In Alien Country, director and co-writer Boston McConnaughey delivers a satisfying full-on rock and roll experience in his science fiction adventure comedy. Jimmy Walker (K.C. Clyde) is a party-boy car mechanic and race driver. His girlfriend Everly (played by co-writer Renny Grames) is an aspiring country singer who has just learned that she’s pregnant. As the couple tries to sort out their lives and plan the future, Everly is wondering if she needs to leave their small desert town of Blue River in order to chase her dreams. Jimmy seems to be far too much of an immature man-child to be a good father. He’s emotionally crippled from having his own father abandon him when he was a child.
When a looted metal case with alien artifacts inside is dumped into Jimmy’s demolition derby car by two local morons running from the cops, he wants to see the contents. As they look inside, McConnaughey indulges in the now iconic shot of characters opening a case with the camera behind the case and weird light spilling out to highlight the characters. I blame Tarantino. There is an example that predates Pulp Fiction in Repo Man, but QT popularized the trope. This scene also begs the question: on a warm summer night out at the dirt track, if a portal to an alien world opens up, would you walk through it?
Jimmy and Everly do. As they are marveling at the non-terrestrial world they’ve found, a couple of the indigenous life forms escape to Earth through the portal, and these glowing, hostile, xenomorphic creatures begin terrorizing the countryside. Once the aliens are out of the box, they are reminiscent of the critters in Attack the Block that were called “alien gorilla wolf motherf***ers.” Alien Country describes them as “demon monkey pit bull spider wolf things.” They could be cousins.
“…glowing hostile xenomorphic creatures escape the portal and terrorize the town…”
The dialogue would be at home in Buckaroo Banzai. Snappy, smart wisecracks are delivered during the deadly extra-terrestrial attack. At one point, Everly demands to know how this all happened: “Why does my baby daddy have to start a bar fight and an alien invasion all on the same night?”
They seek help taking on the aliens from an older woman everyone calls Nana (Barta Heiner), who has talked about UFOs around Blue River for decades. Nana has a zinger of a line when someone suggests there are also zombies, and she replies, “Zombies? This far north? It can’t be…” The campaign against the creatures results in serious family secrets being revealed amid a variety of wicked sight gags. A raucous battle features demolition derby cars vs the creatures, including a cattle-roping exhibition. One townie takes on aliens with a crossbow.
McConnaughey takes advantage of the stunning Utah desert locations, and he keeps the action energy up non-stop. K.C. Clyde is a natural as Jimmy, landing somewhere between Bill Murray and Jeremy Piven. The visual effects in Alien Country are the good cheesy ones. Cheap CGI is the new “rubber suit,” with a cheeky element of subversion compared to overdone $200M digital immersion in other films.
Alien Country is the film that Cowboys and Aliens wishes it was. No offense to Daniel Craig, Olivia Wilde, Harrison Ford, or Jon Favreau, but this is a better movie. It punches far above its weight with a solid story, comedic dialogue, exciting action, and relatable characters. It’s just more fun. One could easily imagine a sequel.
"…the film that Cowboys and Aliens wishes it was."
