Great Film overall

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

This film is titled "Xtro II: The Second Encounter"; however, is not a sequel to the first film in any way. We go from a father abducted by aliens who returns to impart horrifying powers to his son to a film that rips off the film Aliens and the lesser Corman film, "The Terror Within" as it involves a monster moving around air ducts and picking off victims. The first film was not great, but it was different to say the least. This one is nothing that has not been done numerous times and it does not do it as well. I mean, "The Terror Within" was not a great film, but it did better with the formula of monster on the loose in a facility than this one did.The story has an experiment about to take place as a group of scientist or something or other is about to traverse into another dimension! Well, something happens and so the two scientists who are working on the project and apparently hate each other have different ideas on how to rescue them. One wants to send in troops to this other dimension where nobody seems to return alive and rescue the team that got sent off, the other wants to bring in her boyfriend who did make it back, but would rather not tell anyone that there are horrible monsters in the other dimension. Soon a monster is on the loose, the doctor who despises everyone is infected and everyone is locked in. And for reasons unknown everyone in this film hates the walls in this facility because despite the monster being huge and right in front of them they always have to expend a ton of ammo on the walls before hitting the beastie.This film just has too many failings to be be entertaining, even in a bad way. The monster looks okay, kind of a combination of a Xenomorph form the Alien franchise and that thing that showed up at midnight in the horror film, "House". Unfortunately, you will not get to see much of it as there is just way too much build up in this film. Meanwhile, in the also low budgeted, "Terror Within" the monster is on display a lot more. Speaking of that film, in it they got George Kennedy to play a role and he looks bored and uninterested. That being said, he is understandable and though you can tell he does not want to be there, he goes about it in a professional manner. Here we get Jan-Michael Vincent and he not only seems like he does not wish to be in the film, he also seems to be drunk! He slurs and at times it is hard to understand what he is saying. Feel bad for him as his star looked so bright and then he kind of fell hard, but they would have been better picking an unknown.So, the film has nothing to do with the first film and the third film would have nothing to do with either film. The only thing the films share in common is the name Xtro with the first film being the most original of the bunch. This one is an Alien ripoff and the third film is like Predator had they replaced the cool looking Predator with a gray and did not have a budget to higher a bunch of cool action stars. This one might of worked better if they just had some cool more elaborate deaths and not had a guy who was drunk during the film. More monster action and more fodder for the monster to kill. Kind of a joke at the end how the creature was dispatched and then the only odd moment in the film as a woman appears says some stuff and then they fade to the credits. Strangely, the film almost plays like it is a sequel, but not to the first Xtro, but rather one where Jan-Michael's character entered the other dimension and had an elaborate adventure.

The original Xtro was a British sci-fi horror film from the early 80's. It was very silly indeed but pretty original and strange. I guess you could describe it as a minor cult movie. Its director, Harry Davenport, returned almost a decade later to make an American sequel called, perhaps unsurprisingly, Xtro II. This one is only vaguely related to the previous film at best. It's set in an underground military laboratory that is experimenting with travelling to other dimensions. They send a swat team to one such place, it's disastrous and one of the team returns only for an aggressive alien to burst out of her stomach and escape into the facility. The remaining personnel must avoid being torn apart by the monster.It should be clear from the synopsis that this flick owes a fair bit to Alien. But the truth is that this one isn't even nearly as good as the uneven original Xtro, far less Ridley Scott's master-work. Probably the single biggest problem is the location. Almost all films set in confined military bases are usually tedious and terrible. The limited sets are good for a low budget but very boring. This one is no exception with lots of dark corridors and very little variety. The movie stars Jan-Michael 'Airwolf' Vincent. He's not very good and puts in a thoroughly disinterested performance.Overall, very forgettable.

It must tell you something I went in thinking I haven't seen it, but hold on. Upon every scene and development it suddenly came back. 'Xtro II' is an unrelated sequel to 'Xtro' that's nothing more than a workable, but fairly lacklustre low-budget 'Aliens' clone. The chest bursting scene is a prime example. Well it seemed to share a lot of common ground with another film (which is a lot better) from the same year 'Shadowzone'. Anyhow I didn't find it to be as terrible as many to make out to be, but however it's just too formulaic to rise above its limited scope. Still I was entertained. The conceptual idea is something imaginative (exploring an alternate dimension and bringing something back), but director/writer Harry Bromley Davenport decides to stick with the copy and paste clichés and usual plot mechanisms. Everything is straight-forward (alien stalks and blandly picks off team one by one), rather than the bizarre and unconventional nature of the original.The acting by Jan-Michael Vincent (uninterested), Paul Koslo (over-the-top) and Tara Buckman is reasonably so-so, but their character's are poorly conceived. Nicholas Lea (best known as Alex Krycek in the 'X-Files' TV series) shows up in support. Not helping was that the script was shamelessly lousy in it's supposed toughness. The minor sets look cheap, and the misty blue lighting tries for moody atmospherics in the same-old set-pieces and the score is forcibly clunky. Pacing can stall too much. There's a little bit of splatter, but nothing truly worthwhile. Director Davenport's touch lacks the firepower, despite the weaponry on show. While the story is predictably colourless, the repetitive visionary on screen doesn't fair up any better. The alien doesn't look too bad, but there's a striking resemblance to the way its shot with 'Alien'.I don't think it's the pits, just too familiar and unfocused to be much effective.

This is perhaps the most obvious, undisguised script plagiarism that I have ever had the misfortune of watching. This movie completely and shamelessly rips off the "Alien" franchise, and does so with extra-cheesy production value, "Dr. Who" quality sets and special effects, and some of the worst dead-faced, deadpan acting ever recorded. I mean, my God...aliens with acid blood that pop out of people's chests, who run around screeching and curling their lips over their pointy glass teeth??? And a small team of soldiers to hunt them down? They even rip off the Bill Paxton character in James Cameron's "Aliens," only this time the whiny hysterical soldier is played by Nicholas Lea of the "X-Files." An absolutely horrible movie.