Lazer Team (2016)

2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Suit & Nuts

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

The guys behind the popular YouTube channel Rooster Teeth offer this feature film, and while it's far from brilliant, it has a good spirit and shows an infectious enthusiasm for cheesy sci-fi films. Lazer Team is smart about its not-so-smart characters (the title is deliberately misspelled); it paints them as sympathetic and imperfect, and it's easy to root for them, especially since their basic predicament requires teamwork to survive.

Years ago, friendly aliens warned that evil aliens were on their way to attack our planet. But the good aliens are sending a battle suit, based on the myth of Perseus, to help defend ourselves. A champion (Alan Ritchson) is raised and trained to wear the suit, but everything goes awry when a band of misfits, ineffectual sheriff Hagan (Burnie Burns), the intellectually challenged Woody (Gavin Free), the injured former football star Herman (Colton Dunn), and current football player Zach (Michael Jones) — who happens to be dating Hagan's pretty daughter (Allie DeBerry) — accidentally shoot down the delivering spaceship and unknowingly try on the super-powered helmet, gauntlets, and boots. Can these doofuses work together to save the earth?

The filmmaking is clean, and while the visual effects are specifically designed to capture a more innocent era, they are perfectly accomplished and do not detract from the movie. Moreover, while the movie is lowbrow, it could have gone for shocking, vulgar humor and heavy language, it instead roots its comedy in situation and character. Though it may not be gut-bustingly hysterical, or even particularly memorable, Lazer Team is still momentarily enjoyable.