ESCAPE FROM AREA 51 (2021)

ESCAPE FROM AREA 51 (2021)

Tagline: Nope.

(Sci-Fi, Comedy, Ernest Might Not Make It) [R]

Note: This movie wasn’t given an MPAA rating, but it would have been a [R] just due to language alone.

In this one, we get about 100 people raiding Area 51 thinking there are aliens there. Most end up disappointed when they are turned away but Ernest, Molly, and Jason decide to stick around. They end up running into an actual alien woman named “Sheera”, that escaped Area 51. Sheera is being chased by an arch nemesis named Sklarr who will pretty much just kill anyone that gets in his way. Can Sheera not only escape earth but also save her fellow alien warrior Kyra? 

So about 7 or 8 years ago you used to be able to go on Amazon Prime and find pretty much any independent movie you wanted. Most were free, but about 3 or 4 years ago, they really started cracking down on 3rd party content. Now the undisputed kinds of independent movie releases are VUDU and Tubi. Tubi has this one and if you watch enough of this stuff, you kind of already know these are not flicks with budgets in the millions. Some are funded by Kickstarter, others by different means, but the point is, these are what you might get if you had 5 creative friends and an iPhone. 

One thing that ESCAPE FROM AREA 51 does well is that it’s completely self-aware. This movie doesn’t think it’s some big-budget sci-fi flick. It’s just a straight-up comedy on almost no budget and it uses that foundation to do some goofy things. The movie even interrupts itself to give you what vloggers are doing and give you an update on the main villain's AleinMatch.net profile as well as other goofy crap, just to show you how completely un-serious it is. Again, this is NOT a serious movie and should be viewed as such if you want to have any fun with it at all. Another thing the movie does well is give us a decent soundtrack. At the very least, they did focus a little on throwing some cool songs in this and giving us a cool techno-ish score. 

What we are NOT going to get in this movie is amazing acting. For a low-budget sci-fi flick, we do get a decent performance out of Donna D'Errico who plays Sheera. She is most famous for a 2-year stint on TV’s Baywatch but also has almost 30 different acting projects under her belt. It feels like her career could be just getting started given the role she plays in this, but she’s currently 53 so it’s hard to tell where her career goes from here. The other decent stand out in this movie is Chris Browning who plays Sklarr. Chris Browning has been in everything from TERMINATOR: SALVATION to COWBOYS & ALIENS and THE LAST STAND. He kind of takes on this role a bit like Enrico Colantoni took on the Mathesar role in GALAXY QUEST only slightly more serious when needed. This was Chloe Amen's first movie role and she plays Molly, the girl that Ernest is ogling over at the start of the movie. Chloe is solid, but they have her scantily clad for most of the movie which is probably going to get her automatically ignored even though she does show some acting ability in this especially as the movie moves along. I am guessing they just told her to wear a bra and some shorts for the majority of this movie to attract teens that otherwise might have just skipped this thing.  Even just looking at this movie you can contrast Chloe’s performance against Anouk Samuel’s role as Kyra and see what I am talking about. The odd part is Anouk has more acting experience, so I am guessing the issue was the role itself or maybe she was just miscast. I was not a fan of Caleb Thomas in this as Ernest. Having said that I am guessing his career is going just fine, he even had a bit role in Disney +’s SHE-HULK. 

When you look at some of the other independent offerings and start to get a feel for this type of filmmaking, ESCAPE FROM AREA 51 is actually pretty decent in spite of a few cringy moments. It definitely doesn’t feel woke or PC, so if you are looking for those things, turn elsewhere. It does get a lot of fan and critic hate, but it’s actually one of the more tolerable indie films that have come out in the past few years if you are able to follow the style of humor they are using here. This is the same studio that did THE DEAD DON’T DIE which was a better film production-wise but might have actually been “less enjoyable” overall. 

For its funny moments, likable cast, and a pretty fun second half I have to give this one a 4 out of 7. If you can get around the budget, this thing is actually pretty cool. 

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