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There’s something a bit familiar about the premise of District 9](http://www.moviefone.com/movie/district-9/31920/main) – namely, the part where the human makes friends with the alien. Now, District 9 is a terrific movie, and director Neill Blomkamp delivered a lot of action, violence, pathos and kick-ass special effects on a relatively small budget.
But aliens? We’ve been friends with aliens before. In fact, this week marks the 25th anniversary DVD/Blu-ray release of The Last Starfighter](The Last Starfighter (1984) - Movie | Moviefone), a low-budget fan favorite that sought to cash in on the popularity of both Star Wars and video games by sending an unsuspecting teen hero on a mission to save a distant galaxy. His recruiter-slash-buddy was Centauri, an intergalactic con man (played by Robert Preston, riffing on his Music Man persona in his last role).
Some of our other favorite aliens-as-friends movies:
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The Day the Earth Stood Still](The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) - Movie | Moviefone) (1951) – Poor old Klaatu (Michael Rennie). He’s just a middle manager sent to Earth to file a report on whether or not the galactic overlords should blow us to smithereens. His decision? Probably not … if we promise not to screw up.
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*The Brother From Another Planet *](The Brother from Another Planet (1984) - Movie | Moviefone)(1984) – John Sayles’ underseen gem stars Joe Morton (currently of TV’s Eureka) as an escapes slave from another workd who crash-lands in Harlem. Unable to speak but a whiz with electronics gadgets, he makes friends with the locals while eluding too men in black (Sayles and Davod Strathairn). If you’ve never seen this, you really should.