Alien Agenda: Endangered Species (1998 Video) User Reviews

no-budget X-files rip

[vampiremovies · 3/10 · 26 January 2004]

I picked up this movie as a big fan of Debbie Rochon, and for that reason alone was not disappointed, she is the one thing that makes this movie watchable. There are 4 'stories' - the first is a journalist who finds out that her boyfriend is an alien and that she's pregnant. This segment is by far the best of the movie, its well acted, interesting and frankly looks great.

Alas it goes down hill from here, the second story is about an operative who disappeared 5 years ago and suddenly reappears being chased by these two dodgy looking men in black. They are aliens and want this mysterious stone that only he knows the location of. Rather dull and nonsensical.

Part three is the worst, I almost didn't think I'd make it to the end. A man is sent into the quarrentined state of Florida in the not to distant future to bring back intelligence on alien time travel. He gets to wrestle a papier mache alligator and do some very silly looking kung-fu. Shudder this is bad.

The final part beings us back to the lovely Miss Rochon and brings in the alien war plot line. Not bad, reasonably complex plot and ok the budget is very limited, but I actually thought it wasn't too bad.

Overall this is a very disjointed film. The middle is so very very bad, and rather unnecessary, but the beginning and end are rather fun. I can't say I'd recommend this, but I have seen an awful lot worse.

Not the end of the world for no-budget sci-fi.

[capkronos · 4/10 · 27 May 2007]

If you can look past the usual problems associated with extreme low-budget film-making, you may find this a mildly enjoyable sci-fi/horror effort. The visual effects are among the worst I've ever seen, the acting is highly variable and the photography and sound are often very bad, but the filmmakers try to make up for it through an interesting premise. It's definitely a case where the ambition outweighs the budget by several million dollars, but they do their best with it. The ALIEN AGENDA series is basically about Earth being overrun by an alien species who have taken on human form to gradually enter into our society (and our government and scientific institutions) without being noticed. This film, an anthology feature, tries to integrate several different stories into the plot (two taken from shorts previously filmed, as far back as 1992) and manages to successfully weave them into the plot. I've seen the same technique done hundreds of times (Jerry Warren, anyone?) and it hardly ever gels. This one is at least semi-coherent.

We begin with your average New York yuppie couple; John, a handsome businessman (Joe Zaso) and Megan, a beautiful tabloid reporter (Debbie Rochon). Thinking her husband is having an affair, Megan listens in to his phone calls, follows him around and starts investigating into his life. An E.T. burglar (Sasha Graham) enters their home, John morphs and kills her and it is then that Megan discovers her husband is actually an alien. He promises they can continue an amicable relationship (though alien, he still loves her), but she freaks out, shoots him dead and flees the city. We catch up with Megan ten years later in Detroit. By the way, it's funny how they "age" Rochon, by removing the thick eye-liner and red lipstick (present even when she's sleeping!) for her later scenes. Anyway, Debbie/Megan spends a lot of her time sitting at a computer, talking on the phone and fighting with a bitchy co-worker. She also consults with two agents out in the field; in Nevada and Florida. We see both of their stories; one bad, the other pretty good.

The Vegas segment (directed by Gabriel Campisi) involves a Hispanic guy named Fritz (Alejandro Aragonez) being pursued by two Men In Black. They are dressed in suits and sunglasses, exactly like Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones in the 1997 hit MEN IN BLACK, except this segment was actually lensed in 1992. Anyway, the bad guys want back a mysterious stone (with a strange marking matching an identical pattern on Fritz's hand) that can open up dimensional gates. The cast is devoid of charisma (and talent), there's little dialogue, way too much time spent on walking, running and cars driving around and pretty poor effects. However, I loved one touch here: two robotic aliens that emerge from a (toy) spaceship. They are brought to life through stop-motion animation, an underrated special effects technique I always enjoy seeing, even when it is cheaply done like it is here.

Next it's off to the Sunshine State (in a segment done by Tim Ritter in 1996) where a renegade named Cope Ransom (Joel D. Wynkoop) answers a call from Rochon's agency to try to locate a crashed spaceship in The Everglades. The setting and story are both interesting; a futuristic Southern Florida, which has been sealed off to the public due to radiation and mutation (kind of like ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK). Quarantined citizens (and animals) trapped inside have turned into either monsters or cannibals. There's even a scene where four little kids get to chow down on their dead old dad's guts. Ransom eventually battles his way to a desolate chemical plant only to find he has been lured there under false pretenses. Yeah, there's also a screaming mad-man dressed in a suit who ties him up, rants and raves to (and makes out with) a silver-painted mannequin and is being watched by an alien creature. All-around, this segment is probably the best of the bunch, though the stupid kung fu fight sequence at the end (don't ask!) comes out of nowhere.

