The Sender (1998) User Reviews

A real stinker, but pretty funny, with a few redeeming moments

[obryan1 · 3/10 · 6 July 2007]

Wow! This is one of the most amazing films I've ever seen. And I don't mean that in a good way. (grin) Once you get past the endless car chases and senseless shoot-em-ups, you have to shake your head in amazement at just how badly this film was botched. I mean, it had the stench of rotting cheese you could smell all the way back to the alien's home planet.

If I had to guess, I'd say this was a first-time effort for the director, the screenwriter, AND the musical effects people. It just reeked of "We have NO clue what we're doing", which made it pretty darn funny, once you got over the expectation that you were going to see a "real movie".

It's difficult to capture the essence of how this film plays out, but I'd characterize it best by saying, ...what would happen if you got a bunch of actors together, didn't let them read a script, then handed them their lines one page at a time, just before shooting each scene?

They'd have no idea what was going on. They'd ask, "what's my motivation here?", to which the director would respond, "forget motivation, just say your lines". And that's exactly what the "actors" here do, 90% of the time. They just say lines. They don't act, they don't react, they don't respond to what's going on around them, there's no emotion. It's just bizarre. And the movie is full of these "WTF? moments". I kept asking myself, "Are these human beings, or zombies?". The one exception being R. Lee Ermy, who goes postal at the drop of a hat, with no provocation whatsoever.

I'm baffled how someone could get funding to make a film this poorly, but I'd guess they didn't get to make any more. So here's your opportunity to catch a real schlock-fest. If you go into it with no expectations; like lots of action, with no suspense; don't mind gaping plot holes and a senseless script, you could be in for an amusing hour and a half of shaking your head and saying "unfreaking-believable!". I can't believe I watched the WHOLE thing. (smile)

I watched the whole thing....wow....

[mergatroid-1 · 4/10 · 4 September 2010]

I just have to say this: The worst thing about this movie was Michael Madsen acting. Does this guy even have any expressions? During the entire movie the feeling I got from him was "yeah, so?".

Never excited, never raises his voice, never acts like any more than a cardboard cutout. The movie would have been a lot better if he wasn't in it.

Overall, this movie wasn't quite as bad as some of the others would have you believe. I had just bought 4 stinkers to watch during the weekend (I like watching bad movies). This movie was the best of the lot (which tells you how bad the other movies were).

In this movie, aliens can travel anywhere because their females have a "sender gene". They had made sure that over the years no humans with this gene were allowed to continue on, although they never explain exactly how that was accomplished. Enter Michael Madsen's character and his daughter, who of course has the gene. The government wants her, and the aliens are trying to strengthen her gift because they accidentally killed her grandfather. The hottie alien in this case has gotten to know humans and now believes they aren't as bad as previously thought.

So, we have (too many) gun battles where Michael Madsen likes to hold his gun sideways like an idiot "gangsta" or something. They never run out of ammo (hey, isn't that so last century?). Of course, no one but the heroes ever hit anything even though they are up against soldiers with M16s. Speaking of soldiers, they should have gotten them uniforms that fit. They looked pretty dumb. Also too many car chases where our heroes always get away.

This could have been a good movie. There were some good actors in it, and overall the acting was OK (except for Michael Madsen).

Also, they should have gotten rid of the bleached blond black guy with the one earring who was supposed to be in charge. He was a horrible actor, and his "look" didn't fit the part at all. He looked like he should be dressing the performers back stage at a theatrical stage show.

The best actor in the movie (and I guess he's a bit of a character actor) was R. Lee Ermey as the bad ass Colonel Rosewater, but I've never seen him be bad at any part he's played.

Got nothing to do? Bored? Only movie in the $3 bin you haven't seen? Buy it and watch it once. Better than nothing.

I should flunk this for not showing us Shelli Lether naked.

