Movies: Suburban Commando

Every professional wrestler who tries to cross into mainstream cinema - be it Dwayne Johnson, Steve Austin, or John Cena - owes a small debt to Hulk Hogan for paving the way in the '80s and '90s:



"Suburban Commando" is one of the Hulkster's biggest stabs at Hollywood glory. The plot is tissue-paper-thin, but here it is anyway: Hogan plays Shep Ramsey, a space warrior who crashes on Earth. Finding the natives strange (let it be noted that Shep lands in southern California), he rents a room from mild-mannered Charlie Wilcox (played by Doc Brown himself, Christopher Lloyd). Predictable slapstick and fish-out-of-water comedy ensues; watch for a memorable scene involving canteloupe.

The above trailer wisely downplays the shlocky science fiction elements, but the actual movie features a near-unwatchable mishmash of spaceships, freeze rays, interstellar bounty hunters, and an evil alien general. They really would have been better off casting Hogan as some sort of elite American soldier trying to adjust to civilian life - asking Hogan to act like someone from another planet is too tall of an order.

Weirdly enough, Hogan and Lloyd sort of work as a comedic team (the movie was apparently designed as a Schwarzenegger/DeVito vehicle), with Hogan actually playing the straight man to Lloyd's antics.

Rating: 4/10