Director: Howard McCain
Cast: James Caviezel, Sophia Myles, Jack Huston, Ron Perlman, John Hurt
Release Date: Feb 19

As far as preposterous premises go, Vikings vs aliens is a pretty good one. In terms of sheer, stupid B-movie audacity, it would be almost impossible to improve on. How much further could you really take it? Ninjas vs pirates? Sharks vs evil clowns? Roman legions vs crocodiles? Once you’ve done Vikings vs aliens, the game is pretty much done.

James Caviezel, (aka Jesus, The Passion Of The Christ), stars as Kainan, a spaceman who brings an awful surprise upon the natives when he crash lands in Norway during the old-timey Viking times: surprise, surprise, it’s an alien.

Kainan hooks up with some Vikings who appear to have recently pillaged a cut-rate costume shop, where they stole all the Viking costumes.

John Hurt stars as Rothgar, the Viking chieftain; Jack Huston stars as Wulfric, the young Viking firebrand; Ron Perlman stars as Gunnar, the token Jewish Viking. Best of all, there’s Sophia Myles as Freya, the bodacious Viking maiden; you keep hoping to see her Viking bosoms, but sadly, she’s the modest sort.

As the Vikings go at it with the alien – and then more and more and more aliens – the jaded would likely find it all too silly for words, but that would be missing the point; Outlander’s raison d’etre is silliness. And anyway, the alien is pretty cool, with a huge toothy mouth (like something a kid would draw) and being all decked out in flashy lights. One thing you’ve got to give the team behind Outlander, they’re not shy. -JJ

THE VERDICT
Good B-movie fun.