[Vomitron_G · 5/10 · 29 February 2012]

How do you recognize it's director Richard Pepin messing around with the sci-fi genre? You'll be getting a LOT of car chases, crashes & explosions. And it's no different with this Michael Madsen vehicle. Madsen & alien beauty Shelli Lether are on the run for those darn evil military folks and decide to strike back with a vengeance because those same folks have kidnapped Madsen's daughter who happens to possess cosmic forces the likes of which mankind's evolution has yet to see. The sentimental gibberish was a bit too much in this one. The plot is far-fetched, inconsistent and doesn't bother to explain a lot of things. Most things that happen, just happen to keep the action going, throwing all sense of logic out the window by doing so. Nevertheless, I didn't even want my 100 minutes back after (re-)watching this. What I did want, is to have seen Ms. Lether show us that full frontal skin that she did show to Madsen. Grrr. I can't possibly believe a movie this tame (in the gore, violence & nudity department) ever received an R-rating. But in the end we do get to see a spaceship and some crappy CGI aliens. Wow, amazing stuff! No, not really.

What a waste of time

[pwhen · 2/10 · 6 August 2006]

I can't remember why I started watching this movie, but some where during it I lost the will to live! It may have been during the appalling car chase sequences, you have to watch it to see just how bad they are. Can someone tell Hollywood that a Porche 911 will be way faster than a GMC truck on a country road, on any road. It may have been the terrible special effects, even for a low budget movie they were poor, leftovers from the 1970's possibly. The dialogue was trite, the story line infantile, face it there's good sci-fi and not so good sci-fi but this is bargain basement sci-fi. The support cast, Steven Williams was totally unconvincing, R. Lee Ermey was hamming it up with abandon, Dyan Cannon was on auto pilot, of the support Robert Vaughn was the best but then he was pretty much playing Robert Vaughn. Of the leads Shelli Lether looked to be an eye candy distraction and little else and Michael Madsen most of the time looked embarrassed, as he delivered his dialogue with a look of a man who's agent had signed him up for this. All in all, I saw it for free on a satellite movie channel and felt cheated.

Good beginning, good ending, bad movie ..............

[merklekranz · 1/10 · 17 September 2009]

Michael Madsen, and R Lee Ermey, are totally wasted in this explosion fest, masquerading as a sci-fi film. It's almost like the marketing department said we have some car chase scenes and explosions, can you wrap a paper thin script around it? After a promising opening with the Corsairs encountering a U.F.O over the Bermuda Triangle, everything falls apart, and for the next hour and twenty tortuous minutes nothing happens except car chases, explosions, and shootings, car chases, explosions, and shootings. Then everything is supposedly tied up by the sci-fi ending, but by that time, you might be running to your dentist for a tooth extraction, something that would be less painful than watching "The Sender" - MERK

Return to Sender...

[joebridge · 1/10 · 2 November 2011]

Wow.

This movie begins in a somewhat interesting way - they don't waste time introducing the alien element. A nice big spaceship and fighters.

However, it is eventually known that the movie has no sense of suspense, pacing, or much of anything else - and is so silly at times, I feel uncomfortable keeping my eyes open, much like the feeling with certain episodes of the Brady Bunch when one of the kids gets into trouble for something really ridiculous.

I was always expecting the lead character to break out in a rockabilly performance.

The alien female, dressed up like Cher when first floating about, goes from powerful to helpless to powerful every other scene. Her first appearance kind of causes me to do a double-take and withhold laughter.

One thing I am certain of, no one in this movie can drive, fly a helicopter, shoot, fly a spaceship or even walk without issues... The car chases might have been more entertaining if they made the slightest sense in continuity. Cars drive right off the road and crash for no reason whatsoever, two at a time yet, plus they appear and disappear at will. The alien female angel (whatever) doesn't even need to keep them away with her ball lightning. They prefer just driving off the road or crashing into each other.

No one can fly a helicopter either, which is probably a good thing, since they shoot up office buildings without any care at all, before crashing for no reason. The alien female can not fly the spaceship very well, either.

The "bad guy" gives the orders to shoot the intruders about five minutes before at least two of them casually leave the area. He speaks really, really SLOWLY, but once he finishes, he is asked several times to confirm this, and he gives the order very, very slowly again. That was actually the most amusing scene in the movie.

