PRIMITIVE SCREWHEADS

Science Fiction Sunday 574

Vegas Skyline is a 2012 piece of crap no one needs to see. Speaking of seeing, see that Independence Day like ship attacking a tall building? Not in the movie at all. Nothing like it. Just another lie foisted on you by some poor ass production company. I feel the need to knock nut sacks with the de-fleshed skull of Paul Naschy. Truth be told, Paul never made a movie this bad.

Vegas Skyline gets an undeserved 2.2 on the IMDb. If only they had a "Fuck off and die" vote. The only positive I see here is that no one tried to game the votes by giving the movie a 10, or a 9, or an 8 or even a 7. Were the film makers and their friends too honest or too embarrassed to vote it a ten? The director is Michael Ricks, he wrote the mess with Michele Hailey and she plays one of the characters in the movie. For some reason Michael does not get a director credit on the IMDb.

Vegas Skyline is a low level alien invasion set in Las Vegas. Some nice footage of casinos at night under the open credits and it's all downhill from there. We spend too much time with a couple of horrible couples, the men of whom both get taken over by aliens. Their inane chatter sure reminds me to spend less time with people. It's an embarrassment to science fiction.

Phantom From Space was also on Amazon Prime. I couldn't face another recent bad SF film so I watched one from 1953 that I hadn't seen in a long while. It's an alien encounter movie, an invisible alien arrives in LA, some humans encounter him in his doomed adventure. The version on Amazon Prime is colorized, I was curious, it doesn't look too bad. The movie is a bit slow going and talky but there's an invisible alien and plenty of theremin music. It's below average but it's so much better than Vegas Skyline. I might even watch Phantom From Space again someday.

Timeslip 1955

I'd seen Timeslip back in December of 2010 under the name The Atomic Man. It's a British film that's part of The British Film series from Network and this version is a good bit longer than the one I saw. The original British film runs 93 minutes and the US chop job from Allied Artists Pictures runs 76 minutes. It was paired with Invasion Of The Body Snatchers in a double bill.

It's based on the Charles Eric Maine novel The Isotope Man, Charles wrote the screenplay and Ken Hughes directed. I hadn't read that novel but I know I'd read something by him back in the 70s, High Vacuum maybe. I've seen a bit of Ken's other work, most well known title must be Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, I've also seen Arrivederci, Baby! and the 1967 Casino Royale.

A guy is being chased, gets shot, and falls into a river. The Bobbies pull him out and a reporter takes a picture. The nearly dead man goes off to the hospital and the reporter goes back to the office where he works with Faith Domergue.  They have a low level romance going. The picture depicts the guy with a halo of light around him. The reporter recognizes the guy as a scientist. They go see the scientist at work. He's got bandages on his face and claims to have been in a car accident. The guy the Bobbies pulled out of the river is still in the hospital.

Which is the real scientist? That's for the reporters to figure out. Fairly good story, I liked the characters, and there was a good bit of mystery about what was going on. A good average film, nice to see it complete.

Monolith Monsters 1957

I was excited to see that the Monolith Monsters was coming out on Blu-ray. I ordered one before it had dropped in price because it's one of my favorite of the 1950s SF films. It sure looks nice. Makes me wish I had a larger TV. Someday.

The Blu-ray has a different aspect ratio, the box says 2.0:1 and 1.85:1, and aspect ratio is 1.33:1 on the older Universal DVD. I don't think the cropped version looked too bad. There's a lot of head room in the 1.33:1 version. I'll keep both, the Monolith Monsters comes as part of a set of ten movie set, many of which are turning up on Blu-Ray from Shout Factory right now. I don't need all of the new Blu-rays since I have that nice set. Admittedly some of those other movies don't mean as much to me as TMM and I'd rather spend that money, over 20 bucks a Blu-ray, on some movies I haven't seen before.

I was excited that the new Blu-ray had two commentaries, until I heard them. American film historian Tom Weaver doesn't seem to care for the movie much and I was certainly disappointed in his audio track. He has lots of info but his sarky attitude is annoying. Where's the fleshless skull of Paul Naschy when I need it for some ball cracking mayhem. British film historian Mark Jancovich spends much of his commentary talking about other movies and Jack Arnold. I'm still listening to it and right now he's switched to talking about Orson Wells, left wing politics, and Citizen Kane. What the Fuck? He's also pretty poor at narrating his commentary, he "uumms" and "ahhs" continuously, or his sentences trail off into awkward silence. Another disappointment. Oh, Shout Factory, what dorks you are for putting those track on the disc. Still, the movie looks great and I won't have to waste my time listening to those two commentaries again.

Monster From Green Hell 1957

I don't remember ever seeing Monster From Green Hell before. It's a 1957 giant monster movie, written by Louis Vittes and Endre Bohem, direction by Kenneth G Crane. I had heard of the writers, they worked on some decent shows in the 50s and 60.

