Alien Hunter (2003)

An alien black box is found in the South Pole, where a government agency is conducting botanical experiments.

Director:

Ron Krauss

Writers:

J.S. Cardone (story), Boaz Davidson (story)

Stars:

James Spader, Janine Eser, John Lynch

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
James Spader	...	Julian Rome
Janine Eser	...	Dr. Kate Brecher
John Lynch	...	Dr. Michael Straub
Nikolai Binev	...	Dr. Alexi Gierach
Leslie Stefanson	...	Nyla Olson
Aimee Graham	...	Shelly Klein
Stuart Charno	...	Abell (as Stu Charno)
Carl Lewis	...	Grisham
Svetla Vasileva	...	Dacia
Anthony Crivello	...	Pilot
Kaloian Vodenicharov	...	Co-Pilot (as Kaloyan Vodenicharov)
George Stanchev	...	Airman
Rufus Dorsey	...	Navigator
Roy Dotrice	...	Dr. John Bachman
Woody Schultz	...	Sam

Storyline

In 1947, in New Mexico, a radio operator receives a signal following regular patterns. While investigating the occurrence, he vanishes. In the present day, the same signal is transmitted from a base in the Falkland Islands to United States of America and a satellite captures images of a unknown object in Antartic. The cryptologist Julien Rome (James Spader) is invited to investigate the mystery in the South Pole and he flies to a research base. While a team tries to open a weird shell probably from the outer space, Julien solves the message, which proves to be a distress signal ordering not to open the case.

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Plot Keywords:

alien | elevator | alien invasion | u boat | womanizer | 

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Taglines:

At the ends of the Earth, it's the end of the world...

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for language and some violence

Details

Country:

USA Bulgaria

Language:

English Russian

Release Date:

19 July 2003 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Beacon

Filming Locations:

Newhall, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$7,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Millennium Films, Sandstorm Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

92 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The CGI effects featured at the climax took six months to do.

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Goofs

The crew on a Russian submarine call the dive depth in feet (both on the soundtrack and in the subtitles), however, Russia uses the metric system.

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Connections

References E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

User Reviews

Better than average.

Reading over the reviews for this film, I see that pretty much everyone agrees that while it's not an A+ Top Notch effort, it certainly isn't as bad as it could have been.

What's good about it:

1) James Spader (!), who's incredible in everything he's in. 2) Pretty good Visual Effects. 3) Nice Musical Score.

What's average:

1) The other performances. 2) The story (as many have pointed out, it's a mosaic of other movies).

What's monumental:

You will never see another movie in which the end credits has as many crew members with last names ending with the letter "v."

What's unforgivable:

The title! "Alien Hunter" is an absolutely terrible name. Surely they could have come up with something a little more enticing. It sounds like a reject Jean-Claude film title.

I'm still amazed that they were able to cast James Spader in this. I mean, JAMES SPADER!!! :)

Bored? Nothing else to watch or rent? Give this movie a try.