Zone Troopers: Danny Bilson

With heaping helpings of aliens and Nazis, Danny Bilson's Zone Troopers is like a B-movie fan's wet dream. It follows a group of American soldiers trapped behind enemy lines somewhere in Nazi-occupied Italy who discover a crashed spaceship. But, of course, the Nazis aren't too far behind them. The Nazis end up stealing one of the surviving aliens, a furry little critter with giant eyes. So it is up to our intrepid group of GI's to rescue the interstellar traveler and foil the Nazis' plans for utilizing the alien tech. The film is pretty standard B-movie fare: the soldiers are a bunch of stock characters (the mean sergeant with a heart of gold, the wide eyed kid from Jersey, the nosy journalist along for the ride), the effects range from rudimentary to impressive (the crashed spaceship is particularly effective), and a predictable conclusion where the aliens help the Americans defeat the Nazis. But the actors really help make Zone Troopers memorable. Two of the central performances, Tim Thomerson as the Sarge and Timothy Van Patten as Joey, bring a lot of heart to this otherwise silly film. It's definitely worth a watch.

6/10