The Sender (1998)

The Sender is godawful Z-Grade SciFi with cloying, grating intentions, a script with War Of The World's type ambitions that was given an allowance of like ten bucks to come into fruition, and the result is a windows 98 screensaver with a fraction of a pulse. It's a shame because they scored two dope actors in Michael Madsen and R. Lee Ermey, but as good as they are they're both sheepishly notorious for appearing in bottom feeding diarrhea like this to put food on the table. Madsen strains his tear ducts as the sympathetic father whose adorable daughter has mysterious connections to extraterrestrial activity from years before. He's on the run from all kinds of government folks including Ermey's gonzo, overzealous military asshole, a one dimensional fire and brimstone go-getter who hunts them six ways to Sunday. That's about all you'll get, besides cameos from Dyan Cannon and golden oldie Robert Vaughn, as well as some Fisher Price worthy UFO effects and an all round lack of pride in the craft from everyone involved. Poo.

THE SENDER is a cheesy and unintentionally funny late '90s sci-fi thriller, clearly made to tap into the success of THE X-FILES around that time. Hell, it even has Steven Williams ('Mr. X' from the show) present, complete with ridiculously dyed white hair.Sadly this is a goofy messy of a movie, only worth watching to laugh at. Michael Madsen continues a trend of appearing in cheap B-movie action flicks and gives what can only be termed a wooden performance. There are some surprising faces in support, including Robert Vaughn and R. Lee Ermey, but it's no surprise that the characters they're playing are so stereotyped.THE SENDER adopts an action template throughout, with lots of senseless shoot-outs and some ridiculous vehicle chases to enjoy. Also, you can play 'spot Madsen's stuntman' throughout. Worst of all is the female alien, who turns up wearing a silver lame dress and glitter wig. At this point, you just know you're not going to be able to take this film seriously anymore.

How do you recognize it's director Richard Pepin messing around with the sci-fi genre? You'll be getting a LOT of car chases, crashes & explosions. And it's no different with this Michael Madsen vehicle. Madsen & alien beauty Shelli Lether are on the run for those darn evil military folks and decide to strike back with a vengeance because those same folks have kidnapped Madsen's daughter who happens to possess cosmic forces the likes of which mankind's evolution has yet to see. The sentimental gibberish was a bit too much in this one. The plot is far-fetched, inconsistent and doesn't bother to explain a lot of things. Most things that happen, just happen to keep the action going, throwing all sense of logic out the window by doing so. Nevertheless, I didn't even want my 100 minutes back after (re-)watching this. What I did want, is to have seen Ms. Lether show us that full frontal skin that she did show to Madsen. Grrr. I can't possibly believe a movie this tame (in the gore, violence & nudity department) ever received an R-rating. But in the end we do get to see a spaceship and some crappy CGI aliens. Wow, amazing stuff! No, not really.

Michael Madsen, and R Lee Ermey, are totally wasted in this explosion fest, masquerading as a sci-fi film. It's almost like the marketing department said we have some car chase scenes and explosions, can you wrap a paper thin script around it? After a promising opening with the Corsairs encountering a U.F.O over the Bermuda Triangle, everything falls apart, and for the next hour and twenty tortuous minutes nothing happens except car chases, explosions, and shootings, car chases, explosions, and shootings. Then everything is supposedly tied up by the sci-fi ending, but by that time, you might be running to your dentist for a tooth extraction, something that would be less painful than watching "The Sender" - MERK