I Come In Peace

Directed by Craig R. Baxley, I Come In Peace follows Dolph Lundgren’s Detective Jack Caine as he and a by-the-book FBI agent (Brian Benben’s Larry Smith) team up to find and take down a vicious alien (Matthias Hues’ Talec) on a murderous killing spree. Filmmaker Baxley, working from Jonathan Tydor and Leonard Maas Jr.’s screenplay, delivers a decent-enough thriller that generally feels as though it should be much better (and more entertaining), as the movie, which runs a short-yet-somehow-not-short-enough 91 minutes, suffers from an erratic, momentum-free narrative that’s really only effective (and affecting) in fits and starts – with the repetitive atmosphere compounded by an ongoing emphasis on Jack and Larry’s less-than-enthralling investigation into the aforementioned killing spree. There’s little doubt, then, that I Come In Peace benefits from its assortment of admittedly appealing elements, including solid chemistry between Lundgren and Benben’s respective characters and several exciting action sequences (eg a car chase that eventually ends up in a busy shopping center), and it’s clear, too, that the unexpectedly engrossing climactic stretch, which is topped off with a solid confrontation between Jack and Talec, ensures that the whole thing concludes on a positive, relatively memorable note – with the final result a mostly watchable endeavor that’s ultimately elevated by its proliferation of ’90s-friendly attributes (eg agreeably garish sets, a supporting cast boasting folks like Sam Anderson and Al Leong, etc).

**1/2 out of ****