Phil the Alien (2004)

[Merkin Muffley 24]

Have you ever watched a movie that was a real stinker, tired premise, bad acting, ridiculous dialog, and an anthropomorphic, talking beaver as a main character, then, as soon as it was over gone online to read reviews, only to find a lot of people thought it was a great movie?

Well this just happened to me with the movie Phil the Alien (2004), written, directed and staring Rob Stefaniuk.

The premise of the movie is the tired old, alien crash lands on Earth and has misadventures while learning human ways.

The acting, well just look at the picture on the box cover, Rob Stefaniuk is wearing that expression though a good part of the movie, so we know how scared and out of place he is here on Earth.

Did I mention that one of the main characters is a talking beaver, voiced by SCTV alumnus Joe Flaherty?

The thing that impresses me the most, was not how bad this low budget Canadian film is, but how much many people seemed to like it. 5.4/10 from 659 users on IMDb and 57% on Rotten Tomatoes although there were only 7 votes counted, and Amazon has it at 3.1 stars.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9H-Af3U2yA8

 

 

 

[Lando 2019]

I contributed a 3 to the 659 votes and then for some bizarre reason still decided to watch another Sefaniuk movie, Suck. It was much better than Phil The Alien, but still not terribly enjoyable.

[jarrycanada 2483]

Joe Flaherty not really all that hard to get anymore. He does dinner theater in shopping malls here.

[Lando 2019]

I have heard that the Canadian government requires that the radio plays a certain amount of Canadian artists and as such you have bands that are known inside Canada. Is this also true of TV/Movies (and thus would explain Stefaniuk)?

[jarrycanada 2483]

I have heard that the Canadian government requires that the radio plays a certain amount of Canadian artists and as such you have bands that are known inside Canada. Is this also true of TV/Movies (and thus would explain Stefaniuk)?

 

That is true, Radio and TV have to play so much Canadian based content during prime time in order to Keep a license as a broadcaster in canada. but what happens more or less is just garbage being played on the air waves that's not new.

 

Cause in point encore-avenue will play highway 61 or hard candy over and over again. both of them good movies but they beat them to death. you can always tell when they are doing it because you'll flip on a station and it's some movie from 20 years ago that no one wants to see. I am not sure about radio playing bands that not real.Maybe just not good sometimes.

 

sometimes they produce good tv shows like "Schitt's Creek" but for every "Schitt's Creek" there is a show like "Corner Gas" that is just plain garbage. I love it when American tv shows are filmed in Canada and use Canadian actors but are still called foreign because they are produced by American tv networks.

 

You can dress up Graham Greene in a tree outfit he's still one of ours.

 

[Lando 2019]

Hah, imagine if you could call "The X-Files" a Canadian show because a lot of the "DC" stuff was filmed in Vancouver. Hey you guys brought us Trailer Park Boys! Although I think that Netflix bought them up so are the newer seasons still considered Canadian?

[seanotron 2307]

I think we determined in the Gooby episode that Canada has some kind of Actor's Draft that forcibly recalls Canadian actors from Hollywood to serve their country by starring in Canadian productions.

[Merkin Muffley 24]

.

sometimes they produce good tv shows like "Schitt's Creek" but for every "Schitt's Creek" there is a show like "Corner Gas" that is just plain garbage.

I enjoyed Corner Gas, some of the characters were annoying at times, and others, annoying all of the time, but there was still something about the show I really liked.

I watched the first episode of Schitt's Creek and lost track of how many times I cringed, I really hated that show.

[Lando 2019]

I just noticed that Sean Cullen is also in this. Probably one of my least favorite DLM guests because Doug prompts him to stretch his gag of singing theme songs to movies way way way past its welcome