They (the "bad guys" aka government/military), of course, need the "advanced technology" of the spaceship, which was so advanced that it couldn't outmaneuver a couple helicopters without getting shot-up like tinfoil...

The nice aliens wave at the man whose son is older than him or some such.

The actors were all very nice and calm for the most part, saying their lines very softly. Has a "Happy Days" feel at times. Mork from Ork could have appeared and I wouldn't have felt surprised.

Oh dear.

[nsturt · 1/10 · 27 July 2007]

This trash was so awful at points, i got angry. The car chases were devised on the back of the directors aspirations of this being an all out action flick with lots of crashes and lots of explosions. In truth, it resembled something i saw a few years ago starring John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd. Yes that one with all those police cars flying through the air..

The only difference here is that this was supposed to be taken seriously. I cringed when i saw a GMC truck outrun a Porsche 911! And why oh why did a car plummet head on into the side of a (yes another) GMC truck and instead of stopping it dead in its tracks like you would expect a 3-ton truck to do, the car flew into the air - over the truck, performed a mid-air roll and came crashing back down to earth just like you see in the opening credits of The A Team? At least the A Team was tongue in cheek! Then there's the gun fights. Remember last action hero when it pointed out how heroes never seem to get hit by machine gun fire or reload their (damn) guns? The incompetent directors of this garbage didn't seem to consider this rather large technicality.

I get the feeling Michael Madson was bribed into this role. Throughout the entire picture he had the same look on his face as he does in the Orange Advert at the cinema when hes in that phone box. Looks like the guys at orange got their man after all! If there had been even just one light hearted moment in this entire film, i wouldn't have been near as disgusted at the farcical action scenes and linear dead pan (dare i call it) acting. If you ever have a choice between watching this and sticking a pair needles through your eyes, the latter would be a wiser choice.

Science fiction stinker!

[Rossco-2 · 17 June 1999]

With some of the most wooden acting ever seen on screen, derivative plot, aliens and spaceships that have come straight from central casting, this film is one you should avoid at all costs. The only thing that keeps your interest are the explosions and that is cleary where the money went.

Utter Gung Ho rubbish

[davejohnson15 · 1/10 · 1 July 2006]

This film is typical of what the Americans seem to like - to their shame. Lots of car chases, a very high body count and leading characters possessing an immunity to machine gun bullets whilst making every shot from their handguns hit its target. Also I believe that automatic pistols do need reloading before firing 100 shots. The plot was OK but there were many loopholes. The only thing making this film worth watching is Shelli Lether who is very easy on the eye. Glamour is one thing that the Yanks do well but how many times have we seen immune heroes like Rambo dodging multiple machine gun fire with no damage! 1/10(for Shelli Lether)

Moronic

[junk-monkey · 1/10 · 29 July 2006]

This isn't the worst movie I have watched this year - but pretty close.

Totally moronic "entertainment".

Stupidities include our hero shooting the air hoses on the back of a truck to de-couple the trailer - huh? How is cutting the air to the brakes going to make the tractor unit and the flatbed part company?

There is a prolonged fight on the back of a (not very) speeding flatbed truck in which our hero (played by Michael Madsen) is punched in the face several times and doesn't loose his sunglasses. Most people's glasses will fall off if they sneeze too hard. This guy's must have been stapled to his head, or maybe nailed - because Madsen's performance makes the hero look like a potato faced plank of wood. He reacts to everything that happens to him and around him with a blank non-reaction that is incredible to watch. During the course of the movie this guy's daughter is kidnapped, his house blown up, he's shot three times in the chest, resurrected by an shape-shifting alien, told his daughter is capable of interstellar travel by thought alone, he sees innocent members of the public gunned down, is nearly killed several times, sees old friends betray him and then get killed in front of him, kills many many people with an endlessly self-reloading hand gun and throughout all this mayhem and carnage, wanders around looking like he is suffering from constipation. Nothing seems to surprise, shock, baffle, or amaze him. Nothing registers but blank bovine stupidity. The only time he becomes at all animated is during one of the interminable car chase sequences when one of the bad guy's endless supply of black vans explodes right in front of him. Woooohoooo! Mongo like car crash!

