Directed by: Wolfgang Peterson
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Louis Gossett Jr., Brion James
Enemy Mine is a classic sci-fi film from the 80’s, perhaps the last decade where we still had a pretty constant flow of decent-to-good sci-fi movies. Also, it’s based on a book by a guy named Barry Longyear, who it turns out is a gigantic smarmy douchebag, and that’s why all his main characters are huge assholes like Dennis Quaid is in this movie. Assholes who’s biggest strength is that they’re mean and awful. This is a positive thing in Barry’s world. Anyway, just wanted to slip some slander in there.
Dennis Quaid is an intrepid spaceman fighter pilot (who is an asshole) who gets shot down along with an alien over a mostly uninhabited planet. The two must resolve their differences, learn how to speak with each other, then cooperate to survive. Once the Lou Gossett Jr. alien dies, Quaid has to take care of his kid, which he gives birth to for some reason. Then the kid gets kidnapped by the evil slavers who rule the mines of the planet, and Quaid has to rescue it.
Overall, it’s a pretty good story. Very classic, two people have to resolve their differences and work together, etc etc. It loses it’s focus a little bit when the whole story shifts to be about Quaid and the kid, and it’s kinda hard to feel empathy for Quaid’s character, as he’s extremely, AGGRESSIVELY unlikable. You know what’s kinda like Enemy Mine, only a thousand times better? That Star Trek: The Next Generation Episode “Darmok”, where Captain Picard and an alien who only speaks in similies get trapped on a planet together and they have to fight an invisible paper mache lightning monster. WAY better.
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