Customer Reviews

Last Days of Planet Earth [VHS]

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When Godzilla waned in l975, Toho Studios took on more enviromental themes for films, with the "monsters" being pollution and the effects of war. In 1974 they did a "follow up" to the highly successful SUBMERGENCE OF JAPAN(1973) by remaking(loosely) the l961 film THE LAST WAR, this time as PROPHECIES OF NOSTRODAMUS. It's an ambitious and impressive film in it's original cut. However, the now defunct UPA acquired the film sometime in the late 70's and recut it down to 90 minutes, re-framing it completely, and calling it THE LAST DAYS OF PLANET EARTH and in essence turning it into a docu-drama complete with a narration akin to the old Sun Classic Films. It was obvious UPA wanted to cash in on the wild and truly questionable "docu-dramas" of the 70's such as THE LATE GREAT PLANET EARTH, CHARIOTS OF THE GODS and THE SEARCH FOR NOAH'S ARK all of which were part of the time of he mid 70's. The result of the editing is an uneven mess, a skeleton of a film much more epic in scope. Oddly, the very scenes which got the film banned in Japan after it's release, are included in the truncated US release! The stand out scene and it's genuinely weird and creepy involves two mutant/human things who fight over a worm on a blasted nuclearscape. This scene alone made the film on Laser Disk highly sought after in Japan-even as a full frame, dubbed movie!

The film never showed in theaters as a general release here, UPA syndicated it to independent TV stations in the early 80's onward. It showed up regularly for instance on the old TNT on late night or on their old "Monstervision" show.

A film very much of it's time.

Oh dear,I once watched this movie on "Earth Day" at my High School once.I wanted to storm out of the room.Yes,"Last Days of Planet Earth" is THAT bad.Suicide cults,metion of cannibalism(cut from some prints though),LSD fiends,Mutant plant and animals are just too goofy.This movie ranks up with "Manos:the Hands of Fate" on the top bad movies of all time.

This movie is virtually unwatchable, makes no sense, and reapeated viewings just might lead to brain damage. Stay away. Do not purchase this movie.

Man, quite alot happens in this movie. Motorcycle riders kill themselves; the air becomes so poluted that kids attend school in gas masks. Killer plants, blood sucking slugs, giant leaches (at least not as silly as the ones in Attack of the Giant Leaches), and radiation mutated humans kill people. And eventuly the sky turns into a giant mirror. Banned in Japan because of the radiation mutant sequice.