with it. Story, characters, action... common sense in a dire situation.

9 stars out of ten.

A refreshing deviation from horror in Sci Fi.

[ThunderStomper · 9/10 · 4 September 2001]

It was refreshing to see a return to a Sci Fi movie based on suspense rather than horror. It had a decent and plausible story line. It was not heavy on special effects, but those it had were realistic enough not to detract from the movie. The acting was good, and the characters believable. It was unpredictable enough to keep you guessing, but did not have to come from left field to surprise you. The twists made sense within the context of the movie. If you watch Sci Fi for the horror aspect, you won't get much out of this movie. But if you watch for a decent story and a decent movie in a Sci Fi genre, you shouldn't be disappointed.

An intelligent SciFi movie, very well done.

[fgunther · 8/10 · 16 February 2002]

Since TV Guide only gave this movie one star, I was going to skip it, but, thankfully, something made me look a bit deeper. I'm glad I did, or I would have missed one of those rare gems buried in the dreck cable channels use as filler.

The title leads one to expect a cheesy "C" movie, with poor special effects, paint-by-numbers acting and every cliche known to the third-rate scriptwriter. Instead, we get a very well-done suspense film, far better than such big-budget blockbusters as "Red Planet".

The acting is nicely done and understated, the directing is taut and keeps the story flowing beautifully. As for cliches, the only one I noticed was the sleazy, obnoxious Company manager at the beginning. Otherwise, the other characters developed right in front of us, in the first fifteen minutes, with an almost British economy of dialogue.

The parallels with the original movie "Alien" are clear (cargo vessel, small crew, hypersleep during voyage), creating a locked-room environment for the drama to play itself out. But the plot is completely different, and the enemy far less clearly defined, only gradually becoming clear (sorry, I'm trying to avoid spoilers here). One of the film's nice touches is the handling of even the smaller roles, like the two communicators on the space station around Neptune; they actually come through as likable people, trying their best in an impossible situation.

The suspense at the end is maintained with a minimum of artificial plot devices, the elements of the story flowing smoothly and credibly one into the other.

In my humble opinion, this movie deserved a better deal than it got in terms of exposure and promotion, but what can you expect from the suits who run the entertainment business today?

This movie gets 8 stars from me, and even people who don't like SciFi will probably agree. Or not. I would definitely watch this film again.

A clever outer-space-mystery, and no scream-and-run-alien-copy

[DePalma · 4 October 1999]

A surprisingly intelligent outer-space mystery which is no alien-clone as it appears to be at first

The story may unfold slowly, but it has all the elements which makes it a good what-happens-next story. The actors are okay, nothing special, but the script nicely takes it time to explain different aspects around the mystery. It may not be entirely original, but at least we don`t get the whole picture from just watching 10 seconds of it. And the special effects are nice too. The end is a real beauty on the eye...and the mind.

We need more plot-focusing science fiction movies like this. Other similar movies to recommend: Alien-saga, Screamers, Outland, Life Pod..to name a few.

Applause.

[corneil-3 · 8/10 · 28 September 1999]

Surprisingly intelligent unhackneyed script for a somewhat familiar space subject. The uncliched ending, especially the visual of the last scene, still haunts me.

Very memorable movie

[rvor · 9/10 · 27 February 2011]

I first saw this movie on the Sci-Fi channel in the mid-2000's and it really left an impression on me. Probably the best things about it are the characters and the unexpected ending. Very good acting from London and Crider (and the rest of the cast), and the movie never insults the intelligence of the viewer. Also notable is the altruism and likability of the two main characters. The special effects are adequate to show what's happening in space, but don't take away from the focus of the plot. After years of trying to find this movie on DVD (and trying to remember the title), I finally found a Blockbuster VHS copy and digitized it. This movie is a rare gem. I recommend it not only to sci-fi fans but to anyone who enjoys sitting down to a good movie and who may be tired of the average Hollywood mass produced carbon copy flick.

Very Good Sci-Fi

[onlythusfar · 8/10 · 1 May 2013]

Up 'till the end of the first quarter hour of this movie I thought,"Oh God, sexy post-adolescents in space . . ." However, after that, I was really surprised at how much I was drawn into these characters' dilemma. The unexpected tensions between the main characters and even secondary ones made them seem real (as it did in "Night of the Living Dead"). The effects were good enough and because the drama was so good, it didn't rely on the special effects to prop it up. I enjoyed it more than the effect- heavy "Alien Resurrection", which I viewed the same day. That movie didn't have the element of human pathos, and I found it rather pointless. This movie is good for mature audiences. If you are into hyper video games and need things to blow up, gore and slobbering monsters this may disappoint you

Surprisingly Good, Mis-titled (WARNING: Spoilers Ahead!)

