Runtime: A LONG 68 minutes
Directed by: Bill Rebane... and Herschell Gordon Lewis
Starring: A bunch of people no one has ever heard of, for mostly good reason
From: B.I. & L. Releasing
NEVER watch this without the assistance of Joel and the bots.
Of course I've seen the classic MST3K episode but believe it or not, years ago I had seen this separate of that episode... and did so again last night. That will never happen again-the main reason why I would revisit something I recalled was a half star movie was that in the 8 ½ years (!) I've been here only 27 films had received the lowest possible rating for me. I do now try to avoid motion pictures that bad as there are literally thousands worth seeing that I would legitimately enjoy so why punish myself? But for those that have never seen this or even the episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000: Monster a Go-Go deserves a ½ star.
Its creation is far more interesting than the end product. Bill Rebane starting shooting this way back in 1961 but ran out of money so it was never completed. A few years later Herschell Gordon Lewis needed another movie to make up a double-bill at drive-ins w/ his Moonshine Mountain so with an entirely new cast this was completed. Besides that making this absolutely incoherent & confused, the combined efforts of these directors (who I say have made a few movies that are OK to better no matter their low-budget nature or flaws) created a mind-numbing experience that feels far longer than its 68 minutes.
An astronaut returning to Earth only to have been changed in space and he's now a killer and/or a monster... that has been done to better effect in such films as Xtro. Here, the astronaut has somehow been changed to a radiation-scarred Henry Hite, someone who was billed as “over 8 feet tall” but probably was “just” 7 foot 6. Then again, this movie has major events happen off-camera and a narrator (Rebane himself) tries unsuccessfully to tie everything together. It's a one camera shot so this is full of static shots, the sound is muddled, the plot is a whole lot of nothing, not one character you'll give a damn about—it's all so dull that even Joel and the bots at times struggled to provide the laughs. This is a production so dire that the sound effect of a phone ringing was obviously made by someone's mouth!
The fact that the ending is a giant wet fart was perfect for such a failed production; no matter what I view tonight, at least it will be an improvement.
No comments:
Post a Comment