NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER (1980)

Despite the vast majority of the movie taking place during the daytime, NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER is the mildly entertaining story about a lunatic (Cliff Gorman) who plans on kidnapping the daughter of a wealthy family in exchange for a big payout, but instead (since he’s also a moron) he accidentally kidnaps the daughter of a truck driving ex-cop (James Brolin) who might actually be more insane that the kidnapper! The kidnapping takes place early on in the film in broad daylight, so now the rest of the movie is simply Brolin running around New York City pissing off everybody and acting like an asshole.

Car chases, foot chases, a fight in a peep show joint, Mandy Patinkin as a cab driver, Dan Hedaya as a psychotic cop who wants to murder Brolin, a small amount of gunfire, steady pace, a few interesting (but ultimately disappointing) scenes filmed at the old legendary 42nd Street, a few quick glimpses of female nudity, at least 3 instances of the a boom mic dipping down into the scene, a fight scene set in a darken tunnel, a couple of scenes set in a devastated area of NYC that looks like it had been recently bombed, good acting, disappointing finale and abrupt ending.

Overall, NIGHT OF THE JUGGLER is a watchable film, but I’d really love to see a gritty, hyper-violent  remake and a well-made documentary about the making of the 1980 film that also delves into the history of the NYC shown in the movie. Oh yeah, the film is also based on an original 1975 novel (of the same name) by William P. McGivern, but I never read it. Sounds interesting though!

For other films kinda based on similar themes check out HIGH AND LOW and I SAW THE DEVIL.

ALIEN NATION (1988)

Buddy cop movies were all the rage in the 1980’s.  Back in 1988, the police couldn’t even throw an innocent minority (then plant drugs on them and falsely accuse them of a crime) without hitting an aspiring screenwriter trying to come up with a fresh take on the already over-saturated genre. At the same time, alien films are always popular, so, it’s not surprising that somebody decided to mash-up the two genres. Unfortunately, that endlessly promising mash-up idea ended up being the tremendously average ALIEN NATION.

The story, two LAPD homicide detectives (one alien, one human) conducting a murder investigation, has potential to be interesting, but it's not.  Not even close.  First off, the murder itself isn't very intriguing: the victim was shot to death during a botched convenience store robbery.  Yawn.  Secondly, there's very little backstory about the aliens or their technology: they were originally slave laborers on their home planet, they escaped and landed on Earth three years ago.  So, has mankind used the technology found on that spaceship to advance our own technology in the last three years?  Damn sure doesn't look like it.  Is the home planet still there?  Is there anybody hunting these migrants?  Thirdly, the aliens are boring!  They literally look just like humans except with a spotty bald head.  They act like humans, dress like humans, do all kinds of normal human stuff.  I mean the only real differences are they like different foods, their organs are arranged differently and they hate salt water because it is like an acid and will melt them.  Which brings us to the next subject...the big reveal is if the aliens take this certain alien drug it will give them above average strength to the point they have to be shot like 15 times to die.  Okay whatever, but they are still susceptible to salt water, so why not just fight the roided out aliens with salt water guns in addition to high-powered automatic rifles?  It's not like the drug turns them bulletproof or something!  I don't know, maybe I'm just overthinking the entire thing because I was so goddamn bored.

Average acting, unimaginative story, underutilized Los Angeles setting, boring action scenes, lame chase scene, hammy dialogue, zero nudity, zero blood, zero gore, heavy-handed message that goes nowhere, disappointing ending.  As far as eunuchly amazeballs buddy cop / immigration allegory films go, ALIEN NATION is a solid 5/10.  It's just entertaining enough to keep you watching the entire film and just disappointing enough that once the movie is over, you wish you had taken a power nap instead.  Skip it.

If you need me, I'll be in my room writing a fan fiction story about Dirty Harry being teamed up with Willie from V and Willie doing Freddy Krueger cosplay on the weekends.

Part 2 - Alien Nation: Dark Horizon (1994)
Part 3 - Alien Nation: Body and Soul (1995)
Part 4 - Alien Nation: Millennium (1996)
Part 5 - Alien Nation: The Enemy Within (1996)
Part 6 - Alien Nation: The Udara Legacy (1997)