My Uncle The Alien

Watched January 17, 2017

1996
Starring: Hailey Foster, Josh Paddock, Sherwin Ace Ross, Beau Richard Hairston

Kelly (Hailey Foster) is the President of the United States's 10 year old daughter, a Chelsea Clinton type since this was filmed during the Clinton years. One night at the White House, she is visited by "Uncle" a unknown entity, all that is seen is weird feet. Since the title of the movie is My Uncle the Alien, it's assumed that the visitor is an alien.

The next day Kelly and her mom leave Washington, D.C. for L.A. to light a Christmas Tree at a Youth Center. There is lots of press there and they interrupt the ceremony to say a budget referendum just failed so the youth center is going to lose its funding.  Kelly is left at the youth center while her mom goes to talk to the League of Women Voters. Kelly hatches a plan with her youth center friends to ask for money from some other organization. She switches clothes with one of the other girls and they manage to fool the secret service that is supposed to be watching Kelly.

Kelly get into a cab all while the secret service is distracted by a fight between a kid on crutches and kid in a wheelchair. The cab driver is very chatty and recognizes her as the president's daughter. Kelly does this scheme alone, instead of taking a friend and she doesn't use a fake name, which is nuts. The cab driver gets into a car accident. Kelly has a cell phone, she leaves money and calls another cab. The accident happens to take place on the same street where two sketchy dudes van has broken down. They recognize Kelly and decide to kidnap her.

But first a boy on roller blades steals her backpack. She chases after him, with the weirdos chasing after her. "Uncle" from on high zaps the boy with a laser from the clouds and Kelly is able to catch up with him. But then one of the bad dudes grabs Kelly and the boy Zig (Josh Paddock) takes off again.
But Zig sees that Kelly is kidnapped and decides that these guys are no good, luckily their van doesn't go very fast because he's able to tail them on roller blades. He first follows the kidnappers to their house, where they make a plan with Kelly still tied up in the van. One of the dudes works as a security guard at a wax museum, so they go there to figure out their plan for ransom. The bad guys, Ratt (Sherwin Ace Ross) and  Skeeter (Beau Richard Hairston) decide to ask for a million dollars ransom, since it is the president's daughter.

Uncle appears at the museum and he opens to the door so Zig can get in. Zig unties Kelly and they run around the museum being chased by the kidnappers who ultimately catch them and tie them up again. The secret service finally realize that Kelly is missing, so they grill the youth center kids about her whereabouts.

Ratt and Skeeter make the ransom call from a pay phone. They ask for the million dollars  to be dropped of in a trash can by the city dump, which is done. Ratt and Skeeter do get the money but immediately the cops show up. A chase starts with Ratt & Skeeter trying to evade the cops, as they still have Zig and Kelly in the van and they keep threatening to push them out. Just as the chase ends and the cops have the van surrounded, it disappears. Uncle has zapped it back to the wax museum.

Kelly wonders why Uncle didn't help earlier, but he says he was watching the whole time. Uncle has to go back to his home planet, then they are all zapped back to the dump. The bad guys are arrested. Kelly is safe, they use the million dollars for the youth center. I guess they give Zig a home because he is seen teaching Kelly to roller blade in the White House.

I've said many times I have a hard time with these low budget family friendly movies, it's hard for me to appreciate on any level. This one is not great but way better than Nukie and Munchie. Uncle is used sparingly and isn't totally mucus covered and disgusting, unlike Nukie. That still doesn't make it a great movie, even for kids. Kelly's adventure seems like she could get killed at any point which doesn't seem like a great message for kid.