DVD Review: Showdown at Area 51

When Hubby and I saw the trailer for this one, we just had to queue it up on Netflix. After all, how much cheesier can you get than rednecks and aliens!


Somewhere in Missouri, there's an alien artifact hidden, a relic of the Roswell, NM incident of 1947. Why is it in Missouri? Who knows? Jake Townsend, played by hunky young Jason London, gets involved when his brother is killed by two aliens. One of them is a handsome, golden-eyed fellow who seems to be here to protect the earth from destruction by an alien race. He is pursued by a large, oafish nasty who sounds a bit like an electronic pig and employs a variety of icky sharp things as he wreaks destruction everywhere he goes. Jake and his ex-girlfriend (Gigi Edgley of Farscape) try to help the good guy, who must locate a key that will deactivate an obelisk that will signal the alien invasion and thus, the end of human life. Along the way, they recruit Diamond Joe Carson, a junkyard owner who took one of the gems required by the key to function; he's played by Lee Horsley (who starred in an 80's detective series, Matt Houston).

We had high hopes for how fun this one would be to watch. After all, it's not every day you hear dialogue like this:

Jake: Do you have any guns?

Diamond Joe: are you kidding? I may be smart, but I'm still a redneck!

Alas, this flick wasn't even mediocre, and not bad enough to be truly wondrous. The alien bad guy is clad in a costume that appears to have been concocted from pieces of tubing, gas masks, old shoes, and possibly M.C. Hammer pants, along with some netting. The firearms wielded by the military look like they came from the toy store. And the dialogue, meant to be smart and snappy, was just so-so. The actors should be given credit for taking their jobs seriously, though they must have known what a stinker this movie would be. Most of them did a satisfactory job, but they just didn't have much to work with.

Showdown at Area 51 is rated R by the MPAA for some gory but unrealistic violence. I'd recommend you give this one a pass.

Title: Showdown at Area 51
Director: C. Roma
Starring: Jason London, Gigi Edgley, Coby Bell, Lee Horsley
Released: 2007
Genre: Sci-Fi/Action
MPAA Rating: R
Runtime: 96 minutes