The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961)

The Beast of Yucca Flats (1961)
I, like most people, first discovered Coleman Francis thanks for the TV Show Mystery Science Theater 3000. MST3K riffed all three films that Coleman Francis wrote and directed. The Beast of Yucca Flats is the second Coleman Francis movie I have seen after Red Zone Cuba. I still need to see The Skydivers so I can say I survived all the Coleman Francis films!
The Beast of Yucca Flats stars Swedish professional wrestler Tor Johnson who is probably best known for his role as a police officer in Ed Wood's infamous Plan 9 from Outer Space. But even Plan 9 is better than this movie!
Coleman Francis takes most of the blame for this awful movie (along with Tony Cardoza who acted in and co-produced all of the Coleman Francis films) as he directed, produced, wrote the screenplay, acted, and edited the film. The Beast of Yucca Flats was Francis' debut film but that is no excuse for the fact that it is incompetently made with an incomprehensible plot. For example, there is a murder at beginning of the film that had nothing to do with the rest of the movie and is never followed up on. The story, or lack thereof, is about man (Tor Johnson) who survives a nuclear explosion that turns him into a monster. Although the movie is pretty short, there are still a bunch of filler scenes like random shots of nature and a scene at a gas station in which the attendant is played by none other than Coleman Francis! I can't say I'm surprised that The Beast of Yucca Flats is currently 20th on the IMDB users all-time bottom 100 movies list.

The movie clocks in at only 54 minutes (even though it feels three hours long!) so two shorts were including in the MST3K episode. The first is called Money Talks! in which a 1950s boy gets advice on how to save cash from the ghost of Benjamin Franklin, while the second is titled Progress Island, U.S.A. and is essentially a 1970s infomercial for Puerto Rico. Both stunk but are good riffing material and certainly more watchable than The Beast of Yucca Flats!
This MST3K episode is from the sixth season of the show's Comedy Central era with Michael J. Nelson as the host. The episode aired about a month after the Red Zone Cuba episode which is referenced a few times with lines like "I'm Cherokee Jack!" Although The Beast of Yucca Flats is a terrible film, the riffing and host segments are great so I gotta give Mike, the 'bots, and the Mads credit for actually making this movie fun to watch!
Here's one of my favorite riffs from this memorable episode: "Abbot and Costello meet the Beast of Yucca Flats!"
1/10

Weekly Wrap-Up (12/4)

I have my final exams coming up this week so I'll keep this post a bit shorter than usual. This week I saw seven movies. One is a true classic, one is a true stinker and the rest are somewhere in between!

The Maltese Falcon (1941)
Somehow I had never seen this film before even though I love Casablanca which also has Humphrey Bogart, Peter Lorre, and Sydney Greenstreet. Like in that film, the supporting cast here is fantastic and just as great as the leading actors. The story is good but it is the characters, dialogue, and acting that make this film great. The Maltese Falcon is important to film history, but it still holds up extremely well. The movie is always entertaining and it is easy to see why this film has made its mark on popular culture. The Maltese Falcon truly is the stuff dreams are made of!
9/10

Three Amigos! (1986)
Last week I saw The Blues Brothers so here is another John Landis comedy. I actually liked this one a bit better and at the moment it is my favorite Landis comedy. The basic plot of actors being confused for the people they portray has been done before and since. For similar movies I still prefer Galaxy Quest but liked this one more than Tropic Thunder. Although the movie meanders at points (the singing cowboy parody parts for instance, especially since these are silent film actors and that fad happened later) it is consistently funny and there are few movies that have made me laugh as much as this one did.
8/10

Coming to America (1988)
Since I have liked pretty much every John Landis movie I have seen so far (Into the Night was mediocre and its hard to judge his work on Twilight Zone: The Movie because of the infamous helicopter accident and the fact that its an anthology film) I plan on eventually seeing all his 70s and 80s movies. It seems that Landis came down with John Carpenter syndrome and couldn't make a good film after the 80s ended.
The plot of Coming to America is that Prince Akeem defies his arranged marriage to find a woman who will arouse his intellect as well as his loins, to paraphrase a line from the movie. Akeem and his servant travel to Queens, NY disguised as poor goat herders to find Akeem's true love. While this basic story has been done many times before, Coming to America puts a new spin on the material and does its own thing. Prince Akeem may be Eddie Murphy's finest film role. Like Landis, Murphy also lost it after the 80s ended. Arsenio Hall, James Earl Jones, and John Amos steal every scene they are in. There are also early roles from Samuel L. Jackson and Louie Anderson. Murphy and Hall play several roles throughout the movie, including the hilarious barbers. Coming to America is quite funny, but it also has heart and makes you care about the characters.
7/10

Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996)
I just realized that I saw two movies with America in the title this week, I didn't plan on that, I swear!
As a fan of the Beavis and Butthead TV show (and the brand new episodes!) I had been meaning to see this movie for quite some time now. Besides Mike Judge who voices the titular characters (as well as several others), Bruce Willis, Demi Moore, Robert Stack, and Cloris Leachman round out the cast. Beavis and Butt-Head Do America is pretty short as it clocks in at 81 minutes and there is some filler.
If you like the show you will enjoy the movie, but Beavis and Butthead still works better in small doses as a TV series. Beavis and Butthead don't get the chance to mock any music videos which make sense for the movie, but was a bit disappointing as it was always a major part of the show. It doesn't matter too much as these two dumb metal heads will always make me laugh.
6/10

Pretty in Pink (1986)
Although I liked every John Hughes movie I had seen so far, I didn't care for this one. To be fair Pretty in Pink was only written by Hughes and he didn't direct it. However, it is usually considered one of "his" films since he wrote it specifically for Molly Ringwald. I knew this movie probably wouldn't be my cup of tea coming into it, but was surprised that I didn't like any of the characters. Part of this may have been because there was some confusion during production as Robert Downey, Jr. was almost cast as Duckie which would have been pretty different. I won't go into spoilers, but the ending was also changed at the last minute. The plot is your basic poor girl falls in love with rich guy story and doesn't really bring anything new to the table. The movie is competently made and held my interest, but I'd say it is Hughes weakest movie (scripted or directed) that I have seen thus far. Harry Dean Stanton put in a solid performance as Ringwald's jobless single father and I enjoyed James Spader's role as a rich jerk who looks way too old to be in high school.
5/10

Identity (2003)
Identity is a creepy atmospheric thriller with some nice acting performances by John Cusack and Ray Liotta. It is hard to discuss this film further without spoilers so I'll just say that I liked the way it progressed even though I wasn't blown away or thought it should not have gone that direction like some people did. I was impressed with the directing by James Mangold who also made Girl, Interrupted, Walk the Line, and 3:10 to Yuma so I'll have to check out some of his other films when I get the chance.
7/10

Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny (1972)
Bad movies come in all forms and genres. This piece of crap is a terrible Christmas movie and a bad kids movie. Bad children's films often get a pass as people say "but it was only made for kids!" as some sort of excuse for a bad movie that is usually incredibly dumbed down. I have seen some awful Christmas movies before like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians and Santa Claus (1959) but this one takes the cake.
This excuse for a movie starts out with Santa's elves then switches to Santa on his sleigh stuck in the sand at the beach. There is no explanation given for what happened to his reindeer or how the sleigh got stuck there. A bunch of children find out about this (I don't know how) and bring different kinds of animals, including a guy in a gorilla suit, to pull the sleigh but nothing works. Somehow Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn observe all that goes on with Santa and the children even though they are fictional characters and the movie takes place in the present day real world. Since the kids can't get the sleigh out of the sand, Santa tells the children a story. This is when the movie suddenly turns into another movie about Thumbelina from the same production company. We even see the opening credits for that movie as Santa begins to "tell" the story! And the worst part is that the Thumbelina movie has its own framing story since its being told at an amusement park called Pirates World.
So to summarize, what essentially happens is that Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn eavesdrop on Santa telling kids a story about some people going to an amusement park who go into a room and hear a story about Thumbelina on a loudspeaker. Yes folks, that is how bad this movie is. The Thumbelina story is just as bad as the Santa story, except much creepier thanks to the animal costumes which are pure nightmare fuel. After the Thumbelina story ends, a bunny driving an old fashioned fire engine comes by and Santa hitches a ride with the bunny as the kids wave goodbye to him. Santa just leaves his sleigh on the beach and despite the title there is never any connection between this bunny and ice cream. Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny is one of the worst movies ever made and despite my description I don't think I can do justice as to how bad this garbage really is. I can't believe people actually paid money to see this movie in theaters as it is 96 minutes of hell unleashed upon the Earth. Luckily I saw the RiffTrax version from Mike Nelson and Kevin Murphy of MST3K fame which hilariously mocked the movie. Check out a sample here if you think you can stand it!
Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny deserves a 0/10, but I do my scoring system on a 1-10 scale to sync up with my votes on IMDB.
1/10

Weekly Wrap-Up (11/20)

This week I saw four films. Two of them were fantastic and two were bad. I'm a firm believer that one cannot truly appreciate great cinema without watching terrible movies as well!

