After screwing up a mission to save the leader of his planet from the intergalactic gangster Suitor (William Ball), Shep Ramsey (Hulk Hogan) is ordered to take a vacation.  When Shep gets mad and accidentally damages the controls of his spaceship, he’s forced to hide out on Earth while his ship repairs itself.  After stealing some clothes from a biker, Shep rents a room from Charlie (Christopher Lloyd) and Jenny Wilcox (Shelley Duvall).  Charlie is an architect who hates his job, his boss (Larry Miller), and a malfunctioning traffic light in the middle of town.   Charlie doesn’t trust Shep but when Suitor comes to Earth in search of his number one foe, Charlie and Shep are going to have to work together to save Charlie’s family.

Suburban Commando was originally envisioned as being an Arnold Schwarzenegger/Danny DeVito film.  Schwarzenegger and DeVito decided to do Twins instead and Suburban Command was (eventually) made with Hulk Hogan and Christopher Lloyd.  The idea behind the film had potential but the film itself never comes to life, thwarted by a low-budget and a cast that generates little in the way of chemistry.  Things start out well when Hogan is in outer space and the film parodies Star Wars but, once Hogan goes on vacation, the story crashes down to Earth in more ways than one.  Hogan was more of a personality than an actor and it’s impossible to see him as being anyone other than Hulk Hogan, even if he is flying through space and wearing intergalactic armor at the start of the movie.  Hogan getting angry in space is funny because space is not where you would expect to find him.  Hogan getting angry in the suburbs just feels like a half-baked sitcom.  Lloyd is too naturally eccentric to be believable as someone trapped in a go-nowhere job.  It’d hard to buy Christopher Lloyd as someone who would be scared to tell off his boss or who would need an alien warrior to come down and show him how to loosen up.  There’s a lot talented people in the cast but the ensemble never really gels.

This was the last film to be directed by veteran filmmaker Burt Kennedy.  Kennedy was best-known for his westerns, including Welcome to Hard Times, Support Your Local Sheriff, and Hannie Caulder.  He was not known for his wacky comedies and this film shows us why.