The ending is horrendously overlong and Michael Madsen's acting at the sight of his supposedly long dead father is a wonder to behold. His character has been supposedly obsessed by his father's death and when he, miraculously, gets to meet him, what does he do? Sort of grunts a bit and looks even more constipated than normal for a moment then sends his daughter over: "Go meet your grandfather" He doesn't even take his fecking sunglasses off!

I had previously thought Sterling Hayden was the worst actor in the history of ever (apart from me) but on the strength of this movie alone his position has been usurped by Madsen. At least you could hear what Hayden said. His lines may have been delivered like the mail but at least they were delivered and not mumbled into the top of his shirt.

Though, having said all that, the best bit of bad acting in this film comes pretty early on from someone else, Steven Williams as the evil Lockwood. Lockwood is asked a question by his evil underling and does some quick thinking. You can tell he is doing some quick thinking because his eyes quickly move from side to side like he's watching an off-screen ping-pong game.

I wish I had been watching it with him and not this piece of sh!t. (The music is awful as well).

Why can't I vote a zero!

[Buff2001 · 1/10 · 6 November 2001]

This has got to be the worst I have ever seen. It should have been named "The Cliche". How they could cram so much bottom level stupid stuff from every movie ever made is beyond belief. If it weren't played so straight it would have been great camp. Robert Vaughn is 68 and shows it. Dyan Cannon even is beginning to look her age. Seeing them reduce themselves to this garbage is worse that watching Michael Jordan trying to turn back time.

great B-movie

[mikhelburgland · 10/10 · 24 August 2001]

If this movie was a big-budget flick, it would have gotten a 5. But, this is a B-movie that exceded all my expectations. The special-effects (although not ground breaking) were more then I expected for this type of film. The lead actors, especially Madsen, make this movie a pretty good watch.

What can I say? It's fun.....

[Chinook-3 · 7/10 · 15 March 2000]

OK...so we're not talking Zanuck here. No Oscars, Golden Globes.....it will never be shown at Cannes.

But, it's a fun movie with little budget and a lot of heart. There's just enough pathos to make it involving, and enough action to make it absorbing. I don't know...maybe I just go for the cheap movies that help me pass a couple of hours every now and then. CERTAINLY is worth a rental, and is NOT a waste of time! (7/10)

Madsen? WTF?

[dmc101 · 2/10 · 15 October 2007]

"Hey, I just learned my daughter isn't going to die like I thought... whatever.. let's go home"

"Hey, some chick just removed three bullets from my chest and saved my life, but they took my daughter... whatever.. she's hot... what bomb? Oh that? whatever..."

"Hey look, the car doesn't need to be started, it just runs on it's on... whatever"

"Hey, this chick is now naked... cool. Alien? OK, whatever.... jeez this sucks."

"Hey, look, I just sent two Black Ops dudes through a wall.... twenty minutes ago some UFO geek protester was kicking my ass... cool... whatever. Check out how shiny my classic car is... even in this desert"

"Hey, a space ship. That's neat. I wouldn't want to have to go against it. Hey, should I ask about my daughter?" "Hey, we landed too damn far from my daughter... "

"Hey, look, we were hit by a shoulder fired rocket, oh well, some spaceship... and look the helicopters that fly what. 120mph max are shooting us in the same spot over and over... oh well. Hey, one of them just took out the side of an office building and crashed. Oh well... when's this fecking movie end?"

"Hey, check it out, my dad ain't dead after all. Here, go see your grandpa and leave us alone for awhile... I hate kids. How did I get roped into making this piece of sht movie?"