Pulp Fiction (1994)
Pulp Fiction is the second Quentin Tarantino movie I've seen. I had watched Reservoir Dogs before and really liked it, so I was looking forward to this film and luckily it did not disappoint. Although Pulp Fiction has been heavily ingrained in popular culture to the extent that I was already familiar with some lines and and scenes, I was completely engrossed and found this to be an amazing film.
The weakest part of the film are the scenes featuring Bruce Willis' character talking to his wife as the movie's pace slows down to a near halt. I understand that the scenes in the hotel room were necessary and the pay-off was certainly worth the slow set-up. Although Tarantino managed to pull off a dialogue heavy movie where even conversations about a five dollar milkshake were fascinating, the chemistry between Butch and Fabienne just wasn't there.
It is hard for me to pick a favorite moment as I loved the entire movie but Christopher Walken's cameo and the scenes with Harvey Kitel were pure gold. Now I need to see more Tarantino movies!
9/10

Adaptation. (2002)
I usually don't give a movie a perfect score upon my first viewing but had to make an exception here. Adaptation is proof that films can be incredibly entertaining as well as great works of art with something to say at the same time.
Nicolas Cage was amazing in a dual role as the Kaufman twins, Charlie and Donald. I have only seen a few of his movies but Cage seems to be an actor who is only as good as his director and script. To be fair this is the case for most actors (with guys like Bela Lugosi and Vincent Price being exceptions) but Cage played down to the material in The Wicker Man (2006) so much that I could barely believe this is the same actor. Although I had never heard of Chris Cooper before, he won a well-deserved Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his role as John Laroche.
I though it was pretty clever how Being John Malkovich, made by the same director (Spike Jonze) and writer (Charlie Kaufman), was incorporated into this movie. The reason for this was because Charlie Kaufman not only wrote the script, but is also main character in Adaptation. Spike Jonze has only directed three feature films thus far so once I see Where the Wild Things Are I'll have seen all his movies. Hopefully he will make some more! While Kaufman has written more movies than Jonze, Being John Malkovich and Adaptation the only films he has done that I have seen so far.
While all aspects of this movie were great I was most impressed by the writing. The title itself, "adaptation," has a double meaning as it refers to adapting material to another medium as well as how people adapt to life. In the film, Kaufman is trying to write a screenplay adaption of the book The Orchid Thief and then writes himself into the script. The book is a real book and Kaufman wrote Adaptation under similar circumstances! The movie is incredibly meta and even deconstructs how screenplays are written. Kaufman use of himself as a character in his own movie reminded me of how Philip K. Dick did the same in his VALIS novels, which isn't surprising since Kaufman is a PKD fan.
It is worth noting that although Adaptation is credited as being written by Charlie and Donald Kaufman, in real life Charlie does not have a twin and Donald does not exist. That didn't stop Donald from also being nominated with Charlie for an Oscar for best adapted screenplay!
10/10

Cyborg (1989)
Cyborg was directed by Albert Pyun, who has made tons of low-budget B-movies and direct-to-video films. Pyun is the guy who directed the 1990 Captain America movie as well as Alien from L.A., which was featured on MST3K.
Cyborg stars Jean-Claude Van Damme in one of his earliest film roles. Van Damme's character, Gibson Rickenbacker, must help a cyborg get to a group of scientists in Atlanta as she is carrying the cure for a deadly virus which has ravaged mankind. However, an evil gang leader kidnaps the cyborg to use the cure for themselves. As you could probably guess, this movie rips off Escape from New York and The Road Warrior on its way to being a generic post-apocalyptic film. The only real difference is that Rickenbacker is a martial artist. But if I wanted to see that I would just watch Bloodsport again. Although this is a bad movie it is still watchable. The fights and special effects (such as explosions and the robotics on the cyborg) were actually pretty good. I was able to see this in High Definition and was amazed with how good it looked, especially considering it was a low-budget movie made over 20 years ago. The outside scenes looked like they could have been filmed today!
What really made this movie bad was the acting and writing. While there isn't too much dialogue the acting is over the top, even for a movie like this. The basic story makes sense but I still don't understand how Rickenbacker and the girl caught up to (and actually got ahead of) the gang. The gang traveled to Atlanta on a boat while Rickenbacker followed them by foot! Rickenbacker's back-story was interesting although derivative, but had jerky editing that made the flashbacks confusing at first.
If you like bad cinema, post-apocalyptic movies, or are a hardcore Jean-Claude Van Damme fan, you will enjoy this. Otherwise just watch Escape from New York and the Mad Max movies instead.
3/10

