Describe the film Crazy Alien?

Um…Uhhh…hmmm…

You know sometimes watching foreign films, you may forget that the creators may not have the most favorable views of the United States. Now you can look past the cartoonish caricatures of American personalities, you can look past the fact that America is pronounced ‘Amanika’ in China for some reason, but what you can’t look past bizarrely almost entertaining film which is supposed to be a comedy…but not a good one.

Crazy Alien begins with Alien lifeforms contacting Earth as they are looking for a DNA exchange in return for diplomatic relations with the planet.  After the exchange goes bad once an ‘Amanika’ astronaut ruins the deal by taking a selfie…in space, an incident leads to an alien crash landing in China. It then becomes the property of a failing monkey showman who sees him as an opportunity to put his act on the map. The story then becomes an amusing race for time as you have an alien who is trying to get off the planet, an Amanika government who is trying to retrieve him, and a Chinese entertainer who is completely oblivious to what is happening around him.

For cinephiles out there, I have to warn you that the first 30 minutes of Crazy Alien is ROUGH. The narrative is confusing, there are at least three different languages being spoken despite being a Chinese film, and for a comedy, there aren’t very many laughs (at least laughs that would work on Western audiences). During my The Wandering Earth review I made the point that China’s special effects really aren’t up to American standards and capabilities yet and that point is absolutely proven with this movie because the CGI alien they have is TERRIBLE. There are times where the alien looks passable but when they have the thing moving around…it is BAD, so bad that it’s hard to buy the premise afterward.

Now the film takes a positive turn as they go full exaggeration with its American characters. Tom Pelphrey (Iron Fist) and Matthew Morrison (Glee) are in a movie I’m positive they didn’t expect anyone on this side of the world to see but Pelphrey is the best part because he is essentially a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. The film is at it’s best when it looks like they are going to go full schlock with the actors and the complete craziness of the plot but they don’t fully commit to the bit and bring the quality back from the dead. Crazy Alien is a mixed bag that may admittedly play much better for local audiences. However, it’s sluggish and confusing 1st act prevents it from really hitting its mark.

2/5

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