Crane on the other hand was mostly a film editor, he only directed 4 films, When Hell Broke Loose was next and that was followed by the US scenes used in Half Human, those were followed by The Manster. An odd lot of films, huh, and all of it happened in 1957 and 1958.

The story is about a space test rocket that stays up for 40 hours and then falls into Africa. Some months later the area is plagued with suspicious animal and human death. Jim Davis plays a scientist, one of the men with the rocket, and he suspects the deaths might have something to do with his rocket. He goes off to Africa to investigate.

It's filled with what seem to be endless jungle scenes, so many in fact, they had to borrow some footage from Stanley And Livingstone. The story is fairly good, giant wasps, but the execution is weak. It was fun enough but it knows it's below average and so do I.

The Thing From Another World 1951

After that Sherlock Holmes movie I wanted to watch something better so I put on the new Blu-ray of The Thing From Another World. Even the carrot guy is a better actor than the ones I had just seen. Acting is just one of the many good things in The Thing From Another World. Nice sets, good actors, interesting story, it hits all the marks and it's certainly one of my favorite SF movies. An exciting story about an alien invading the Earth and the men who stop him. He's a tough foe and the men have to be resourceful and cunning. It's a film that certainly should be in any good film collection. The Blu-ray is nice looking but there aren't any nice extras, other than a trailer.

I Married A Monster From Outer Space 1958

I picked up a used copy of I Married A Monster From Outer Space the other day at DreamHaven. Only 6 bucks for a Warner Archive copy in great shape. It's going for prices that range from $38.64 to $79.75, there's an earlier edition that's going from $19.90 to $59.99 today. Does that mean Warner Archives is letting films become unavailable? It doesn't seem to be available on their site. Maybe they're coming out with a Blu-ray. Not that I would buy a copy.

It's a 1958 film with a screenplay by Louis Vittes and direction by Gene Fowler Jr. Louis worked mostly in TV and Gene edited more movies and TV shows than he directed. He directed I Was A Teenage Werewolf the year before IMAMFOS.

Tom Tryon plays a guy who's getting married. Before the wedding he's taken over by an alien being. Tom's wife is played by Gloria Talbot, she notices he's different, colder, less human. Things play out for a while and more aliens take over humans.

Gloria finds out the truth but the police have been taken over. She finds help in her doctor and he rounds up some guys he can trust. They make a hash of the aliens and their spaceship. A dying alien radios to warn the invasion fleet of the danger and the fleet turns away.

I was happy to see it again. I hadn't seen the movie in ages. It's got a nice creepy edge to it and the story is pretty good. Glad I picked this up.

Science Fiction Sunday 523

I have a couple of movies today that are as different as could be, yet they share a basic story element. At their core it's all about world domination. First up, Queen Of Outer Space, a 1958 SF movie about the first trip to Venus. It's based on a Ben Hecht story called Queen Of The Universe. There's a bit on the commentary track by film historian Tom Weaver where he talks about that story and not being able to find a copy anywhere. It wasn't a published story, it's the film written out like a short story. The screenplay would be based on that. Charles Beaumont wrote the screenplay and Edward Bernds is the director.

Zsa Zsa Gabor gets star billing but Laurie Mitchell as the evil Queen Yllana gets the much more interesting part. She just doesn't get to show her face. 

Three astronauts are delivering a scientist to the space station when it's blow up by a ray from space. The ship gets hit and goes out of control. The men pass out and wake on the planet Venus. Lucky for them it's got breathable atmosphere. They explore, only to get caught by some ladies in short skirts and high heels. I think this movie has the most running, or quick walking, in high heels that I've ever seen. We see endless corridors filled with short skirts.

The guys get brought up before the Queen, there they learn she's been the one attacking the Earth, it's part of her plan to take over the Earth. Now the guys have to figure out how to defeat the Queen. Lucky for them they've got help from Zsa Zsa and her group of unsatisfied women. The men of Venus have been defeated and banished by the Queen. Many of the women want the men back and they find the men of Earth appealing. They've really grown desperate. Que the kissing. 

Eventually things get sorted out and there's some more kissing. It's all pretty silly and I had a laugh. It's not a great movie but it's fun. It gets a 4.6 on the IMDb and I don't think that's too far off. I was glad to find the Warner Archive DVD used for under 7 bucks and happy to find there was a commentary track. Joining Tom Weaver to talk about the film is Laurie Mitchell, who played Queen Yllana. They have an entertaining conversation, and only occasionally forget to talk. Glad to add it to my collection, I'll want to watch it again someday.

I could say the same about Wizards. I hadn't seen Ralph Bakshi's 1977 animated film in many years. Bakshi produced, wrote and directed the film. I had a copy I recorded off of a laserdisc but it was pretty fuzzy. I saw a cheap copy of the DVD and picked it up. The movie looks good and it's still entertaining. There's a nice commentary by Ralph Bakshi. There's also an interview with Bakshi, a still gallery, trailers and TV spots.

