Message from Space

This is one of those jaw dropping bad films that is absolutely hilarious! I had no idea what was happening for a lot of this film(!) but the main story has a planet being taken over by the Gavanas which are nothing more than Clingons. And they send out 8 plastic walnuts to locate the chosen ones that will come and save them. Somehow a good actor like Vic Morrow ended up in this film and the rest are unknowns. At least in America they’re unknowns. What can you say? Its a blatant Japanese rip-off of “Star Wars”. Why is it that Japan can produce some wonderful and intricate gadgets but just have no clue how to produce decent special effects for films? Vic Morrow has a little robot as a sidekick that says lines like “Hot Dog, Master”! and “Only hurt when laugh” and when Morrow discovers a plastic walnut in his glass of booze he mutters, “I’ve been selected as a chosen one” which makes his robot react with “Hooray”! There is bright colors used throughout the film and the color red is very prominent. One of the flying ships in the film is just a big boat with sails! In another silly scene Morrow shows up to talk to the head of the Gavanas wearing a Napolean like outfit and challenges one the warriors to a duel! The scene is pointless. The special effects are so cheap and low budget that the monster movies like “Mothra” look like Spielberg made them. These are so terrible that every wire can be seen and every type of ship is a bad plastic model. The sets look like it was made by third grade stage producers. Cheap paint looking very colorful is everywhere. The costumes are everything from Samurai outfits to spandex space outfits and one leading Japanese character looks like a geisha. If Sid and Marty Krofft took acid and got drunk at the same time this is what they might have produced. Peggy Lee Brennan is cute and spunky and I remember her episode of “MASH” and she was fun to watch in this film but when she is flying the space ship and sticks her tongue out of the corner of her mouth to interpret that its serious business, you have to laugh! And Laugh! One of those rare “So bad its good” movies that absolutely requires multiple viewings. Plastic walnuts???