Hyperspace 1984 Written and directed by Todd Durham. I'm watching a copy from YouTube that's been released under the title Gremloids. Todd only directed two films, this one and the 1984 horror anthology Tales Of The Third Dimension. Todd's big claim to fame is his creation of the Hotel Transylvania franchise, he's got a story credit on the first film.
Hyperspace is a Star Wars parody with Chris Elliot, Paula Poundstone and Lord Buckethead. Some guy in the UK liked Lord Buckethead so much that he dresses up like him and runs for election under the Gremloids Party. He never seems to win. In the movie Lord Buckethead comes to the Earth thinking he's arrived on another planet, one that's got some rebels who've got some important plans. LB has some Jawa like hooded shorties helping him. They must have Stormtrooper genes as they can't hardly hit anything with their ray guns. LB kidnaps Paula, thinking she's a princess called Serina. She isn't, it's just another of LB's mistakes. He's a major idiot, that one.
Alan Marx plays an exterminator who rescues Paula and helps defeat the invasion. Chris is a cowardly scientist that manages to blunder his way to the end of the movie. Luckily the local baker was a space superhero in disguise and it mostly comes out OK for the locals. The minions manage to escape the Earth in the late LB's ship.
It was fun but really poorly made. The acting is pretty much amateur stuff. They don't have much of a script to be working with, there are jokes but many of them aren't that funny. The effects are poor to fair, you can see the lack of funds on the screen. It's not something I would need to have on DVD, I'd probably never watch it again. I did see it once before but that was almost 20 years ago. You might get a laugh out of it if you're seeing it for the first time.
Earth Vs The Spider 2001 Directed by Scott Ziehl, story written by Mark 'Crash' McCreery, Cary Soloman and Chuck Konzelman, screenplay by Cary Solomon, Chuck Konzelman, Max Enscoe and Annie DeYoung. It was part of the series of made for TV films that used older American International Pictures titles for new stories. All of the films in the series created new stories instead of just remaking the original film. This film isn't about a giant spider but a reimagining of the Spider-Man origin story. A lot of reviews claimed it was just a rip off of The Fly. I can see that.
Devon Gummersal is a security guard who's a big comic fan, his favorite comic is The Arachnid Avenger. He works at a research facility, on the night shift with an older man. One night the place is attacked and the old man killed by the creeps. Devon is fired but before he goes he injects himself with some spider serum. He gets sick but recovers with super strength and the ability to shoot web out of his navel.
At Devon's apartment building the woman he's always fancied is attacked by a rapist just as he's arriving home. He kills the guy by tossing him down a hallway into a broom closet. Dan Aykroyd is the tired old police detective who shows up to investigate. Devon likes his new powers but the serum soon turns his body onto a mutated human spider, very much like the process in the Jeff Goldblum film The Fly. It goes downhill for Devon after that.
I'd seen this back in 2001 but had forgotten it. Turns out it's not great but it's alright. The physical effects are by Stan Winston and they're fairly good. I liked Dan Aykroyd in the picture and the rest of the cast was competent to good. The jokes were better, on average, than the first film, which was meant to be a comedy, but some do fall flat. I would watch it again someday but I'm not going to bother with the DVD. If I don't see it again, it won't matter.