Abraxas, Guardian of the Universe (1990)
Jesse "The Body" Ventura is an interesting person. The man was a Navy SEAL, pro wrestler, actor (I enjoyed his role as Blain in Predator), governor of Minnesota, television host, and author. During Ventura's film career he made the mistake of "starring" in this truly terrible film.
Pretty much everything that can go wrong in a movie went wrong in Abraxas. The acting is awful and the dialogue is repetitive and silly. The film's story is incomprehensible, but I'll try to explain it.
An alien cop named Secundus (who has Arnold Schwarzenegger's accent) comes to Earth and rapes a woman with his hand who then gives birth to the child five minutes later. Another alien cop (these cops are called "Finders" although I don't know why) named Abraxas (Jesse Ventura) sends Secundus to space jail. These space cops can live for thousands of years but it is never explained how this is possible (are they androids?) and has no relevance to the plot. Five years later, Secundus somehow escapes to Earth so that the child (called a "comater" though again, never explained why) can give him the "anti-life Equation," a concept stolen from Jack Kirby's comics. Abraxas must stop Secundus with help from his "VD box," a rip-off of Ziggy from Quantum Leap, that is attached to his arm. Confused? Join the club.
The "VD box" is just unfortunately named. You would think that somebody would have realized that when most people hear "VD" they think "venereal disease." In this movie VD is supposed to stand for "vibrational detection," which is almost as bad now that I think about it! At least lines such as "My box has VD, trust me" and "Members of our force were taught to avoid VD" are unintentionally hilarious.
Abraxas features random music that never fits the scene and always feels out of place. The head-scratching camera work, editing, and directing make you wonder if the crew rushed the production or simply showed up on set drunk everyday. This movie is incredibly dark, and I mean that literally. Lighting is almost non-existent except for some outdoor scenes. Usually it is so dark that it is hard to see anything! James Belushi has a cameo as a school principal which he did as a favor for his wife at the time who was in Abraxas as Sonia. Despite Belushi being in this movie there is no intentional humor in this movie at all and the tone is always serious. Many B-movies realize how ridiculous they are and try to have some fun with it but Abraxas takes itself way too seriously. Oh, and while I'm at it, Abraxas liberally rips off The Terminator and shamelessly uses the word "terminate" many times. This movie failed in every way possible.
Luckily I watched the RiffTrax version which features a hilarious commentary by Mike Nelson, Bill Corbett, and Tom Servo of MST3K fame. RiffTrax usually makes fun of recent good movies so its nice to see the RiffTrax crew go back to some classic MST3K material. Although this movie is terrible, I do recommend the RiffTrax for some great laughs. Check out the RiffTrax sample for Abraxas here.
Abraxas is not a well-known bad movie like Plan Nine from Outer Space, Manos: The Hands of Fate, Troll 2, or The Room but it should be up there (or more appropriately "down there") as a craptastic classic of truly awful cinema.
1/10

Weekly Wrap-Up (11/6)

