Written by, produced by, directed by, and starring William Shatner.
Kate (Amy Acker) is dying of an aggressive form of Lupus. She wants to go somewhere where she can feel reassured that there is life in the universe. She and her boyfriend Andy (Dan Gauthier) go to Groom Lake near Area 51. It’s where unusual lights have been reported. Andy is being a dick. His girlfriend is dying and, instead of being supportive, he is whining about having to go to area 51, so he is trashing everybody and everything. They have an accident. That’s about as normal as it gets.
Next we have men in black. Add to that a town full of wackos. And William Shatner. The men in black kidnap Amy and take her to the military base. Shatner runs the secret facility and he does have an alien (Chuck Williams). A couple of the wackos get together with Andy and come up with a plan to break into the base to get Amy back. Andy and one wacko, Dietz (Tom Towles) do break in. Not sure how they managed to just walk into a highly classified secure military facility but they do. Andy finds his Amy and the wacko finds his alien. Shatner is on the side of the alien and wants him back.
"Groom Lake" AKA "The Visitor" was released in 2002 and Shatner is all over this thing. It seems that most people either loved it or detested it. And those that detested it really detested it. And those that loved it drank the kool-aid cause it wasn’t that good. Not detestable mind you but not wonderful. I've even heard of it being called egosploitation. I really had no argument for that one. It’s a straight to video low budget “B” movie. I’ve seen lots of them. Take it from me this is average. At best. I’ve seen worse acting, dialogue, and special effects. I did like the alien space suit. That was on the cool side.
The main problem is that it’s got two stories going on and neither one really gels. Even the characters seem a little bipolar. Especially the boyfriend Andy. He waffles between being a loving caring hero and a lame loser idiot. The film itself was also bipolar. It was funny in spots and sappy in spots. I couldn't figure out if it was suppose to be cheezy or serious.