Good lord

[NateWatchesCoolMovies · 29 December 2017]

The Sender is godawful Z-Grade SciFi with cloying, grating intentions, a script with War Of The World's type ambitions that was given an allowance of like ten bucks to come into fruition, and the result is a windows 98 screensaver with a fraction of a pulse. It's a shame because they scored two dope actors in Michael Madsen and R. Lee Ermey, but as good as they are they're both sheepishly notorious for appearing in bottom feeding diarrhea like this to put food on the table. Madsen strains his tear ducts as the sympathetic father whose adorable daughter has mysterious connections to extraterrestrial activity from years before. He's on the run from all kinds of government folks including Ermey's gonzo, overzealous military asshole, a one dimensional fire and brimstone go-getter who hunts them six ways to Sunday. That's about all you'll get, besides cameos from Dyan Cannon and golden oldie Robert Vaughn, as well as some Fisher Price worthy UFO effects and an all round lack of pride in the craft from everyone involved. Poo.

Stupid

[timriv-429-572433 · 1/10 · 12 September 2019]

Since when were prop F4U Corsairs in active service in 1965? The were retired after the Korean conflict in 1953.

So bad it's a must watch

[sharpjohn · 3/10 · 7 November 2019]

Straight from the old A team script. You can work out which vehicles will get destroyed by the age and poor paint jobs, Fight scenes were people dont get their sun glasses knocked off, and total lack luster acting and the script....... Still it could be worse I'm just not sure how.

Fairy mundane but by gum the alien was gorgeous!

[HaemovoreRex · 5/10 · 6 December 2009]

Now don't get me wrong - I like Michael Madsen; He has a certain screen presence about him that always somewhat lifts any production he appears in. However, one thing I don't like about the chap is his ostensible arrogance and aloofness as regards certain films in which he has found himself. In fact he is very openly and vocally critical regarding many of the productions with which he has been involved. Certainly I appreciate honesty (and in the ghastly false world of Hollywood it is truly a rare phenomenon!) but I have always found the WAY in which Madsen airs his disdain to be highly disrespectful to all those who have no doubt worked hard around him. In fact Madsen himself has been quoted as citing, '...These horrifying straight-to-video things'(!) for which he received 'Very little money'. Such is obviously the case in point with the film in question in fact; Clearly, this is one of the very films he refers to and his subsequent response to ending up in such a production? - He gives a deliberately dreadful performance so as to indicate his vast superiority to the relevant material. OK, so Madsen at his very best could hardly be listed anywhere remotely near in the same ranks as the Olivier's or the Brandon's of the world but there is simply no excuse for such a monumentally lazy performance as he turns in here.

Rant over now and what of the actual film aside from Madsen's lacklustre effort? Well, it's a fairly run of the mill affair at best in fact (but this STILL does not excuse Madsen's antics!) but is harmless enough viewing for ninety or so minutes. With director Richard Pepin on board you can of course count on some good action scenes and he doesn't disappoint including some cool freeway chases (and explosive crashes!) However, the best thing about this for me was the absolutely beautiful alien lady in it! - Truly she is stunning to behold and lit up the screen every time she appeared.

For fellow PM fans, this is sadly probably one of their weakest efforts it has to be said, yet it isn't without its moments.

Mildly entertaining

[gregbackhouse · 2/10 · 20 March 2023]

This movie started well and had real potential from the opening scene with the Corsairs encountering a UFO. Also, encompassing a reasonable storyline, it looked like being a great movie, and I was really looking forward to watching it. But then the wheels fell off - literally, with pointless overdone car chases complete with unrealistic crashes. Add in a bunch of cheesy cliches and meaningless diatribe and you feel like going for the off button. I persevered however, but the more I watched, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the waste of some very good actors talents. Its saving grace was some ok CGI, but I still felt like I was watching a movie from the 70's.

Cheesy beyond belief

[Leofwine_draca · 4/10 · 3 March 2016]

THE SENDER is a cheesy and unintentionally funny late '90s sci-fi thriller, clearly made to tap into the success of THE X-FILES around that time. Hell, it even has Steven Williams ('Mr. X' from the show) present, complete with ridiculously dyed white hair.

