The Green Slime

The Green Slime (1968)

Runtime: 90 minutes

Directed by: Kinji Fukasaku

Starring: Robert Horton, Richard Jaeckel, Luciana Paluzzi, Bud Widom, Robert Dunham

From: Both MGM and Toei

While I had seen some clips of the movie before, me finishing watching this minutes ago when it played on Turner Classic Movies was the first time I had ever viewed it from beginning to end. Oh, I should clarify that for years now I've known of the AWESOME theme song, from Richard Delvecchio. Hearing that groovy tune in the movie certainly made me happy.

The plot: to quote a fellow Letterboxd user, the first act of this is basically the plot of Armageddon. Thankfully, this movie is far better than that pile of crap Michael Bay picture. It could also be argued that this was an inspiration for Alien, which is definitely far better than this film. Anyhow, some astronauts blow up an asteroid because it's headed straight to Earth. The astronauts unknowingly bring back the titular green slime to a space station; soon, there are plenty of one-eyed tentacle monsters running around, although thankfully this doesn't turn into a hentai...

The movie overall is pretty goofy yet I found it pretty charming. I enjoyed its kitschy 60's sci-fi stylings, along with all the miniatures; it allowed me to put up with the cliché “astronauts feuding with each other” storyline; after all, the story overall isn't terribly original, and it also has 60's sexism involving the lovely Luciana Paluzzi. When it's people dressed in goofy suits running about which dispense electricity, I won't take things too seriously.

To think that this is a co-production between MGM and Toei, with a (mainly) Japanese director and crew and filmed in Japan but otherwise it's all American... plus the director being Kinji Fukasaku (who went on to such things as co-director of Tora, Tora, Tora, various Battles Without Honor and Humanity movies, and of course the beloved Battle Royale), all of it is a real trip, and that's why I found it to be enjoyable despite all its faults.