Friday Night Movies 714

Freaks Of Nature is a 2015 horror comedy that was fairly entertaining. I got a few laughs from the screenplay by Oren Uziel, his previous screenplay was 22 Jump Street and he's writing the script to the new Supergirl movie and a new Mortal Kombat movie. The script was listed in the 2010 Blacklist. Robbie Pickering is the director. 

That's the three main cast members, Nicholas Braun, Mackenzie Davis and Josh Fadem. Nick's a human, Mackenzie was a human who got turned into a vampire and Josh started as a human but gave himself to a zombie and now his flesh is rotting off his body. The town has a mix of humans, vampires and zombies living in a small town who's main claim to fame is the production of the riblet. They mostly get along, at least until the night the aliens arrive. Then it's a three way shitstorm of death and destruction. 

There's a pretty good cast, I liked seeing Bob Odenkirk, Patton Oswald, Joan Cusack, Keegan-Michael Key, Vanessa Hudgens, Denis Leary and Rachel Harris. I didn't realize that Brian Peck and Beverly Randolph, they play a zombie couple, were in The Return Of The Living Dead, playing Scuz and Tina. The IMDb often has some nice bits of Trivia. That's another entertaining zombie comedy. 

As I said, I got a few laughs out of the movie and I would recommend it to those who like a bit of dark laugh with assorted goo. The picture looks good and the special effects and make up are well done. It had a budget of $33 mill and it was well spent. It didn't get much of a release but it seems to have some fans, there are 9300 plus votes on the IMDb and it scores a 5.9. I gave it a 6. Twenty-seven percent of the votes are a 6. 

Battle In Outer Space is a 1959 Japanese film that's directed by Ishirô Honda. I just read a nice bio on Honda, it covers his career quite well. Battle In Outer Space is also an alien invasion movie. I've seen it before, several times, but not since 2012. Back then I watched the Toho Collection - Icons Of SCI-FI set, we watched the Blu-ray today. It looked pretty darn nice.

The human's have to battle an alien invader who have set up a base on the moon. There's plenty of space traveling, rock climbing and alien shooting. The science is entertaining, all madey-uppy and goofy. Sometimes it would be better to not explain it. It's got nice special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya and a score by Akira Ifukube. I doubt I'm going to upgrade my copy. I should spend my DVD and Blu-ray money on stuff I don't already have. 

Donovan's Brain 1953

I hadn't seen Donovan's Brian for decades. I found the MGM Midnite Movies DVD today and thought I'd give it a go when I got home. It's directed by Felix E Feist, he wrote the screenplay from Hugh Brooke's adaptation of Curt Siodmak's novel. Lew Ayers is a doctor who works out of his home. He doesn't practice medicine, he experiments, his current project is popping the brains out of funny little monkeys. His work is to keep the brains alive. He's got them in an aquarium partially filled with a cloudy liquid. That's one below with Lew crouching in front of the tank. Nancy Davis plays his wife and Gene Evans is their friend and Lew's assistant.

A plane crashes near Lew's country house and the local police come to Lew to see if he can help. He goes along to the crash site. A millionaire was in the plane, he's smashed up pretty badly, he won't make it to the hospital. They take him to Lew's house but he can't save the guy. On the spur of the moment Lew decides to steal the millionaire's brain. He puts it in a bigger aquarium with some more cloudy liquid.

The trio keep the brain alive and eventually Lew contacts the brain telepathically. The dead millionaire slowly takes over his mind and directs him to collect cash from bank accounts. The Feds get called in and a nosy reporter learns of the brain. Gene and Nancy try to release Lew from his enslavement but the brain has grown pretty powerful. What a predicament!

I enjoyed the movie, it's a bit pokey, not much happens at times. I was still glad to add it to my collection.

Fire Maidens Of Outer Space 1956

Fire Maidens Of Outer Space  is a 1956 British SF film that was written and directed by Cy Roth. I found a used copy of the uncut Olive Films DVD at DreamHaven. You never know what you'll find there, most visits find me bringing more stuff home.

The Wikipedia tells me: many critics have dubbed the film the "worse movie ever made". I know I've seen worse but there's been a lot of film through the movieola since 1956 and those critics haven't seen some of our modern cinematic disasters. Some of the stuff made for the SyFy channel is less entertaining to watch.

Earth scientists discover life on the 13th moon of Jupiter and they decide to send a space ship to check it out. When they arrive they are attacked by a big ugly man like creature. Bullets do little but it runs when they use a gas bomb.

They find the remnants of the people of Atlantis. The doomed Atlantians moved before their city sank and slowly their numbers have swindled. Only 17 people are left, all women, except for the old man who leads them. There's not a lot of action, a guy does climb a tree, but they do shoot their guns a good bit. Not that it does much good. Romance develops between one of the women and lead astronaut Anthony Dexter. The other women are interested. Still, there's a good bit of dead time when people aren't up to much. There's a silly dance in front of the sacrifice. All in all I enjoyed watching even though it's not that great.