Finally, the stories trail back to Rochon in Michigan and this framing sequence also has its own surprise ending, which really is a surprise and an unexpected twist to the plot. I have to admit, I probably would have never watched this movie if it hadn't starred Rochon. I'm a fan of hers. She's a very appealing, underrated actress who is usually the best thing about the low-budget movies she appears in, which is certainly the case with this one.

AA: ENDGARED SPECIES runs 102 minutes, is unrated and the DVD pairs it up with the inferior ALIEN AGENDA: UNDER THE SKIN (1996), which was done in by too many bad one-liners (ENDANGERED SPECIES at least has the guts to play it mostly serious).

This Is a Strange One

[robert-temple-1 · 3/10 · 16 December 2008]

This zero budget sci fi movie appears to have been made by non-professionals, aka amateurs. The production values, music, sound, etc., are all absolutely terrible. Much of the acting is even worse. Despite all this, the film is strangely watchable and fascinating, more as a specimen of something (I don't know what) than a movie. It is like an attempt by someone down the street to make a home video with some friends about the aliens theme. Here, we are told that humanity is 'caught in the middle' of a struggle between two warring alien species who have long ago invaded the earth. One is 'the Greys', the little creepy fellows well known to anyone who has ever read a UFO abduction account. The other is 'the Morphs', who look just like us and are infiltrating positions of power, like Dick Cheney, perhaps. People who get in the way of either species of aliens get killed (Vince Foster?) A few of the actors offer some weird interest, such as Debbie Rochon, whose main problem is that she definitely wears the wrong colour lipstick for her complexion. Too purple. Try vermilion or even scarlet. There are some monsters and 'gut chompers' and other horrors strewn throughout this bizarre collection of loosely related tales. None of it makes any real sense. It swims in a sea of conspiracy and is intuitive rather than logical. Psychiatrists would be interested in this film, which is like a long bad dream. Some of the people connected with making this must be, well, you know ...

Not a film, more like a film festival

[Sic Coyote · 2/10 · 21 April 2004]

It looks like 3 old amateur films (maybe submitted to tromadance) edited a bit and joined together with DV shot book-end segments with Debbie Rochon to tie them together to form some sort of plot(which makes little sense). Since it is now sold in poundland(which is where I bought it) I think this is about the right price for it, any more and I would have felt very cheated. Interesting only if you like to look at other amateur films. Note: Amateur, not independent. 2/10

Avoid,avoid, avoid, can't say it clearer!!

[ClfGlltt · 1/10 · 12 April 2004]

Looking at the cover makes you think "hey, I could do a better professional job than this on my computer with no software to help me" But as I am a big fan of trashy movies (my wife will back that up) this did not put me off buying it(it only cost me a pound anyway). From the start to finish, although I did turn it off 3/4 of the way,it is totally amatueristic. Acting terrible, effects from the 1940's, so boring you just loose the plot, did I mention bad acting or did it have such a low budget that half the actors didn't get paid,thus were totally unmotivated. Debbie Rochon is very nice indeed but I think if she stripped off all the way through this film,it still would not have saved it,sexist pig you might say, but go ahead watch this movie then you will know what I'm talking about.

Boring agenda - Endangered lifespan

[bruce_vader_2501-1 · 1/10 · 28 December 2008]

This film is the worst film i have ever seen.

The acting is terrible, the script is non-existent and the directing...well lets say Uwe Boll has given us classics compared to this.

I do not know what the other person who commented actually watched but it couldn't have been this. The nameless hero roaming the radiated wastelands of Florida...is nameless because no-one could be bothered to actually name the character or they didn't actually read the name from the script.

Debbie Rochon who plays the main character is awful, and her acting could be described as wooden, but that would be an insult to wood. I watched the entire film hoping she would get her large breasts out for the world to see, but I was denied even that small amount of pleasure from this pile of unwatchable excrement. Avoid like the plague.

Very entertaining, a nice deviation on the X-Files

[tie1985 · 7/10 · 4 November 1999]

If you're into the X-Files, alien invasions, and action/sci-fi, you'll wanna check out ENDANGERED SPECIES. It's a wild trip into an alien war between two species, the Greys and the Morphs, and the humans that intercept their intentions. There's three interlinking stories in this movie, all of which are entertaining. Debra Rochon's acting is top notch, and Joel Wynkoop does a great "Man With No Name" impersonation as a burned out hero infiltrating the radiated swamplands of Florida. All the directors do a fine job in executing their segments, budgetary restraints considered. The plot is very complex and it's recommended to view this movie a couple of times to get all the details straight in your mind. One part has some excellent stop-motion photography and animation, while another has wild action that includes karate fights, alligator wrestling, and the coolest looking alien space station I've seen on this side of the Mississippi. The flick is also pretty decent for family viewing, minor swearing and violence aside. So if you're a sci-fi fan looking for a little deviation from Scully and Mulder, get this flick and check it out.