Supermodel Kathy Ireland was a favorite of mine, mainly for her role as the gorgeous Destiny Demeanor on National Lampoon’s Loaded Weapon 1. Before that, she starred in Alien From L.A. as Wanda Saknussemm, a social misfit with no sense of adventure and a speaking voice that gives people headaches.

When Wanda finds out that her father, Professor Arnold Saknussemm (Richard Haines), has gone missing in Africa, she jumps at the chance to find him in desperation to change into a more adventurous young woman. During her search, Wanda falls down into an underground civilization called Atlantis.

It’s like a combination of Journey to the Center of the Earth and Super Mario Bros. the movie. When word gets out that Wanda is from the surface world, everyone is out to get her just for being an “alien”. Luckily for Wanda, she’s not a plumber.

Wanda finds a friend, a gold minor named Gus (William R. Moses). He takes Wanda to his girlfriend, Roryis (Linda Kerridge), and she provides her with new clothes in order to blend in. Wanda also finds a talking facial machine to improve her looks. It reminds me of Vend-A-Face from The Muppet Show. Except this uses steam power instead of mechanical hands that would rearrange your face, literally speaking. Although Wanda tries to be careful, she still ends up in trouble. Gus needs to understand to never leave your aliens unattended.

The first to capture her is Shank (Janie Du Plessis), a savage woman who wears too much makeup and uses drug needles to kidnap aliens for money. She takes Wanda to Mambino (Deep Roy, who is best known as the Oompa Loompa from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory). He’s a mob boss with very long red eyelashes and has henchmen that look like rejects from the Joker’s gang. It’s amazing how Gus knew where to find Wanda right away. Thank goodness.

The place Shank took Wanda was at an arena, where gorgeous women in skimpy outfits fight each other to the death. It’s real disappointing that we don’t get to see much of that action. At one point I thought Mambino was going to put Wanda in the ring. Yet another disappointment.

Later, General Rykov (Janie Du Plessis), who runs Atlantis, displays Wanda’s photo while mentioning a lotto sized reward. Even though Wanda was caught by surprise, it still looks like a beauty shot. It’s really neat. Was that a peacock feather the General was wearing for an eye patch?

I liked this movie. It definitely has the adventurous style of Big Trouble in Little China. However, the title is a little misleading. So I should tell you that Alien From L.A. is not a sci-fi film.