Proximity (2020) * 1/2

Directed by:  Eric Demeusy

Starring:  Ryan Masson, Highdee Kuan, Christian Prentice, Shaw Jones, Don Scribner

It's possible to have a low budget film that doesn't look cheap.   Proximity has a small budget, to be sure, and has a style reminiscent of schlocky sci-fi movies from three or four decades ago.
However, it is a poor man's Close Encounters, where our hero Isaac (Masson) is kidnapped by an alien spacecraft and after his story is dismissed by the media, he is chased by federal agents (I think) who channel Agent Smith from the Matrix movies.   Why are the agents after him and another young girl who had a close encounter (Kuan) is anyone's guess.    Are the agents aliens themselves?
They dispatch two Star Wars storm trooper knockoffs to follow Isaac to British Columbia, where everyone is searching for another man who was taking hostage by aliens three decades ago and returned to earth like Isaac was. 

The storm trooper fellas ride on motorcycles, and must receive strange looks and lots of questions when they stop for gas.   What's even more ludicrous is when Issac and his friends (including a hacker named Zed who seems to know where to find the British Columbia guy) travel by plane from Costa Rica to Canada and somehow, the storm trooper ripoffs manage to cycle all the way from Costa Rica to catch up with him.   Maybe the cycles are futuristic and run on some other type of power source.

It is tough to tell in which "present day" Proximity takes place.   Some of the technology (flip phones, older computers) seem to suggest maybe the early to mid-2000's.   I think the filmmakers used any equipment they could get their hands on, and hoped we wouldn't notice the outdated techno stuff. 
Proximity also lacks the goofy energy of a silly science fiction film.   It takes this story with utmost seriousness, and doesn't allow any fun into the proceedings.   Proximity seems to have been made with the belief that its audience has never seen a movie about aliens or alien abductions before.
But we have, and we've seen much better.