A.U.I.--Airwolf Under The Influence
Now Playing: XTRO II: THE SECOND ENCOUNTER
One could make a case that "drunken Jan-Michael Vincent movies" were a special sub-genre of exploitation movie during the '80s and '90s. In ALIENATOR and HIT LIST, for instance, the former AIRWOLF star is quite visibly plastered during his scenes. In a recent interview in SHOCK CINEMA, director John Flynn claims Vincent was an alcoholic during shooting of DEFIANCE in 1979, saying that the popular '70s leading man was insecure about his acting ability.

Vincent had some box-office cachet after CBS cancelled AIRWOLF, which found independent producers of low-budget movies eager to hire him, whether he could do the job or not, simply because they could be sure that his name in the cast list would produce sales. When British director Harry Bromley-Davenport was hired by some Canadian producers to make an "in-name-only" sequel to 1983's XTRO (New Line owned the film and characters, but Bromley-Davenport owned the word "XTRO"), Vincent, about whom the director candidly states "I didn't like him,", was already part of the deal.

Just so you know, 1991's XTRO II: THE SECOND ENCOUNTER has absolutely nothing to do with XTRO and everything to do with ALIENS, which probably inspired as many lame ripoffs as ALIEN did. Paul Koslo (MR. MAJESTYK) and Tara Buckman ("Brandy" from THE MISADVENTURES OF SHERIFF LOBO) play scientists heading up a top-secret underground laboratory. Their group has discovered a way to travel to a parallel dimension, but when they send humans for the first time, only one of the travelers returns.

Under the gun from their government financiers to achieve positive results, Buckman suggests that the project's founder, played by Vincent, be brought in to help, but Koslo, who has a personal beef with the man, says no. Vincent joins the group anyway, along with a platoon of soldiers who are armed to enter the parallel dimension and search for more survivors.

That trip never happens after some sort of strange, slimy monster with big teeth rips its way out of the chest of the lone survivor and stalks the dark passageways and air ducts of the massive facility, ripping and tearing apart the inhabitants one by one. Yes, I know you've seen this movie before, we all have.

I suppose that if you absolutely must watch a movie about a giant slimy monster traipsing through dark hallways munching guys with guns, XTRO II would suffice. That is, if ALIENS, CREEPOZOIDS, ALIEN TERMINATOR, MIND RIPPER yada yada yada are all rented out. X-FILES fans may enjoy a prominent supporting performance by Nicholas "Krycek" Lea. There's a bit of gore, but nothing particularly juicy. Certainly there's little excitement or originality.

But it does have a drunk Jan-Michael Vincent. It's obvious that he was in no shape to learn lines, and Bromley-Davenport confirms my suspicion that the director was standing behind the camera giving line readings and Vincent was merely reciting them back. His voice is gravelly, and he sometimes slurs, so who knows what he's saying much of the time. A lot of his dialogue is off-camera, presumably so they could patch takes together. You can sort of see why he continued to get acting jobs, though. He was never a strong actor, but he did have that intangible "something" that made you want to look at him. And he kinda still does in XTRO II. Or maybe it's just the alcohol.