Crossbreed (2019)

Crossbreed (2019)
Director: Brandon Slagle
Writer: Brandon Slagle, Robert Thompson

In the not too distant future man has discovered interstellar travel and built colonies on the moon. Space travel has become part of every day life, so much so that there's space pirates. When space pirates capture an alien life form the bad ass Madame President Henricksen (Vivica A. Fox KILL BILL) and her wise crackin' Secretary of Defense Weathers (Daniel Baldwin KING OF THE ANTS) jump into action to avert space war by hiring their own mercenaries. Their go to man is the owner of a moon bar.

Said man, Ryker (Stink 'that's my name' Fisher), puts a team together and they assault the space base orbiting the earth. It just so happens the space base looks a lot like the bowels of an industrial complex or large watercraft. I'm sure there's a space explanation for that. We get to see a lot of the bowels up and close as we watch the team take out the space pirates and discover that the alien they were sent to rescue has escaped its prison and mutated. Now it hunts the team as they desperately try and make it to the space exit.

Yet another of the low budget monster movies inspired by ALIEN, its sequel ALIENS and any of the other sci-fi films that hit it big (PREDATOR, SPECIES), CROSSBREED has none of their appeal. Sure we have the macho men with their space weapons and attempted witty, testosterone fueled banter but it never clicks. The cardboard characters are forgettable, the action scenes poorly staged and the monster of this creature feature so dull that we can't muster sympathy or bother to cheer it on as it tears through the cast of dimwits.

I was impressed by a couple of things in the film. The oft repeated CGI footage of a space base looked good as did some of the locations they were able to secure for scenes with the President and her Secretary. But then we'd jump right back to the industrial bowels where the meat of the film is set with the low rent BLADE RUNNER esthetics and production.

Daniel Baldwin at least looks to be having fun with his character. So much so that I'm wondering if he was in on the joke that CROSSBREED is not an homage to the sci-fi films of decades ago but a parody. That would explain the script's poorly written characters and comedic dialogue.

Vernon Wells is in the film for a few minutes at the beginning portraying a hard man. Sadly, the director and editor couldn't figure out how to make a seventy something year old move like a bad ass so we are left with Wells' scowl to convey it.

Set phasers to kill if CROSSBREED pops up on your radar.

*1/2 out of ****

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