Good story, Not enough for a whole film

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

PEACEMAKER is a not-bad B-movie slice of pure hokum from director Kevin Tenney, the man who brought us NIGHT OF THE DEMONS and WITCHBOARD. The plot is heavily derived from THE TERMINATOR and sees a woman caught between two men who are aliens masquerading as humans. One of them's a cop, one's a killer, and she must work out which is which.It's a mixed bag of a movie in terms of execution but the mystery angle of the plot keeps it going, just about. There's plenty of violent action here, carried out reasonably well on a low budget, and a sense of momentum which means that the narrative is never boring despite the sometimes repetitive nature of the scenes. Cast-wise, the only actor to really shines is the always-fun Robert Forster, although Robert Davi also shows up in support as a cop.

First of all, let me proclaim my bias: I am the President and CEO of the Kevin Tenney Fan Club, therefore I enjoy his work. Granted, the man has never made a blockbuster, but his work is far more entertaining than anything Woody Allen or Michael Bay could ever dream of making. That being said, I enjoyed this flick but not quite as much as I enjoyed Pinnochio's Revenge or Witchboard.In this film we have a doctor (Hilary Shepard) torn between two aliens, both claiming to be police officers from another planet. Hilary has a hard time trusting the aliens in human form since they are both tricky and each have the same story - flipping roles to confuse Ms. Shepard. Hilary changes her allegiance to the men on several occasions throughout the film, but you really can't blame her. Although this isn't Tenney's finest film, it is much better than other sci-fi films out there.VIOLENCE: $$$$ (I swear, this film employed more stunt men than any other film in the history of cinema. There are numerous car chase scenes, which I don't usually enjoy, but Kevin makes them great, as well as several explosions. SInce the aliens can regenerate, Tenney shoots Robert Forster and Lance Edwards about a thousand times each).NUDITY: $$ (Hilary Shepard removes a robe and steps into the shower with one of the aliens and then makes love to him. Tenney's love scenes are never gratuitous. You hardly see any of the forbidden flesh).STORY: $$$ (Although the main premise is a recycled one, Tenney is a master story-teller with a superior knack for writing one-liners. Most of the jokes are spoken through Hilary Shepard's character since the aliens don't have jokes and pranks on their planet. Unlike most writers, Tenney doesn't write females as the helpless, screaming, wait-for-the-man-to-save-me characters. He gives his female characters substance).ACTING: $$$ (The acting is alright. I've always been a fan of the Dos Roberts - Forster and Davi. Robert Davi's role isn't very substantial but he is solid in it. Lance Edwards got on my nerves with his alien accent and his acting is a tad stiff. Hilary Shepard proves to have a knack at delivery one-liners. She could be described as a female Bruce Campbell. She does a wonderful job with Tenney's dialogue).

God help me, but I enjoyed this movie a great deal. Jewell Shepard is funny and beautiful and irresistible when gratuitously tied up in phone cord (don't ask), Robert Forster does his usual sturdy work, there is an interesting flip-flop in character sympathies part of the way through and yes, there are some great car stunts and some great fight gags.It was entertaining in spite of its low budget and obviously derivative origins and looked good, too (in terms of lighting and cinematography). It's nice to see people working in the movie industry that do a good job, a professional job, despite working on what is essentially a piece of junk.

Okay, the story is kind of dumb (funny how one of the aliens doesn't know what a "joke" is, yet he can use words like "rejuvenate") and won't please sci-fi purists, but if you're more of an action fan, you should find this film unexpectedly entertaining. It has some truly amazing stunts (including the best motorcycle-passes-under-truck stunt I've ever seen), and it's clever in one respect at least: it jerks us around until the end regarding the question of which of the two aliens is really the "good" one. "Peacemaker" is a prime example of a movie that is made with a little (money), but works hard and accomplishes a lot. In fact, it's hard to believe that this film was directed by the same man who made the awful "Night of the Demons". It's also hard to believe that it's so little-known. (**1/2)