Holiday Flix: Zone Troopers

The greatest generation, huh?  Today's Film is Zone Troopers, a 1985 Sci-Fi Film set in WWII.  From the man who brought us Trancers and helped run THQ into the ground, a Movie about Aliens, Nazis and Tim Thomerson.  If you can't trust the man who once called the Wii 'a Monopoly Box,' who can you trust?  The Story involves a small group of Soldiers in Italy running across some folks that they didn't expect to.  While they are stuck behind enemy lines (with Mr. Kennedy?), they are going to need some help.  The Cast includes Tim Thomerson and Art Lafleur, who also were in Trancers by the same Director.  Sadly, they couldn't get Helen Hunt too!  This is all sorts of silly, but is it good?  To find out, read on...

On the plus side, this Card is more informative than Wild Beasts...

A small group of Soldiers- including Lafleur and Thomerson- are fighting the Nazis, while one of them is too into his Comics.

As luck would have it, a Sci-Fi Story was approaching him as some Aliens show up too!

The group is split up by the Nazis and one group finds a crashed Ship.

...which is blown up with one grenade.  Science!

One Alien is captured by the Nazis after coming out of an egg (?!?) and apparently sees in red.  I was wondering how many colors of Monster Vision I could see in my life...

To really ramp up the silly, Hitler shows up.

Fun Fact: fake Hitler also appears in Captain America: The First Avenger, a Film made by the Director of The Rocketeer...which was written by this Director.  It was a long way to go, but it was worth it!

More Aliens show up to help our Heroes...only for them to be pacifists...after they kill a bunch of Nazis.  Damn you, artificially-raised tension!

The one alien eventually helps them with his silly lasers and leaves, allowing the Story to be told in a comic book 'written' by the dead Soldier.  Hurray?  The End.

Damn silly stuff.  The whole thing is treated pretty seriously, with Thomerson and Lafleur doing their best deadpan.  I still kind of like the pair here, as they have a pretty natural chemistry.  There's only one lady in the Film- who is a Hologram- so I'll have to take what I can get.  I guess that the bug-faced Alien could be a Female...but I'm not going to check!  The Computer Effects are pretty dated, but in a kind of fun way.  They don't look at all real- who cares?!?  The Make-Up work is pretty good, with the mask looking good in a fun way and the Aliens look good enough.  The Story is nothing special and pretty much goes the way you expect- no surprises there.  It sure was nice of Warner Bros to bother to make a nicer print of this Film for me to review (back in 2005).  Thanks, fellas!  All in all, Zone Troopers is a fun, silly Film about Aliens, Nazis and Jack Deth.  As a final joke, here is one of the Film's many comically-exaggerated death falls...

Next up, a Horror Comedy that I somehow haven't done yet.  Is there a worse Cop than the Maniac one?  Stay tuned...