Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
John Agar Double Feature - with a Sid Pink movie!, May 5, 2003
At last, the "Sid Pink Trilogy" is available on DVD! Sid got his ticket punched when his "Angry Red Planet" did well at the Saturday-matinee box office, and went on to direct the (in)famous "Reptilicus". (See my reviews of THOSE two, also here on Amazon.) Enamored with the Danish locations of that film epic, Pink decided his next film, "Journey to the 7th Planet", would be made there, too. The entire film was shot on a 22 by 44 foot soundstage (except for the stock footage and "special effects") for a total cost of $75,000 - and $25,000 of that went to Agar and the female lead, Gretta Thyssen! As a result, we get a spaceship with a wood-plank floor, a few scrap ejection seats, and LOTS of primary-color displays. Pink picked Uranus as the destination because he believed that it was unknown enough that he could depict ANY sort of environment and be able to get away with it. The plot owes a lot to Ray Bradbury's short story "Mars is Heaven!", wherein the crew of a ship landing on Mars is greeted by family and relatives in an old-fashioned front-porch-and-lemonade village. In "Journey", the crew meets up with assorted Danish femme fatales in a thatched-roofs-and-cocoa Danish village, all manifestations of a giant cave-dwelling brain intent on hitching a ride back to Earth with the ship. Fans of "Reptilicus" will recognize most of the rest of the cast, all of whom needed to have their voices dubbed because of their Danish accents. Superb print, outstanding rendering of the hallucinatory color schemes, and great fun all around. "Invisible Invaders" was entirely new to me, and if you excised the stock footage, the film would be about 20 minutes long. Although willowy John Carradine gets top billing and a prominent feature on the cover, he's on-screen for less than 2 minutes. After being killed in an explosion at an atomic-weapons plant, invisible aliens who have been living on the moon for 20,000 years take over his body (as if there would be anything left to take over.) Hey, *I* didn't write it, OK? These "invisible invaders" shuffle around looking for corpses to inhabit so that they can carry out nefarious deeds of sabotage, since they don't actually have any weapons of their own. It's up to John Agar (wearing an ill-fitting flight suit and a flight cap seventeen sizes too small for him) and co-star Philip Tonge to find a way to defeat these poseurs from their underground bunker (actually the same cave in Bronson Canyon that "Robot Monster" was filmed in!) Again, a really nice, clean print (except for the stock footage, which varies wildly in quality) and a painless way to pass an hour. Recommended for all you fans of John Agar *and* the immortal Sid Pink. Just one question - why is there an empty pair of shoes on the cover of the DVD case?
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22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Plan 9 and Beautiful Women, August 1, 2003
A two-for-one send up of silly b-movies. Alien invaders and space exploration make up the themes of these tales of exploration and caution.Invisible Invaders si about some aliens who have made themselves and their stuff invisible. Atomic testing on Earth has pushed them to wanting to take over the Earth from their nearby base on the moon. They will use the bodies of the dead to further their plans. Either Earth must surrender or they will destroy all humans. John Carradine is excellent as an animated corpse. Although he is only on screen for a short time, his voice is used for most of the alien communications. A small group in a scientific bunker must find a way to stop the invaders before all humans are killed. Seventh Planet has a UN exploration team in 2001 traveling to Uranus to search for life. None has been found on the nearer planets. When the arrive they find themselves in a small region of German forest complete with village and beautiful women. But the real answers lie on the real surface of the planet. It was funny to see then traipsing though a forest and claim they still had not found any life (talk about not seeing the forest for the trees). The pseudo Earth history is laughable at this time and sexism is very strong. But it still has its moments with monsters, special effects, and outrageously bright color added because its in color (I love the spider with mustard and ketchup for blood). B-movie fans should rejoice to get two movies for a reasonable price. The only disadvantage of this DVD is that each film is on a different side so you can't watch them straight through. But it does mean that the picture quality is very good. The only special features are subtitles and the original trailers.
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29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Unearthly aliens, John Agar and a giant space brain oh my!, May 29, 2003
Two schlocky sci-fi movies for the price of one? I certainly give MGM credit for releasing these low end movies in this two for one format. Let's see, Invisible Invaders...I would call this a mix of The Day The Earth Stood Still and Plan 9 From Outer Space, with the end result leaning much closer to Plan 9. Apparently, aliens have been living on the moon for the last 20,000 years, and have decided the time was ripe to take over the Earth. Thier timing had something to do with the the fact that the Earthlings are just beginning to harness the power of the atom. They decide the best way to do this is by inhabiting the bodies of the recently deceased and sabotaging earths' ability to fight back and basically annihilate all earth men unless they surrender control of the planet to the aliens. A small group, two scientists, the daughter of the older scientist, and an army major secure themselves away in a bunker in order to devise a plan on how to deal with the alien invaders, specifically for a way to make the aliens visible...I think....anyway, it's all hokey stuff. John Caradine gets top billing, but he's only in the movie for about 4 minutes. John Agar was the real star in this goofball movie. The earth is coming to an end, and he still finds time to put the moves on the scientists daughter. Funny stuff, a bit slow at times, and lots o' stock footage. In the end, humanity prevails, and the aliens get their cumuppence.
Journey To The Seventh Planet...another Agar classic. The movie starts out with a bit of narration telling us how it's the year 2001, there is no more war, and the Earth is governed by the UN...[insert joke here]. Anyway, an international group *cough cough* of astronauts have been tasked to explore the Seventh planet, Uranus. On arriving, they discover the planet is very much like Earth with atmosphere, trees, grass, etc. , and it is all quite puzzling until they discover that a giant, pulsating space brain is manipulating them for its own nefarious purposes. Once the astronauts discover what's going on and what the Giant Space Brains' plans are, they try to come up with a scheme to destroy it before it destroys them. All of it is rather goofy, but I kinda enjoyed some of it. I did like the stop motion on the rat monster. It was nowhere near the level of Harryhausen, it was nice to see, especially in this era of CGI. John Agar is the star of this, and he plays a really frisky astronaut. I mean, he seems like he is always taking about getting women or coming on to women (yes, the Giant Space Brain creates space babes from the astronauts memories). Well, stuff happens, and the Giant Space Brain tries to destroy the astronauts with their own worst fears turned into reality. You see, now that the Giant Space Brain has learned about earth from the minds of the astronauts, it wants to make the earth it's new home, and plans on hitching a ride with the astronauts or something like that. In the end, humanity prevails, and the Giant Space Brain get its cumuppence.
I may be making these movies sound better than they are, but don't be fooled. With both of these movies I had to take numerous breaks while watching because they made my little gray matter hurt, but I did get quite a few laughs from them. Both movies are prime candidates for Mystery Science Theater 3000 (RIP).
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