Sadly this is a goofy messy of a movie, only worth watching to laugh at. Michael Madsen continues a trend of appearing in cheap B-movie action flicks and gives what can only be termed a wooden performance. There are some surprising faces in support, including Robert Vaughn and R. Lee Ermey, but it's no surprise that the characters they're playing are so stereotyped.

THE SENDER adopts an action template throughout, with lots of senseless shoot-outs and some ridiculous vehicle chases to enjoy. Also, you can play 'spot Madsen's stuntman' throughout. Worst of all is the female alien, who turns up wearing a silver lame dress and glitter wig. At this point, you just know you're not going to be able to take this film seriously anymore.

Watch it only for the car crashes and explosions

[seveb-25179 · 4/10 · 2 May 2022]

This is an odd movie, where the cheapest CGI imaginable is coupled with a plethora of very decent car crash mayhem. In fact it's hard to reconcile the "no budget" 1980s PC game level graphics with how much all the explosions and demolished vehicles would have cost to stage.

Meanwhile the plot has high concept aspirations which it completely fails to deliver on, due to the inadequate, threadbare dialogue. Nothing for the actors to work with here, so Michael Madsen appears to have given up all hope and Shelli Lether daydreams about being somewhere else. Robert Vaughn is an old pro who has accepted his fate and R Lee Ermey can still deliver his trademark "angry Sgt Major" routine, no matter what dialogue he is given.

Mid table for a movie with Michael Madsen at the top of the bill...which isn't saying much.

Banal effort from Richard Pepin - his last PM sci-fi feature

[DigitalRevenantX7 · 3/10 · 5 May 2016]

In 1965, US Air Force Captain Jack Grayson & his squadron are flying over the Bermuda Triangle when they encounter a massive alien spaceship. They engage the craft but Grayson is shot down. In the present day, the wreckage of Grayson's plane is found & shipped back home. When his son, Dallas, who is a Naval Commander with duties in Intelligence, tries to visit the wreckage, he is denied entry by Colonel Rosewater, a covert ops soldier. But somehow a pair of UFO nuts steal the truck containing the find & attempt to escape. They are killed by Rosewater & Dallas narrowly saves his father's plane from destruction. Back home, his cancer-stricken daughter Lisa is being visited by a mysterious alien woman who has been treating her illness & training her how to use her genetic ability to teleport objects across vast distances. Dallas is unaware of this but when Rosewater & his goons snatch Lisa & nearly kill him, Dallas is contacted by the woman. Calling herself Angel, she reveals herself to be an alien operative who has watched over the family for generations. Together they attempt to rescue Lisa from the Black Ops team that took her, as well as trying to stop Rosewater & his army of assassins from killing them in the process.

Richard Pepin & Joseph Merhi formed PM Entertainment in the early 1990s. First an independent production company with little stature despite Merhi's previous experience as a low-budget action director with films like The Glass Jungle, they had an unexpected success when one of their ultra-cheap action thrillers, CIA: Codename Alexa, became a surprise hit on cable TV when one of its stars, O.J. Simpson, was put on trial in the now legendary murders of his wife & her lover. The film's notoriety, plus the cult success of Pepin's own directorial effort, the Terminator templater CYBER TRACKER, put PM on the map & gave them the ability to turn PM into the major player of the DTV action market in the 1990s.

In addition to producing all of their studio's films, Pepin & Merhi took a tag team approach to directing as well. They picked some films & split the workload between themselves, with Merhi directing some action films while Pepin would handle the sci-fi themed ones. Pepin's films in particular would become minor cult classics due to their love of massive shootouts, brutal action sequences & in particular the "Pepin flip" where a vehicle would smash into another vehicle, fly over it & flip over in mid-flight while the impacted vehicle would explode in a massive fireball (The Sender has two of these).

