Product Details

• Actors: Vic Perrin, Bob Johnson, Ben Wright, Robert Culp, Robert Duvall
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Run Time: 51 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301968832
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #463,937 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Alien Aboriginal Apes In An Interplanetary Arena, March 28, 2002

By 

Bruce Rux (Aurora, CO) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Outer Limits: Fun & Games [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Generally overrated but memorable OL entry.

A sneeringly superior decadent Senator of the planet Andera abducts small-time hood/prizefighter Nick Adams and true-blue do-gooder Nancy Malone, to solicit them for gladiatorial games to entertain his jaded populace. If they decline, the Earth is destroyed in a grand display lasting about five years - "like a firecracker in a black summer sky," as the blase Senator shruggingly puts it. If they accept, they are pitted in a duel to the death against two primitive but resourceful wolf-like apish aborigines from "an unnamed planet in the Calco galaxy," on a prehistorically-climated planet designated the "Arena."

Given the nature of the script, this episode should be action-packed, but in fact is rather static (and talky) throughout. It's memorable for Robert Johnson's gleefully sadistic Senator, who remains tauntingly in the shadows with his long, Mandarin nails and scepter of power, and for the smoulderingly suffocating atmospheric Arena. The Calco primitives are primitive indeed, OL being pretty short on budget when this one was filmed, essentially nothing more than fixed-expression masks and clawed gloves (except for one or two close-ups, where the mask's eyes roll) - but no one ever forgets their weapon, which was probably the most famous prop of the entire series: saw-toothed razor boomerangs.

Great beginning, with an imaginatively filmed gangster's poker game, long, rather muddled middle, and a decent last half, but the fairly dramatic finale is too abrupt. The performances are good, especially Johnson's hammy melodrama villain of a Senator.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well-acted., November 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Outer Limits: Fun & Games [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Interesting story of a couple transported to another planet to do battle with two other aliens with the prize being that Earth will not be destroyed if they win. Well-acted, good dialogue and a great scene involving a poker game. It does take a while to get to the battle and the clothing the female character wears (wearing high-heels into battle?) is a little far-fetched, even for that time. But overall, since this is a story of redemption and second chances, a good show.

4.0 out of 5 stars Reality TV for Bored Aliens, September 6, 2005

By 

Ross E. Nelson (Casselton, North Dakota United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Outer Limits: Fun & Games [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I watched this show when it was originally aired. It left a lasting impression on my very youthful mind, and it's been entertaining and interesting to see it again lately.

The plot isn't novel--there are other sci-fi stories of combat between selected humans and aliens as proxies for their respective worlds or as entertainment for superior aliens. This Outer Limits episode, though, pits a psychologically messed up human couple against the alien foes. The man and woman have problems enough of their own and the man, played by Nick Adams, initially declines to fight even though that could mean the end of earth. A hero he ain't.

But the alien Senator who's calling the shots helps persuade him otherwise. The Senator makes the whole episode work, in fact, with his dry humor, precise English (the sure sign of a bad guy), and uncanny knack for understanding, predicting, and disturbing the humans' mindsets both on earth and on the battle planet.

The human couple sort of come to an understanding of each other near the end, and the woman (played by Nancy Malone) overcomes a personal flaw to kill the final alien, a moment before her partner dies (or so she thinks). Interestingly there is no love story here. She's married to someone else but apparently separated, and the Senator intimates that she'll remember enough of the trial by combat to perhaps help her resolve her personal problems with him. The character Adams plays (who was fleeing the cops before being "electro-ported") picks up right where he left off when he's returned to earth, smashing out a window near the woman's apartment to use the fire escape. She sees him, he sees her before he flees, but there's no recognition in his eyes. Does he remember anything? We'll never know.

The show definitely had low production values and committed an unforgivable blooper with the two dresses Malone wore being logically inconsistent with the scenes, but if you overlook those you'll find here one of the better sci-fi TV stories. Outer Limits did good.