Sometimes we all have to sit through a bad movie. When I grabbed Galaxy Invader on a recent trip to a flea market, I was not quite prepared for just how bad it was going to be. This is one of those times where I spent more of the movie trying to figure out whether or not the filmmakers meant to do this and then coming to terms with the fact that if they didn't, how could they possibly think this was good.

Richard Ruxton stars as Joe Montague, a misogynist redneck who stumbles across an alien while chasing his daughter through the woods with a gun. Joe proceeds to shoot the alien and take a flame throwing ball that it drops. Upon returning to his shack, Joe calls his friend Frank, and they devise a plan to get some of their friends and track down the creature so that they can all be rich. Soon we have a dumb backwoods armed lynch mob marching through the woods searching for the poor man's Swamp Thing while we the audience pray for a quick conclusion. There is a lot of talking and a number of scenes with the alien running like a girl through the woods.

Now, had this movie let us know from the beginning that it was trying to be a comedy, I probably would have had a lot more fun with it. The problem is that director Don Dohler never lets us know that he is in on the joke and this takes what could have been a fun cult movie and turns it into a sad study of what not to do when making a low budget film. I'll be the first to admit that there are a number of funny scenes but they are more confusing funny than knee slapping funny. An example is when we first meet Frank and his white trash girlfriend, Frank is talking with a cigar in his mouth and a disgusting stream of drool comes out mid-sentence. I had to rewind this a couple of times because it made no sense, had no place in the story, was unintentionally weird, and had me wondering why it happened and why they didn't do another take. Much of the movie was like this including nearly every scene with Joe's pessimistic daughter Annie, a local teen named David who must smoke a lot of dope because he was so mellow, and a scientist named Dr. Tracy.

Overall, this was a very strange flick indeed. Director Dohler used to put out a magazine called Cinemagic and then delved into the world of B-movie filmmaking. Many of the cast appear in his other films which include Nightbeast and The Alien Factor. The only real "star power" in this film comes in the form of George Stover who put out Cinemacabre magazine and appeared in a few John Waters films and some other B-movies. I guess this is what happens when a bunch of film nerds get together with their family and friends and try to make movies. Maybe they should stick to being fans. (Josh Pasnak, 7/23/05)

Directed By: Don Dohler.
Written By: Don Dohler.

Starring: Richard Ruxton, George Stover, Richard Dyszel, Faye Tilles.