Alien Apocalypse

Remember the "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" series (c. 1979)? Well this has a bit of that to it. Astronauts "Ivan" (Bruce Campbell) and "Kelly" (Renée O'Connor) land on Earth to find humanity enslaved by giant insects who love wood - even more than biting off the heads of naughty people. Well "Ivan" is having one of this, so he gathers a tiny gang and off they go in search of the last US President "Demsky" (Peter Jason) in the hope that he can galvanise what's left of the population to fight back. Along their travels they meet freedom fighters and collaborators alike before the predicable set-too with the rather engaging beasties who speak perfect English, not too adept with their sonic pulse guns and are quite conversational with their conquering. Campbell is hamming is up throughout (I hope) for the dialogue is pretty woeful - even the "I'm Spartacus" moment, which does raise a smile. The visual effects are pretty standard and the looks of bemusement when the enemy encounter (fairly effective) bows and arrows makes the film worth watching just for that. It's dreadful, yes - but if you aim low and expect very little then it's astonishingly acceptable for an admittedly over-long ninety minutes.