Zone Troopers (1985)
Empire Pictures was a low budget film company in the 1980s that specialized in the genres of science fiction, horror, and fantasy. Although Empire made some really bad B-movies (Robot Holocaust), they also created some really good ones (Re-Animator) and plenty in the middle. I have now seen seven movies made by the company and all of them were entertaining on some level, even the bad ones.
I wanted to see this movie because it was an Empire Pictures film. It also features two of my favorite character actors: Tim Thomerson and Art LaFluer (who I mentioned in my review of the 1988 The Blob remake).
Zone Troopers was written and directed by Danny Bilson, the guy who later wrote the script for The Rocketeer. I've never seen that movie but like this flick its a throwback to the serials of the 1940s and 1950s. Bilson also worked on some other Empire Pictures films like Trancers which also starred Tim Thomerson and launched a cult classic movie series. He also wrote the script for Eliminators which is a pretty silly movie, but one of my favorite over the top fun B-movies.
Forget Cowboys and Aliens, this movie came out years before and is basically G.I.s and Aliens! Zone Troopers is about a platoon of four remaining WWII U.S. soldiers who discover the wreckage of an alien spaceship while behind enemy lines. Zone Troopers feels like a 1950s sci-fi film. The movie nailed the retro style and is a parody of both monster movies and war flicks.
The Nazis and aliens are not subtitled which is an interesting choice as it puts us in the shoes of the American soldiers. All four of the lead soldiers ham it up and have witty lines. They have great chemistry together and you get to know them pretty well and actually care about these characters, which is pretty unusual for a sci-fi/action B-movie. I liked the use of an orchestral score and period music. A lot of 80s B-movies went with a cheap and cheesy synthesizer soundtrack so its nice to see Zone Troopers buck that trend as well. The special effects are decent considering this is a 26 year old low budget movie. The dialogue and characters were so good that it didn't matter!
As fun as this movie was, maybe a bit more could have been at stake. For example, more could have been made of Nazi plans to use the alien technology against the Allies.
The movie has a great tongue in cheek tone which is a ton of fun. For example, one of the soliders actually punches Hitler! Thomerson shines as the Sarge who simply can't die no matter what. Zone Troopers never takes itself too seriously in tone, but doesn't use its subject material as an excuse to make a bad movie which is why I was surprised how good this was. Sure this isn't anywhere near a great film, even within the action/sci-fi genre, but the world would be a better place if all B-movies were this entertaining and competently made!
"Buy War Bonds. Available in the Lobby." is seen at the end of the closing credits!
6/10

Cool as Ice (1991)
You know a movie is going to suck before you watch it when the tagline doesn't make any sense: "When a girl has a heart of stone, there's only one way to melt it. Just add Ice." How does ice melt stone? Shouldn't they be adding lava instead?!
If Vanilla Ice was not in this movie it would probably be more unknown but just as bad. However, this movie was only made to capitalize on Vanilla Ice's fifteen minutes of fame. My point is that while Vanilla Ice certainly an awful actor and won a Razzie Award for "Worst New Star" for his role in this movie, the writing, directing, and acting by the other cast members are just as bad. Speaking of the writing, here are some of my favorite quotes from this turd:
"Drop that zero and get with the hero!" - Johnny
"I'm gonna go across the street and, uh, schling a schlong." - Johnny
"Looky, looky in Kat's black booky." - Johnny
"As soon as you're done making sex?" - Tommy
I think you get the idea! The dialogue is so bad that the frequent musical and montage scenes are welcome even though they are filler and just as terrible. Yes, I would rather see Vanilla Ice "dance" around a construction site than try to talk!

I am a big fan of Michael Gross for his roles as Michael J. Fox's father on the TV show Family Ties and as gun-toting Burt Gummer in the Tremors series. Gross plays the father of Kathy (Vanilla Ice's love interest) and not even he can save this garbage. The wacky mechanic is played by prolific character actor Sydney Lassick (One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, Carrie, etc.) who somehow got into this piece of crap. Oscar nominated actress Candy Clark (American Graffiti) is also in this film. But what I never would have guessed is that Oscar winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan) was the director of photography for this shit fest. To be fair it was one of his first films. I guess you gotta start somewhere!
I didn't even get to the plot yet but there isn't much of one anyway! Vanilla Ice plays Johnny, a biker/rapper who falls for Kathy and tries to win her heart. Kathy's parents don't like Johnny and neither does the audience. There is a too little, too late subplot about Kathy's parents being ex-cops placed under witness protection. The criminals that Kathy's parents put behind bars end up kidnapping Kathy's brother as revenge. Johnny and his biker gang save the day and he gets the girl. The basic story (mysterious "bad boy" comes to town and falls in love with a nice girl whose family doesn't approve of him) has been done so many times before that this movie doesn't even try to be original. Being derivative is one thing, but there are plenty of bizarre scenes that don't make any sense like the "fun house" Vanilla Ice and his crew are staying at for some reason. Cool as Ice is for bad movie lovers who want to see a true stinker. Everyone else should stay far away or just watch the Nostalgia Critic's review.
1/10

Weekly Wrap-Up (10/9) - Robot Monster

I was pretty busy this past week and only had the chance to see one movie. Sadly it was a real stinker! Luckily I had loads of fun watching it with my friends and it is always amusing to watch an episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000.

