Review: Alpha Code (2020)
Aliens are real. And they can mate with humans. All of which the UN knows because they’re involved with them and keep it all covered up. How do I know this? Because I’ve seen Alpha Code. And it’s based on real events which happened to the film’s writer and producer Milan Friedrich. The film’s publicity and a text dump at the start say so. And they wouldn’t lie, would they?
Martin (Bren Foster, Infini, Deep Blue Sea 3) hasn’t seen his daughter Teri (Sabina Rojková) in years. However, on their first night back together, she’s abducted by aliens. He wakes up in the hospital. The doctor isn’t allowed to talk about his daughter and Agent Ray Bowie (Randy Couture, Antidote, The Expendables) draws a by now familiar pattern on his window and tells him what he experienced was a massive earthquake.
As soon as he’s left alone Martin, of course, tears out his IVs and escapes out a window. He eventually makes contact with Johana (Denise Richards, Wild Things, The Toy Box) who is also hiding from Bowie. Can they, along with Bowie’s former colleague Lance (Marek Vasutput, Solomon Kane, Blade II) the pieces together before he can stop them?
Alpha Code opens with some awful CGI of an airliner that’s having a close encounter with a UFO we never see. Which struck me as odd given its claims to have had a $7,000,000 budget. Its B and C level cast should have told me otherwise. As should the fact it was directed by Keoni Waxman, best known for cheap action films starring Steven Segal’s stunt double, like End of a Gun and Contract to Kill.
Like Astro from a couple of years ago, Alpha Code wants to mix science fiction, human/alien hybrids and action films into an entertaining genre stew. What they both end up being is a mix of very bad science fiction and equally bad action film clichés. This isn’t Friedrich’s first attempt at merging the two either, he has a producer’s credit on the abysmal Alien Warfare as well.
The sheer lack of thought that went into Alpha Code’s script is astounding. After Martin escapes from the hospital, he heads right to his company’s office. Because nobody would think of looking for him there. He grabs a wad of cash, a burner phone and a tarped SUV, (what line of business is he in any way?) and takes off again. Later he manages to steal Bowie’s tablet with all his case files on it. It never crosses his, or anyone else’s, mind that he would have a way to track such an important device. Which he is, of course, doing.
The film’s few action scenes are as lame as the plot. Couture may be a skilled fighter in the octagon, but his brawling here is about as convincing as his acting. Which is about as convincing as the script.
Short on intelligence, action and aliens, Alpha Code is a chore to sit through. It’s available to stream or to buy on its website.