As for The Sender, Pepin has been starting to wind down the care that he had given his earlier films & quality has started to slide. The action scenes in The Sender are not as spectacular as previous Pepin films & are not as brutal either. But Pepin has compensated somewhat by adding more dialogue. This would not have been bad if the story was fully fleshed out instead of being haphazardly plotted – there is no sense to the various covert ops teams working on secret projects, UFO sightings, the apparently genetically obtained ability of Michael Madsen's young daughter to teleport objects across vast distances or even the involvement of the ethereal female alien who can shapeshift & also teleport but not as well as her human friend. And almost no mention or even exposition relating the UFO nuts who break into the hangar & steal the plane wreckage (or at least attempt to). The result is a B-grade genre actioner that has some reasonable action scenes & okay effects but a badly-written script & poor plotting. And the sudden return of Madsen's father at the end as a sort of happy ending is kind of stupid.

Highly underrated

[beastwarsfan · 10/10 · 5 October 2006]

I am fortunate to own this movie. It happened years ago, I bought the first "Iron Eagle" on VHS, second hand. Got back home, put the tape in the player and... What the?! This is not "Iron Eagle"! Someone misplaced the tapes. Huh, at least this is with airplanes too. WOW! UFO! Yup, that was my reaction at that time. Watched the whole movie and pretty much enjoyed it. I find it highly underrated, that's why I'm giving it 10. Objectively it is 5.5/6. It's not like great, but it is surprisingly good and unknown. Give it a try if you have the chance. I've seen Richard Pepin's work, "Cyber Tracker" 1 and two were like hits in the local video rent store when I was a kid, and I think I've also seen "Dark Breed" and "The Silencers" (can't tell for sure, because if I've seen them they were in Bulgarian and I don't remember the translation of the titles, but the covers look quite familiar). Michael Madsen fans just have to watch this one.

Unusual story plot

[mollidew · 7/10 · 25 March 2012]

This is not the worst movie I have ever seen, in fact I really liked this movie except the character who was chasing Madsen all the time. I felt he was over stereotyped. I liked the idea behind the movie and I think if they had toned down some of it, they would have done the story more justice. In a movie like this, just like Starman, there are going to be chase scenes. I did notice that they didn't refill their guns but in some movies they don't show that. The interaction of the airmen in the beginning was very true to how they reacted to UFOs and still do. They generally don't report them for fear of ridicule. I wasn't surprised by the dialog. They could have done a little more in depth on the story with better effects but considering it was low budget, it makes sense. I didn't think Madsen's portrayal is any different than I have ever seen him in any movie...he was OK. The beginning of the movie was not in the 50s. It clearly said on screen that it was 1965 in the Bermuda Triangle area. I would like to see this movie remade with better effects and a slightly better script. I think it could make an excellent top-notch science fiction movie. I personally liked it and have bought the movie. It was very entertaining and there was some really nice family interaction between the supposedly dead father and his son (Madsen's part) and the young girl and her father and the Angel.

Return to sender

[Bernie4444 · 2/10 · 27 November 2023]

Lots of hokey area 51 encounter stuff. Seems that there was a standard encounter of a flight crew in the Bermuda triangle. Later somewhere around 1998 a part of the missing plan was found. Everyone wants a piece. So now we have to figure out why. The mystery is revealed in chunks throughout the movie. We have to figure out who the bad guys are and who the good guys are or even if they or bad or good. (No fare asking Santa.) there may be a love interest but you do not have to put your hand over your child's eyes. The story is too short so they have to fill it in with ridiculous looking car chases (lots of them) and shootouts where no one can shoot straight. I want one of those guns that has endless bullets and never needs reloading.

Now all we need to know is who is going to win in the end if there is an end?

The movie has a strange combination of popular actors from the time it was made in 1998: Michael Madsen as Dallas Grayson. He has been in over 300 movies and programs and I still did not recognize him.

Robert Vaughn as Ron Fairfax. All I see is The Man from U. N. C. L. E (1964-1968) 105 Episodes.

R. Lee Ermey as Colonel Rosewater. You guessed it "Mail Call." It was a television program that aired on the History Channel, hosted by R. Lee Ermey. 73 episodes 2002-2007.