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Alien From L.A.

Play trailer Poster for Alien From L.A. PG Released Feb 26, 1988 1h 27m Fantasy Play Trailer Watchlist
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22% Tomatometer 9 Reviews 3% Popcornmeter 250+ Ratings
A valley girl's dull life takes a drastic turn after her exploring father locates the lost city of Atlantis.

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Alien From L.A.

Critics Reviews

View All (9) Critics Reviews
Preston Barta Fresh Fiction It's stupid-fun if you watch it in the right state of mind (and with the right people). Rated: B- Jun 22, 2021 Full Review Brian Orndorf Blu-ray.com It has Ireland, who understandably isn't trying that hard to come up with a performance, whining and squeaking her way through a movie that isn't terribly exciting, even when it tries to be. Rated: C May 29, 2021 Full Review Alan Ng Film Threat believe Alien From L.A. does find itself in the cult movie classic camp. Rated: 6/10 Nov 30, 2020 Full Review Daniel M. Kimmel Worcester Telegram & Gazette Rated: 1/5 Nov 18, 2005 Full Review Rob Thomas Capital Times (Madison, WI) Completely awful - you can't believe they're serious. Rated: 0/5 Jul 28, 2005 Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Rated: 2/5 Jul 5, 2005 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (42) audience reviews
Audience Member Based — loosely based! — on Jules Verne's Journey to the Center of the Earth with a little part of The Wizard of Oz as several actors play parts above and below ground, Albery Pyun's science fiction fantasy tells the story of Wanda Saknussemm (Kathy Ireland), a nerd — as if — who gets dumped for not having a sense of adventure. That's when she learns that her archaeologist father has fallen down a bottomless put near Zamboanga and before you know it, we have Atlantis, a thousand-year-old alien spaceship and a journey literally to, you guessed it, the center of the Earth. So where does the title come from? When Wanda finds her way inside the inner Earth, she becomes the alien, at odds with gangster Mambino (Deep Roy) and Lord Over while falling for charming Charmin' (Thom Mathews, who I always call Tommy Jarvis). Hey! There's Linda Kerridge from Fade to Black as Wanda's aunt and a bar owner! Pyun and Ireland would return for the direct-to-video sequel Journey to the Center of the Earth, which suffered the Cannon curse of cuts and budget woes. The pre-production work and storyboards were wasted as the final film bears little resemblance to the script, which is why it started as a movie made Rusty Lemonrande — the producer of Yentyl and Captain EO — and Pyun coming on and this turning into a sequel. Nobody was happy with how it ended up. But it does have Emo Phillips in it. Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 02/06/23 Full Review Chris J Alien from L.A. - PG (1h 27m) 1988 - Adventure, Comedy, Sci-Fi 3/5 stars This was such a fun blind buy! I literally had no clue what to expect from this. I bought it purely based on the cover art. I needed another item on my last Vinegar Syndrome shopping spree and this was the winner. So let's get the elephant in the room out of the way first. That voice that Kathy Ireland did during 99% of this was pretty rough. I wish I knew the story behind it, maybe someone that sees this will know more! Overall, this is a silly, over the top, and crazy film. However I felt a nostalgic joy while watching it, even though I haven't seen it before. Although it has been on an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 so I'm I intrigued! The film is based partially on Jules Verne's novel "Journey to the Center of the Earth" with just a peppering of "Wizard of Oz." Apparently there is a sequel (form 1989) to this titled "Journey to the Center of the Earth" ironically, also starring Kathy Ireland. I wish there was a decent release of it! #vinegarsyndrome #alienfromla #kathyireland #deeproy #williamrmoses #alien #aliens #ufo #art #space #scifi #area51 #xenomorph #extraterrestrial #ufos #love #nasa #predator #drawing #ufology #ufosighting #artist #aliensarereal #digitalart #universe #horror #illustration #alienabduction #monster #ancientaliens Rated 3 out of 5 stars 10/25/21 Full Review Audience Member Really silly, but fun sci-fi flick. Ireland is pretty stiff in it, but she's adorable regardless, of course. It gets pretty gonzo, but it's a great, rich little world that Pyun has set up here. It would've been nice if this could've gotten some sequels to furyher development this universe. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 10/10/21 Full Review dustin d Alien from L.A. is a campy fantasy movie that requires the suspension of disbelief sufficient to buy that a hottie like Kathy Ireland would be looked over and found unattractive as long as she wore glasses and baggy clothes. It has some funny one-liners, but that's not enough to save it for its lack of credible world building or a decent plot. (Seriously, how is it the Atlanteans can detect an "alien" among them when they look identical to humans and have a range of fashions? Why do some of the Atlanteans have Australian accents, but others American? Am I expecting too much from a Cannon film starring a supermodel?) Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Janie Du Plessis, only good thing about this movie. For some reason the character Shank fascinates me. The rest of it is everything people say it is .. badly acted and porly writtem. But somehow they found a way to make a sequel .. Journey To The Center Of The Earth (1989). Du Plessis had an even bigger part in that so It's Better! Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/11/23 Full Review Audience Member And enjoyably dopey low budget vehicle featuring Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Kathy Ireland. Quite incredulously, Ireland plays a nerdy teenager LA who travels to the center of the earth Jules Verne-style to find her missing archeologist father. Reliable low budget direction Albert Pyun gets the unpretentious tone just right, but the film is really just too dumb to be considered a good film. Something like "Cherry 2000" had a similar goofy sci-fi tone, but was actually a smartly done film. The one if enjoyably goofy, but is also pretty dumb. Thom Mathews, the punk kid from "Return of the Living Dead," also appears in the film. This one is a pretty stereotypical 1980s Golan/Gobus Canon Pictures quickie release. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Alien From L.A.

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Movie Info

Synopsis A valley girl's dull life takes a drastic turn after her exploring father locates the lost city of Atlantis.
Director
Albert Pyun
Producer
Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus
Screenwriter
Judith Berg, Sandra Berg, Albert Pyun
Distributor
The Cannon Group
Production Co
Golan-Globus Productions
Rating
PG
Genre
Fantasy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Feb 26, 1988, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
Apr 11, 2016
Runtime
1h 27m
Sound Mix
Surround
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