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It's really not Vernon's (Richard Grieco) day, his wife has just handed
him the divorce papers, he has been diagnosed with cancer, Mills (Charles
Solomon jr), a member of his SWAT team was killed during an assignment
only the other day, and today his SWAT team was ordered to transfer crime
kingpin Hades (Robert LaSardo), the man responsible for Mills' murder,
from the courthouse to the county detention center, something which Hades
uses to mock Vernon almost beyond breaking point. And then the van breaks
down only a few blocks away from the detention center, and Vernon and
company have to continue the transfer by foot - not ideal under normal
circumstances, but they now have to realize ... the town's under attack by
aliens!!!
Somehow, Vernon and company including Hades make it to safety -
relative safety that is - of the jail, but a bunch of the aliens are hot
on their heels, and the detention center isn't as high security as they
had hoped, nor sufficiently armed for a large scale attack. The other
problem is of course, the aliens seem to be pretty much invulnerable and
they're out for human blood. The only chance is to make it through an
underground corridor to a highrise from where they can picked up by
helicopter and flown to safety. Problem is, the aliens aren't likely to
let them just walk, and on top of this Hades escapes and isn't likely to
collaborate with them, and ultimately the SWAT team falls like flies until
only three are left, Vernon, his tough-as-nails right hand woman Hannah
(Jolene Andersen), and a rather useless civilian (Johnny Huang), who has
only tagged along because he felt the safest with a SWAT team. But what
have they got to fight the aliens with?
Tara Reid appears in an Old West flashback chronicling a former alien
attack. Now this might not be the most thoughtful of science
fiction movie - but it starts with a bang, and then never really lets
loose, instead seems to accelerate things almost all the time up to its
finale. But that said, it's not just a mindless science fiction actioner
either, it has a good anchor in Richard Grieco's character, a tortured man
whose flaws are worked into the script rather than just tagged on quite
nicely, while the other main characters are given at least some depth. And
frankly, one just has to love the slightly retro look of the aliens which
are done all practically. Now of course, this film takes pointers from
classics like Aliens and Predator
and probably a few other movies of that ilk, but these are good
blueprints, and Attack of the Unknown is well enough made to be
judged (and enjoyed) by its own merits as a pretty cool sci-fi thrill
ride.
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