Robot Monster (1953)
The "robot monster" is a guy in a gorilla suit wearing a diving helmet that is supposed to be an alien. And the monster has a cool bubble making machine! The movie only runs for 66 minutes but still uses tons of stock footage as padding, including a scene of dinosaurs fighting from Lost Continent which I saw a few weeks ago! Although this movie is pretty boring, at least it is short. The character of "Ro-Man" was weird enough to keep me mildly interested. Even though the movie's low budget ($16,000) really shows, it was somehow a financial success at the time as it made $1 million at the box office. Today it is considered one of the worst movies ever made.
I saw the MST3K version which also features two episodes of Radar Men from the Moon featuring the character Commando Cody.  The riffs and host segments were pretty good considering this was a first season episode. Still, this is not one of the better episodes and if you are new to MST3K don't start here. I had only seen one other first season episode, Robot Holocaust, which I thought was a better MST3K. The early episodes don't have stingers, which is too bad as I love guessing what the stinger will be when watching a MST3K. The episode is an interesting watch for fans of the show to see what the show was like early on and Robot Monster is required viewing for bad movie lovers!
Trivia: Famous film composer Elmer Bernstein actually composed the music for this movie! This was one of his first projects and he would go on to bigger and better things.
Joel: "That, ladies and gentlemen, is the destroyer of the universe. I rest my case."
1/10

Weekly Wrap-Up (9/11)

The Thing from Another World (1951)
Although this movie was re-made in 1982 by John Carpenter, that film is not really a re-make as it simply goes back to the source material and follows the 1938 John W. Campbell, Jr. short story much closer than the 1951 version. Now that I have seen both films I prefer Carpenter's vision, but did enjoy both. The two films start from a similar premise but go in different directions. The 1951 movie puts more of an emphasis on a monster stalking the crew, while the 1982 version is about the replication of those at the station. Both movies have a claustrophobic feel plenty of paranoia. The main title screen of this movie was later re-used in Carpenter's version.
You can read the original short story here
Here is a good comparison of Campbell's novella, this movie, and the 1982 version: The Thing
Now that I am done comparing the Thing films, let's get to my thoughts on The Thing from Another World. The movies starts without any opening actor credits which is unusual for a film from this time period. The pacing is slow at first as it takes awhile for the military crew and scientists to find the spaceship trapped inside the ice. However after the creature entombed in ice is taken back to the station the pace picks up considerably and doesn't let up until the end. Although the love story was not necessary, it gave us some funny situations and the couple did have chemistry. Viewers never get a good look at the alien, and don't see the monster at all for most of the film, which is always a good idea. The concept of the alien being a sentient creature with a different biological make-up (plant based life form) was interesting. It was kinda silly when the crew referred to it as a carrot or vegetable, but the point is that this is a totally different type of life.
The scientist who want to keep the alien alive in order to study it, even if the alien kills people, reminds me of the Weyland-Yutani Corporation from Alien and Aliens. I am sure both Ridley Scott and James Cameron saw this film, as well as other 50s science fiction/monster movies. The journalist, Scott, was good comic relief but also put in a different type of character from the military and scientists. This kept things fresh as his concerns, other than surviving, were different than the other characters he was surrounded by. The scene with the monster on fire was fantastic and is thought to be the first "full body burn accomplished by a stunt man." The music was good and helped sell the atmosphere. The movie was made during the Red Scare and the film incorporates a similar sense of paranoia with the scientists and military having different objectives. The use of the Geiger counter as a sensor to detect the creature was suspenseful and added the paranoia. There is a director controversy surrounding this film. Christian Nyby was credited as the director, but producer Howard Hawks is generally considered to have done extensive directing and writing for the film.
The Thing from Another World is one of the better 50s Sci-Fi/monster movies, but there are some much better ones (Forbidden Planet, The Day the Earth Stood Still, etc.) The film still holds up pretty well today, especially considering how many bad monster movies there were from this era.
6/10

