I've never been a fan of Fred Olen Ray, but before he went completely bonkers and started to direct approximately six or seven useless dreck movies per year, he admittedly did make a few worthwhile B-flicks during the 80s. Of those, I firmly believe that "Deep Space" is the most enjoyable one, even though it's another umpteenth and 100% unoriginal imitation of the Ridley Scott classic "Alien". Passable as it may be, "Deep Space" at least guarantees fast-paced action sequences, gooey special effects, (unintentionally) hilarious dialogues and a rare lead performance by Charles Napier as the ultimately tough macho copper. "Deep Space" sees a top-secret space capsule, developed by military scientists and containing an alien monster, crash-landing in the outskirts of a big city. Nihilistic cop Ian Macklemore (Napier) and his partner Jerry are quickly taken off the case, but Macklemore nevertheless managed to steal two rocky cocoons from the crime scene. Pretty soon, he and his female officer date are chasing miniature alien monsters in their apartment, while there's also a mature and deadlier specimen terrorizing the streets. Olen Ray clearly didn't bother to make his monsters look much different than the original designs used in the aforementioned "Alien", except perhaps that the teeth are slightly bigger. I'm surprised this didn't lead to any lawsuits? Never mind the immense plot holes, like how exactly do you create an alien monster and what's the deal with the psychic lady, since Olen Ray compensates these with gory killings and cheesy dialogues (my favorite being: "Is this rock extraterrestrial? No man, it's from outer space!"). Charles Napier is so happy with his heroic role that he even agreed to dress up in a kilt and play a lousy tune on his bag pipes! There are several more familiar faces in "Deep Space", including An Turkel, Norman Burton and Julie Newmar. Bo Svenson also receives top billing, but his role is rather insignificant.
Review of Deep Space