[Therod · 8/10 · 3 September 2001]

Just got done seeing this on re-run, and I must say I was quite impressed. London and Crider do fantastic jobs as the two lead astronauts -- they are so believable that they almost demand sympathy. The scenery and special effects were well-done, especially for a TV movie. Only gripe is that the title may be misleading to some (I certainly was). We never actually SEE the aliens, which is disappointing, but ultimately effective as the point of the movie is to emphasize the psychological element more than the physical element. Fans of "Event Horizon" will probably like this. Overall, very well-done for a made-for-TV sci-fi outing.

My Grade: B+

The best made for Sci-Fi channel movie I've seen.

[michaelayon83 · 10/10 · 24 June 2006]

This is easily the best made for Sci-Fi channel movie I've seen.

I have to admit, I can't recall the last Sci-Fi channel I've watched from beginning to end, but I'll catch a few minutes of something here and there and they're all pretty pathetic.

This movie is not full of cheesy CGI (computer generated images) or gore. The story is pretty good and the acting is the best I've seen in a made for Sci-Fi channel movie. The characters reactions to everything happening to them in the movie is believable and logical.

I would rate this an easy 9-10 for a made for TV movie as it kept me entertained not from laughing and making fun of it like so many made for Sci-Fi channel productions, but from actually enjoying it as movies are meant to be.

Don't let the title or budget fool you!

[redbeard_nv · 27 April 2003]

Read the other reviews for plot lines and spoilers, this one is an analysis of the mechanics of the movie.

On the plus side, the title doesn't mean a guy in a phony rubber suit. On the negative, the pacing is a little too slow for me to pay a great deal of attention, regardless of how intelligent the script turned out to be, although, as another poster has mentioned, it seems to lack a third act, or a payoff.

Netter Digital, the gang responsible for the effects work on "Babylon 5", turn in a satisfactory job on the SSS-17, a clunky boxy space cargo ship, but a better set of effects on the deep space exploration vessel, The Dolphin.

Attention to a lot of detail, concepts of what a corporation will do to minimize costs in the future world of Solar System mining and transport of goods and raw materials, a couple of decent actors handling the script (which, as I mentioned isn't too shabby), contribute to a surprising change of pace, regardless of a downer ending (I don't know if something else would have happened, that it would have become anti-climactic).

All in all, better than a lot of straight to vid sci-fi. I just wish it had been done just a little better.

Excellent Movie. Excellent Trance Style Music

[DJFireAtWork · 10/10 · 2 November 2005]

This movie was a refreshing scent into the Sci-fi genre. I really enjoyed this movie. The way the characters interact with each other, and now they would always have a good time even in a bad situation. This was awesome photography and the direction by Mark Haber was excellent. The music used in the whole shipping grounds was a nice touch to give it that space-like feeling. I would definitely welcome a DVD release if this gets a DVD release. My favorite actress Missy Crider stars in here as Theta Kaplan a beautiful, gorgeous blond who is ultimately and secretly dating Christopher McNeil even though it's against SSS17 rules and policies. But they don't care about rules and policies all they care about is getting the job done so they can go home and have a relaxing time. I love this movie. Put it on DVD now.

I hate that I cant get this on DVD currently! VHS is not the same

[cmflash · 10/10 · 20 December 2007]

***big spoiler*** I really enjoyed this movie. It was interesting and it made you think about decisions you make in your own life and career. The two leads, Chris and Theta have wonderful chemistry and you root for their relationship to be perfect even when you are afraid they may kill each other. Jason London was his usual perfectly darling self and you can only respond to his line "I'm the best you ever had and you cant get enough of me" with a grin and a nod. The situation these astronauts were put into by their employer really angers me though. (And I thought MY employer was less than concerned with it's employees' welfare!) But putting them into a situation that could potentially cost them their lives in order to save some money is just evil!!!! The last scene between Chris and Theta where they are deciding whether to end their lives rather than die horribly after being marooned in space brings a tear to your eyes. I believe I would decide the same thing as I think they did however, to stay together as long as possible.

Also I think the word 'Alien' in the title refers to something unknown rather than a being from another planet.