Osiris is a tough film to like. The first ten minutes or so are an endless barrage of poorly choreographed and filmed gunplay against offensive stereotypes. It's also clearly shot in a warehouse, which just makes it feel cheaper and more jingoistic in return.

Then, luckily, Osiris flips the script and turns into a mix of Alien, Doom, and Halo. For a moment, it forces you to sit up and take notice. There might be something here. Our heroes wake up from an induced stasis. Their guns are freshly loaded, and someone, or something, wants them to fight. It's like a reverse case of Predator, if the alien breed had learnt their tricks from the Saw movies.

In the end, there isn't anything new here, but for a brief few minutes Osiris does try. Sadly, it's ultimately content with being an action film with somewhat different set dressing. Right down to the point where you can tell the exact order where the extraneous characters are killed.

It's not all hopeless. The alien effects are fun, there's a smattering of delightful gore, and every once in a while the film picks up just enough to turn exciting. At a brisk 70-80 minutes, it would be a terrific B-picture for a lazy Friday night.

Except Osiris is just ten minutes under the two hour mark, and it's a hopelessly long slog for the most part. Scenes continue way past their welcome, dialog leads nowhere, and the pacing is glacial. Every time it should be move ahead, the story sags like an out of shape dad reaching for the remote.

Which is hugely frustrating, because writer/director William Kaufman gets quite a bit out of his limited budget with some smart blocking and clever visual storytelling that lets the audience fill in the blanks with our imagination. You can tell where he's lifting these tricks from, but it's hard to argue with the methods when the results are this effective.

Other delights include a wonderfully hammy Linda Hamilton as a Russian special ops fighter stranded inside the alien ship, one fantastic set piece at the end, and a gruffly appealing leading performance from Max Martini, who appears to be having a ball. Sure, Hamilton is pure stunt casting, and you can tell she's on the clock the moment she appears, but she's such a professional that even a little bit goes a long way.

None of this is big or smart in any way. Instead, it's more admirable than genuinely good. This sub-genre is a tried and tested place for new filmmakers to hone their craft, and it's hardly the worst of the bunch. Osiris isn't in the same league as early-00s classics like The Bunker or Deathwatch, but it sits comfortably somewhere below them. 15 years ago it would have found a good life as a Blockbuster rental.

Again, this isn't meant as a slight. These movies have their place, and Osiris knows precisely what it's meant to be. For that, its gets a lot of leeway. When it works, it works.

Edit about 20 minutes of slack, and this would be a far easier film to recommend. These movies live and die on the speed of entertainment. At no point should we ask how much more is left. Osiris doesn't quite find the right balance, but it fares a lot better than most others.

For that, it deserves a viewing, and Kaufman should be on your radar the next time you're looking for a breezy actioner that goes for some mighty swings.