Them! (1954)
This movie starts out with a bang as we have a nice fast-paced opening chase scene. At first the story begins as a crime/mystery tale before delving into science-fiction and horror. Them! was a big influence on James Cameron's Aliens. The similarities include a young girl survivor similar to Newt, a strong female character who knows more about the monsters than the military men, Queen monsters, saving children from a monster nest near the end, and flamethrowers destroying big eggs. Cameron's take on the Xenomorphs posits them as more insect like than Ridley Scott envisioned in Alien and he clearly borrowed some ideas from this film.
Like any good monster movie, we don't see the giant ants at first, only the havoc they have caused. Them! is the first big bug movie. While this was a trend that mostly stayed in the 1950s, we have seen a few in recent years such as Tremors (1990), Arachnophobia (1990), Mimic (1997) Starship Troopers (1997) and Eight Legged Freaks (2002). I am also guessing there are some crappy Sci-Fi Channel original movies hailing from this sub-genre!
Them! was nominated for an Oscar for best special effects. The ants might seem a little hokey to modern audiences but still hold up better than a lot of 50s monsters. The movie was both a critical and commercial success as it was Warner Bros. top grossing film of 1954. The acting is solid, not by not only the leads, but even minor characters such as the girl who survived the ants. However, the story runs out of steam about two-thirds of the way through and like The Thing from Another World has some pacing issues.
The opening title is in color with B/W background. While this adds to the great beginning of the film, it was a hold over from when the movie was originally supposed to be made in color and 3-D but scrapped at the last minute.
The movie has several uses of the Wilhelm Scream. The famous sound effect was first used in a 1951 film so this is one of the earlier examples of the Wilhelm Scream before it became a fun cliche.
Leonard Nimoy has an uncredited one line cameo as an Air Force Sergeant in one of his earliest roles, but blink and you'll miss it.
Them! deals with the nuclear fears of the time as that is how the ants grow to such an enormous size. This movie even came out same year as first Godzilla film which deals with a similar subject matter. The great final lines and closing shot hammer home this theme.
Them! is one of the better science fiction/monster movies from the 1950s and probably the best of the big bug sub-genre.
7/10

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies!!? (1964)
This movie was one of those really boring bad movies. The MST3K riffs were good, but the movie itself was god awful. This MST3K episode is from the 8th season, the first season on the Sci-Fi channel. I'm not even sure what this movie was about. There was a fortune teller, an amusement park, strippers, and a Torgo wanna-be named Ortega.
The more I think about this movie the more it hurts so I'll just jump to one of my favorite riffs: (as Jerry, Harold and Angie have fun) "Outtakes from the Manson family Christmas!" - Crow T. Robot
1/10

Weird Science (1985)
Weird Science doesn't have much of a plot. Two sex-starved teenage nerds somehow use a computer to create a woman who turns out to have magic powers and wants to help the boys lead normal lives. However, this doesn't really matter as it is essentially a version of Mary Poppins for 16 yr old boys. There is even a direct reference to Mary Poppins at the end when the house goes back to normal. The age gap between the boys and Lisa might bother some viewers, but since I saw it as Mary Poppins type thing with as she was trying to help them straighten out there lives it didn't really bother me. The title "Weird Science" comes from the name of the EC Comics Science Fiction comic and the movie is apparently loosely based on a story from those comics.
Weird Science is zany, wacky, over the top fun. It never takes itself too seriously (after a joke one of the main characters looks directly into the camera like Ferris Bueller). However, it doesn't become so silly that we don't care about the characters or don't wonder if Lisa will be successful in her mission to help the boys improve themselves.
I guess because of the use of the computer (and the references to Frankenstein) this movie has been labeled a sci-fi/comedy. However, fantasy/comedy would be more appropriate as Lisa is just as magical, if not more so, than Mary Poppins. This is a departure for John Hughes as the movies he directed (and wrote) were usually grounded in the real world such as The Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Uncle Buck and others. I must admit that this was better made (directing, camera work, special effects) than I would have expected, probably because John Hughes was at the helm. Kelly LeBrock was great as Lisa. Even though she probably got the role mostly for her body, she brings a confidence to the character that along with her powers and looks makes her quite memorable
Anthony Michael Hall had a ton of roles as nerds in the 80s. He eventually broke this typecasting in recent years (The Dead Zone TV show) but was still a precursor of sorts to current actors such as Michael Cera, Jesse Eisenberg, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse who are the movie teenage nerds of today.
Vernon Wells has a cameo where he plays "Lord General" who is basically his character from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Bill Paxton and Robert Downey Jr. have supporting roles and its fun to see them here after watching their other work. We even have a quick clip featuring Van Halen lead singer David Lee Roth! As fans of these actors it made this movie even more enjoyable to me. I also loved the eclectic 80s music (Oingo Boingo who performed the title track, Ratt, Killing Joke, etc.)
6/10

