BA_Harrison In an alternate future universe where everyone is Japanese no matter what world they come from, Earth is under attack from hostile planet Valnastar whose marauding 'wolf-raiders' are sent to wipe out humanity; but when one of the alien attackers, a curly-blonde-wig-wearing wolf-raider by the name of Ken (Tatsuya Azuma), is ordered to kill a defenceless woman and her young son (also named Ken—must be a popular name throughout the universe of the future) he resists, accidentally killing a comrade in the process.Branded a traitor by his own race, Ken (the alien, not the boy) flees for his life, but must abandon his craft in space when it is damaged in a fire-fight. Luckily for Ken, he is soon picked up by a passing Earth ship, the Bacchus 3, whose happy-go-lucky crew have no idea that he is a wolf-raider; they patch him up and make him welcome. Eventually, Ken comes clean to Captain Joe (Jô Shishido), who decides to keep schtum just so long as the fugitive alien joins his crew. Ken agrees, to the chagrin of moody pilot Rocky but much to the delight of cute computer boffin Tammy (Miyuki Tanigawa).Ken's first mission with the Bacchus crew is to rescue a captive Colonel from a high-security alien prison, a task that takes every ounce of his incredible strength and all of his amazing fighting skills to overcome all obstacles (plus a few handy gadgets hidden on his fetching, red PVC, all-in-one space jumpsuit), including Ken's girlfriend Rita (was the writer of this nonsense a fan of UK soap Coronation Street, perchance?) who just happens to be the sister of the guy Ken accidentally killed and who is now gunning for revenge.Cobbled together from a short-lived Japanese TV series, Fugitive Alien is hard to endure despite plenty of ridiculously bad action and lots of unintentional humour. The embarrassingly inept space dog-fights (clearly inspired by Star Wars, but severely lacking their technical excellence) and unexciting shoot-outs are extremely repetitive, the editing is random, the pacing stodgy, and the dubbing awful. Some of the model shots of the Bacchus are pretty cool but the ship's interior could have done with a little more attention to detail (the dashboard boasts dials that read 'Space Speed' and 'Cabin Air Presser'). After 100 or so excruciating minutes of incomprehensible rubbish, viewers are presented with the words 'To Be Continued' and the horrible realisation that this is only half of the story.I've never seen an MST3K episode—I believe that all films, no matter how bad, deserve more a bit more respect than that—but I can understand how this sort of thing would prove irresistible to such a show. Fortunately, for movie purists like myself, Fugitive Alien is available minus comedic robot commentary as part of a 50 film sci-fi DVD box set, meaning it can be enjoyed exactly as enterprising American film distributor Sandy Frank originally intended when he snapped up the rights for a song.

Mike I very short lived TV series packaged into a movie brought to us by Sandy Frank; who has brought the Gamera films and Time of The Apes overseas. This movie(?) actually isn't all that painful. The plot makes sense, and you can actually tell who the characters are. So it is watchable, just rediculous. Several things aren't explained. Like who exactly these Wolf Raiders are, why they wear wigs to the battlefield, and several behavoiral patterns that just make you go "huh?". Also the hero has the strengh of ten men and can stop forklifts at full acceleration, yet falls down from a clean punch.The most frustrating thing i found with this movie and plenty of the Sandy Frank films i've seen is this "failed plan" thats in each movie. Here's an example: Our hereo is trapped in prison, so he supports himself up against the top corner of the cell hiding from view. The guard is about to open the door to search the cell and inadvertantly let the captive go. But he spots his foot first, as says "get down from there." end scene. What was the point of that scene? Next he ties an explosive to a cell door to bust it open, and it fails. So we watch him carefully take his time and wire another two explosives to open the door. Another waste of time! It's just disguised film padding.This movie stands on it's own as something to pass time on a rainy day, but the MST3K version is golden. Probably my favorite episode ever because of Joel Hodgson's dead on and hilarious impersonation of Captain Joe from the movie. No matter which version you watch I'll guarantee you'll be quoting "haa-hahahahahaha-haha-haaahahahaYOU'RESTUCKHERE!"

quamp Ah, Sandy Frank. The name conjures up a whole mess of bad Japanese films. Not surprisingly, this is one of them. The whole premise is a good idea - a marauding alien meets up with a kid that has the same name he does (Ken.) and then refuses to kill the kid. (Just what is Sandy Frank's obsession with the name Ken anyway? Many of his other imports have a male character named Ken as well.) A scuffle ensues between the alien and one of his partners, and he accidentally kills his partner. Then the alien is considered a traitor and runs away. He's found by the Star Force in Space, who take him in. The aliens wear extremely fake looking blonde wigs. The forklift scene is unintentionally hilarious. There's also a blonde woman who loves the hero Ken but has to kill him because he killed her brother. But the main problem with this film is the very bad acting. I think it would do better as a remake with a better cast, and maybe Jackie Chan in the lead role.Avoid unless you're watching the MST3K version.

zmaturin Hey Network TV: Instead of beating the venerable "Fugitive" premise to death (a tv show based on a movie based on a tv show?), why not seek out a tv series that was flawed when originally produced but still features enough good stuff to salvage into a new, better series? Here's a good example- "Fugitive Alien" and it's sequel, "Star Force: Fugitive Alien 2" are goofy, sometimes-incomprehensible "features" made from re-edited episodes of a Japanese TV show. They're hard to watch in their current incarnation, but have interesting premises and fun plots.The story is this: Our hero Ken is a Wolf Raider. Wolf Raiders are super-strong humanoid aliens who like to invade other planets and run around smashing things. For some reason they wear curly red wigs when they do this, which is pretty bizarre. Anyhoo, during a routine invasion Ken is ordered to shoot a little boy named Ken, and he refuses. In the resulting scuffle Ken accidentally shoots his best friend and flees the evil Wolf Raiders, ending up floating through space in his spacesuit, waiting to die (already this is hilarious!).Luckily, Ken is discovered by the Bacchus 3, a Star Force spaceship commanded by the jowl-sporting, hard-drinkin' Captain Joe (possible come-back role for Ernest Borgnine here!). Ken is almost immediately adopted by Captain Joe, who hides Ken's Wolf Raider past from the rest of the crew and offers him a job. This delights Tammy, the navigator, and dismays Rocky, Captain Joe's first mate, who tries to run Ken over with a forklift. There are two other guys on the ship, I think one was called Dan or something. They don't do much. Anyway, the crew of the Bacchus 3 goes on one crazy adventure after another while Ken is pursued by Rita (who is Ken's ex-girlfriend and the sister of the guy Ken killed). They visit a lot of different planets, Ken saves everyone over and over again, and eventually he and Rocky get past the whole "forklift incident".If this isn't a set up for a hit TV series or even a feature film, I don't know what is. It's certainly a more plausible premise a series than "Cleopatra 2525", that's for damn sure. So please, consider "Fugitive Alien". Maybe you could get Timothy Daly to star in the series version.