Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
SF camp classic looks terrific on DVD, October 25, 2001
Phantom Planet is a generally-overlooked but thoroughly enjoyable slice of early-60s SF cheese. Not really good enough to be a "good movie," not really bad enough to achieve Trash status; but I could watch this one every six months without getting tired of it. Dean Fredericks in the lead makes a quite unappealing, unsympathetic `hero,' lending a strange atmosphere to the movie right off the bat. Francis X. Bushman (the silent Ben Hur) and Anthony Dexter (fallen far from 1951's Valentino) lend kitsch appeal, and Coleen Gray and Dolores Faith, as the `mute girl,' provide potential love interest for drippy Fredericks. If you watch this with the mindset of a 10-year-old there's lots of fun and clever ideas and effects: the shrinking thing, passable outer space/rocketship sequences, the disintegrator floor panels and duel of death, the flaming Solarite death ships, etc. And the sad sack monster, played by clumsy giant-for-hire Richard Kiel (`Jaws'), has to be one of the most lovably moth-eaten, pathetically unthreatening creations to grace any B-flick; kind of Paul Blaisdell-meets-Harry Thomas at the thrift store. You could probably suspend your disbelief and really enjoy this movie on a comic book level, or have a few friends over and laugh yourselves silly. Highly recommended.
For long-time fans of this movie, Image's DVD delivers a fine print of the film: sharp and detailed, great tonal scale, virtually spotless save for some very light speckling and a rare blemished frame. You'll never need to worry about upgrading from this one. It blows my VHS TV prints right off the map. Unfortunately, there is no trailer for the feature, and the only other `extra' is the chapter stops. There are five trailers included in an `easter egg,' but they're the same ones as on every other Image release. Considering all the movies in their catalog, they could dish out a few new ones already! A minor gripe though, and if you love this movie you'll want this disc anyway.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Late Night fun as a kid, October 3, 2000
This film is no classic but it is a fun one i remember as a kid. I saw it late night of course and enjoyed it then and i have seen it since and realize that you should take it as it is and not look for extreme quality acting but if you are a sci fi fan and enjoy old flicks then you will have fun with this one. Break out the popcorn and gather the kids for a good viewing.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Better than expected, April 29, 2007
I just watched this yesterday, with very low expectations, and was pretty surprised at how good it was. Definitely worth viewing, esp if you can track it down on a multi-movie set. (The transfer used in Mill Creek's Sci-Fi Classics box set is just fine.)
Others have talked about the story and the acting, but I want to mention is the non-stop use of special effects. Sure, they're hokey, but they keep coming, and that's what keeps your (or at least my) interest. There's the ping-pong-table Moon base, complete with whirling radar dish; plenty of spaceship shots, a space walk, meteor shower, invisible asteroid, shrinking astronaut/tiny people, Rock of Oblivion... and that's not even mentioning the monster. I don't think 3 minutes pass by in this movie without some "special effect" or other. That makes for pretty fun, engaging viewing, in my opinion.
Also, you can practically count the future Star Trek episodes... The one with the hollow asteroid traveling across space... The one where Kirk and Spock engage in mortal combat... The one where the girl falls for Kirk. (Oh wait, that's all of them.) And so on. Even the Rock of Oblivion acts suspiciously like the transporter, set on one-way of course.
All in all this is a fun film that rarely flags, perfect for a rainy weekend afternoon.
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