Weekly Wrap-Up (9/4)

The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985)
This is first Woody Allen film I've ever seen. I had heard of this movie awhile ago and thought the plot was interesting so I put it on my "to see" list without even knowing it was written and directed by Woody Allen. Since I love the concept of fantasy vs. reality I thought that The Purple Rose of Cairo would be a good introduction for me to Allen's movies. To be fair I have seen two shorts plays written by Woody Allen and did see clips from Annie Hall in a film class, but until now hadn't actually seen a full film made by the man.
The story is about a movie character who walks off the silver screen and falls in love with a woman of the 1930s. The acting from the two leads (Jeff Daniels in a dual role and Mia Farrow) is great and even the secondary actors all put in solid performances. Of course they have great material to work with as the writing is top-notch and filled with witty dialogue
This film feels like a stage play at times and certainly reminded me of Pirandello's Six Characters in Search of an Exit. Buster Keaton's Sherlock Jr. is said to be a major influence on this film, although I actually haven't seen that classic yet. Pleasantville (1998) is sort of reverse of this film as those characters spend most of the movie in the "TV world." Oddly enough Jeff Daniels is in both films. And while I'm at it, Last Action Hero (1993) has a similar sort of premise although it obviously takes the concept in a different direction.
The Purple Rose of Cairo did a good job recreating the time period of the Great Depression from the acting to costumes to the music. However, the use of the word "douche bag" as an insult does not sound like 1930s slang to me!
The concept of a character meeting the actor who plays him is a great idea and it is executed perfectly. It might have been cool if Tom showed up in Black and White while in the real world and Cecilla appeared in color in the movie world, but maybe that would have been too expensive/difficult to pull off at the time. This is just a thought as I felt it worked fine as is since the film was trying to contrast Black and White with Color.
Allen received an Oscar nomination for Best Writing, Screenplay Written for Directly for the Screen which was certainly deserved. It did not win, but was in some damn good company with Brazil and Back to the Future who were also nominated, but also lost out to Witness. I liked Witness but how the Academy didn't give the award to one of these other three films that year boggles my mind.
Getting back on track, I thought that the ending was great and fit perfectly with the themes of the film, although I can see why some people wouldn't like it. 
The Purple Rose of Cairo is short for a feature film (82 minutes) and there is some filler. While the film could have used a little more meat, I'm just glad it wasn't padded with fluff by the studio to be 90 minutes.
I'm probably starting to sound like a broken record by this point, but the film looks great in HD! Sure its not a special effects blockbuster that needs to look amazing, but its a lot of fun to see little films like this with excellent visual (and audio) quality.
8/10

                                

Lost Continent (1951)
Lost Continent was featured on a second season episode of Mystery Science Theater 3000 which is how I saw this movie. Although MST3K was still coming into its own by this point, what I have seen of the second season is surprisingly good and this episode is not an exception. To sum it up, the riffs are good but this is a boring bad movie. The plot is that a crew on a rescue mission land on a mysterious island and get into "adventures" with natives and dinosaurs while trying to find the lost rocket ship. The endless rock climbing sequences are what everyone remembers about this movie and they are mind numbingly boring. It was interesting to see actors Caesar Romero (Joker on the 60s Batman TV Show), Hugh Beaumont (Dad on Leave it to Beaver), and John Hoyt (prolific character actor in TV shows like The Twilight Zone and Outer Limits as well as movies such as X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes and much more) work together although they mostly climbed rocks, took breaks from rock climbing, and watched dinosaurs fight. I watched this with a group of friends so maybe I missed some plot elements but not much happened. While I have seen movies that are even more boring (Red Zone Cuba, Snowbeast), this one is up there. Sometimes I can enjoy the movie along with the riffs like Overdrawn at the Memory Bank or Space Mutiny but I couldn't get into this as a film at all and just kept waiting for the next funny riff. The host segments on MST3K are often hit or miss, but all the ones in this episode are pretty funny, particularly the one with Mike Nelson as Hugh Beaumont/Ward Cleaver.
Here is my favorite riff, although there were plenty of good ones:
"Hey we landed on a witch! Maybe the film will be in color from this point!"
1/10