
There’s a long history of New Zealand producing quirky, low budget films, and now director Shae Sterling has added new comedy, Alien Addiction to that list.
As will come as no surprise from a title like that, we’re in Sci-fi Stoner territory, with a mixture of Farrelly Brothers and Cheech and Chong thrown in, along with its own quirks. Being a Kiwi film, there will be the inevitable comparisons to be made to Peter Jackson’s earlier films (Bad Taste etc..), and to the Taiki Waititi and Jermaine Clement films from the past 10 years, but this isn’t a bad comparison to have, if the film holds up.
The story here centres around Riko (Jimi Jackson), who spends his days hanging around smoking weed with his friends Rabbit (Harry Summerfield), Hemi (Tane Huata), and Tama (Tukairangi Maxwell), and it seems not a lot else. Living in the middle of nowhere they’re fairly isolated from anything approaching city life, so have a reckless attitude to everything and are constantly joking with, or pranking each other to pass the time. When a meteor crashes into the hillside, it hides the landing of a UFO containing two aliens. After not believing his Aunt (Veronica Edwards) has seen them, as she is always being dismissed as deluded, Riko discovers the UFO, and befriends the aliens. After discovering they’re also stoners, he takes them out on the town, which seems to be going well, until an Alientologist (Thomas Sainsbury) appears on the scene, determined to exploit them to become famous.

The early part of this plot feels slightly different to the rest, with the focus being on Riko and his friends as a group. It has that distinct New Zealand ‘bro’ comedy feel and it draws you in with its dry wit and easy silliness. The group are extremely likable and work well together. What caught me slightly off guard is the rest of the film shifts from this group dynamic to focus directly on Riko, which was a shame as they had established a great rapport and a rhythm. This change and a few other choices later on, unfortunately make it a slightly uneven narrative and you have to re-adjust. Luckily, Jimi Jackson is an interesting and engaging performer, so when the focus shifts, it isn’t too jarring, although you are aware of it.

Coming from a YouTube background, Jackson is an assured lead, having gained experience expanding his online comedy material into live gigs, and now film. On the basis of this, I suspect he will find more film work in the future. There is a likelihood that if you like his style of comedy, then you will probably get on with Alien Addiction, although much like Jim Carrey, his antics could grate if you are not a fan of their particular delivery. Personally I thought this wasn’t the case here, and found Jackson’s persona to fit perfectly with this type of film. Along with Jackson, the rest of the cast is also strong, especially the late JoJo Waaka as Jacinta (who sadly passed away in 2017), and Harry Summerfield as Rabbit, Riko’s best friend.

Despite the fact that this is extremely silly material, it is surprisingly shot beautifully, especially considering the budgetary constraints. Admittedly, Shae Sterling does have the advantage of the local landscape giving fantastic vistas, but acting as his own cinematographer, he has delivered an impressive production value throughout.
If there is any other weakness here, it’s that sometimes the material doesn’t quite hit the mark, but generally, if you surrender to the madness, there is a good time to be had here. Much like a lot of Cheech and Chong’s material and Bad Taste, it can switch from genius to crass and not lose the audience, so although uneven, holds its own. At the moment it may only have had a limited release in New Zealand and the UK, but in time this could easily become a bit of a cult hit.