Film Review: I Come in Peace (Dark Angel, 1990)

When communities and nations get struck by sudden surges of drug addiction, people sometimes tend to make the sense of it by blaming it on evil schemes of certain powerful malevolent entities. Most of those conspiracy theories involve government, which is, to a degree, premise used in I Come in Peace, 1990 science fiction action film directed by Craig W. Baxley, also known under alternative title Dark Angel.

The plot begins in Houston during Christmas season, when a spaceship lands and huge alien named Talec (played by Matthias Hues) disembarks claiming that he “comes in peace”. Those words have to be taken with a grain of salt and first to learn it are members of White Boys, gang of vicious yuppie-looking criminals. Soon after they have stolen impounded heroin from federal warehouse and had it blown up to hide evidence, they intend to sell it, not knowing that the purchase is sting operation led by maverick Houston police detective Jack Caine (played by Dolph Lundgren). While he gets distracted by nearby petty robbery, Talec crashes the meeting, kills White Boys with flying self-guided blade and steals all of the heroin. Caine tries to make a sense of what happened, but due to crime being connected with federal property, FBI, represented by Inspector Switzer (played by David Ackroyd) gets involved in investigation and Caine is given partner in the form of arrogant Special Agent Arwood “Larry” Smith (played by Brian Benben). As two men try to work together, Diane Pallone (played by Betsy Brantley), coroner and Caine’s girlfriend, discovers series of murders during which all victims were injected with pure heroin and then had their endorphins sucked out of their brains. Only arrival of Azeck (played by Jay Bilas), another alien who is actually police officer hunting down Talec, completes the puzzle – Talec is a drug dealer who extracts human endorphin in order to create powerful and lucrative drug he intends to sell on his world.

I Come in Peace tries, and for the most part succeeds, featuring most of the iconography and plot elements associated with classics of 1980s action genre. We have macho protagonist with plenty of muscle; seemingly indestructible and unstoppable villain with superhuman abilities; drug dealers as the vilest villains imaginable; disdain for yuppies that are shown as embodiment of everything wrong with America; “buddy buddy” comedy featuring rule-breaking working class and by-the-book middle class policeman; black humour and one-liners mixed with spectacular violence; character of beautiful woman whose main purpose is reassure audience of protagonist’s heterosexuality; car chases and gunfire mixed with pyrotechnics; final showdown in abandoned building; cinematography dominated with bright colours and plenty of pink in night scenes; synthesiser music score (here provided by Jan Hammer of Miami Vice fame); and, last but not least, scene in a strip club as an excuse to feature topless women. Such plenty of material could have been separately used in numerous separate films, but director Craig R. Baxley manages to compress it into easily digestible hour and half of running time. Baxley actually did such a good job with with it that I Come in Peace nearly became too short; instead he had to pad the film with couple of repetitive scenes of Talec killing people.

Baxley, who began his career as a stuntman, obviously enjoyed doing this film and showed great talent for action scenes that feature a lot of good stunt work. The alien subplot works despite almost complete absence of special effects. The cast is at top of their game. Dolph Lundgren, who yearned for opportunity to prove himself as an actor and not just mountain of muscles, delivered surprisingly good performance in the role of Caine, playing the character that possesses not only physical power, but intelligence and with he uses in his banter with FBI partner. Brian Benben, best known for his comic roles, creates good “buddy buddy” chemistry and the pairing is made even more effective by contrasting Lundrgen’s tall and Benben’s short stature. German athlete and martial artist Matthias Hues puts his even bigger height to good use, making Lundgren small and vulnerable in fight scenes; Hues further contributed to this film by performing all of his stunts, because producers couldn’t find any stunt to match his height. Charming Betsy Brantley also seems to have great fun with her potentially thankless role. Same can be said for small army of capable character actors including veteran Michael J. Pollard in small role of Caine’s informer and Mark Lowenthal as paranoid drug-taking scientist.

Same may argue that I Come in Peace is simply too silly and represent a product of its time. But that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. One of the subplots feature government officials being not only aware of aliens but even willing to be in cahoots with them at the expense of ordinary people. This plot strand, obviously inspired by Iran-Contra scandal and speculations of US government co-operating with Latin American drug lords, would later be further expanded in The X-Files. This film, however, can be enjoyed even by people unaware of its political context and in the end delivers more than solid entertainment.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

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