On video Aliens present sheriff with dilemma

Press, 1 September 1989, Page 28

On video Aliens present sheriff with dilemma

By

DAVID CLARKSON

Sheriff McMann has the dilemma of how to treat some visiting aliens with patience and understanding when several earthlings have already been zapped to death, in the video "Stranded.” This First Release Home Video does not have the spectacular special effects, nor the deep emotional connections of other films of our first contact with space creatures.

But perhaps this presents a more realistic picture after all: a violent confrontation spawned of fear and misunderstanding.

Maureen O’Sullivan and lone Skye play grandmother and teenager who live together in a country house which is visited by a group of aliens escaping from a desperate battle and an efficient assassin.

One of them is armed, and when a suspicious neighbour opens fire and is killed, the groundwork is set for the police to close in and try to resolve their most unusual hostage drama. Sherriff McMann (Joe Morton) faces several difficult problems. The aliens want to leave, but he soon has two dead men, including a police officer,

on his hands. He has local vigilantes wanting revenge, and he has two women hostages in the hands of the aliens. Then comes the realisa-

tion that the assassin they were running from has also reached the planet Earth. It is a low-key, but well made adventure story.