Horrible. How could anyone have taken this seriously in 1980? It’s billed as a “true” expose on UFO’s and the government cover-up and it’s absolutely ridiculous. I had heard this film mentioned many times but it is very hard to find and only just recently was able to see it. I’m not sure why some enjoyed it because it’s really mostly a joke. I later found out MST3K did a takedown of this film in their first season and it all makes sense now.
The production values are atrocious. I thought for sure this was a made-for-TV movie but I checked and it actually played in theaters. It looks more like a weekly episode of Dallas from that era. Cheap camera angles, over-acting, poorly staged action, cardboard sets, no sense of scope.
Darren McGavin (A Christmas Story) plays the lead here but all I kept thinking was “fra-gee-lay” the whole time. He’s not terrible but just so typecast that it doesn’t work. And James Hampton (the dad in the original Teen Wolf with MJF) plays an awe shucks astronaut. It’s not bad enough to be fun and not good enough to be engaging. Skip it.