I Come in Peace

If you took "The Terminator", you put it in a blender with "Predator 2" and you sprinkled in just a dash of Christmas spirit, you would get the Dolph Lundgren action sci-fi flick that is “I Come in Peace”. Is it a good movie? No. That doesn’t mean it’s not fun. Although the movie is really a Frankenstein Monster of other movies stitched together, there is some originality and enough fun moments to make it entertaining.

Detective Jack Caine (Dolph Lundgren) is a tough cop that doesn’t play by the rules. He’s mad when straight-laced FBI agent named Smith (Brian Benben) is assigned to be his partner. Unfortunately, the culprit behind the crime-spree they're investigating is an alien drug dealer; come to Earth to steal our brain fluids!

This movie is a knockoff, there’s no doubt about it. The plot is similar to the one from “Predator 2” but with two cops. As for the alien, it’s nothing more than a cheap T-800. Even the side plots, with Caine being in a love/hate relationship with the city coroner (Betsy Brantley as Diane) and the stuff at the police station has been done time and time again. What makes the movie enjoyable is that all of these seemingly incompatible pieces are put together in a way that’s actually kind of elegant and it makes for many memorable scenes.

I love that this movie is set around Christmas time. Everyone knows the Christmas classics. Need a change from “It’s a Wonderful Life”? Want something more off-beat than “The Nightmare Before Christmas” or “Die Hard”? This picture fits right next to my C-list Christmas movies, something to go right along “Cobra” and the “Tales from the Crypt” movie.

I also enjoy the incredibly nutty, but pretty inventive plot. The Alien, who utters little more than “I come in peace” before he kills you, is a drug dealer from the stars. He’s not after taking over the world, or colonizing the planet for his species, he wants to harvest us. How? First, he has to steal cocaine, then injects it into the future victim’s body. Once they’re writhing in extasy, he shoves a spike through your skull and drains the endorphins to sell back on his homeworld. That’s utter madness, but it lends itself well to this cop action movie. You can’t have a movie like this without at least a couple of big action sequences where our hopelessly out-gunned face off against the various street scum and finally, the alien.

Before I saw this movie, I would have bet anyone $100 that the line “You’ll leave in pieces” or something to that effect would be uttered at some point. What can I say? “I Come in Peace” is predictable, but it also delivered what I wanted to see in terms of a bad movie. The main villain has a really cool weapon and there are some fun bits of buddy-cop comedy too. On a technical level, the effects are solid. The editing is top-notch, particularly when the movie cuts from a shot that would be really gruesome to something harmless that evokes the off-screen violence or gore.

I’m not saying that this "I Come in Peace" is a good movie, but I think if you check it out knowing it’s not going to be a masterpiece and you’re already a fan of the films it’s emulating, or you want something zany for your Christmas marathon, it delivers the laughs. Yes, I recommend “I Come in Peace” because it’s dumb fun. (On VHS, December 29, 2014)