CLASSIC SCI-FI MOVIES
© 2003 BFS
Disc Grade: C-
Reviewed Format: DVD
Rated: Not Rated
Stars: Paul Pedersen, Charla Doherty, Michael Hawkins, David Love, Dawn Anderson, Bryan Grant, Robert Hutton, Jennifer Jayne, Zia Mohyeddin, Bernard Kay, Michael Gough
Writers: Harold Hoffman, Milton Subotsky, Tom Graeff
Directors: Larry Buchanan, Freddie Francis, Tom Graeff
Distributor: Bfs Entertainment/Mu
Original Years of Release: 1967, 1967, 1959
Retail Price: $9.98
Extras: trivia; “UFO Sightings: Ten Compelling Cases”
Buy it now!
CLASSIC SCI-FI MOVIES: IN THE YEAR 2889 / THEY CAME FROM BEYOND SPACE / TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE
By: Tony WhittDate: Friday, August 08, 2003
Remember those ratty videotape sets they used to sell at such fine stores as K-Mart, featuring six or seven grainy B-movies from the '50s, '60s, and '70s, recorded in EP mode? I'll bet you thought that the DVD revolution would get rid of that sort of junk. Instead, it's simply allowed for these "collectors items" to be released on a medium that won't snap in the machine the second time you play them - if there is a second time.
Bfs Entertainment/Mu has done for the DVD market what those cheapy videotape manufacturers did for the VHS market: they've released a lot of crappy movies, alongside a few very rare gems, and in all possible genres. One of the few titles in the Bfs catalog really important to us is CLASSIC SCI-FI MOVIES, which includes IN THE YEAR 2889, TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE, and THEY CAME FROM BEYOND SPACE. Are any of these worth my ten bucks, you may well ask? The answer is... well, maybe. It depends on your tolerance for schlock. Let's take a look at each one to determine the Good, the Bad, and the Really, Really Ugly...
IN THE YEAR 2889 (1967) (Grade: D-): A former naval captain and his daughter hole up in the mountains after a devastating nuclear war, never counting on the survivors who will turn up on their doorstep, or the mutated humans who show up... um, occasionally. Without a doubt, the absolute worst movie on the disc - and possibly one of the worst SF movies ever made - YEAR has only two points in its favor: 1) it's blissfully short; and 2) male lead Paul Pedersen, formerly of the DONNA REED SHOW(!), is more than tolerable to look at and the only actor in the whole thing who isn't sleepwalking through his part. Otherwise, the cast, which includes Charla Doherty from DAYS OF OUR LIVES and Michael Hawkins, who has gained more fame as Christian Slater's father than for this role, is one of the biggest collections of bad actors ever assembled. The make-up effects are even worse - you know those rubber Halloween masks you can buy at your local Rite-Aid? Imagine one of those being the only make-up used to depict a nuclear mutant. Yeah, it's bad. The movie also takes a pretty cavalier attitude towards the idea of radiation, which is surprising as it's the radiation count that's one of the biggest plot points. Finally, there are two mysteries surrounding IN THE YEAR 2889: 1) what does that title have to do with anything? It certainly has nothing to do with the plot or with the Jules Verne novel of the same name... and 2) why did this movie never get the MST3K treatment? That last question will haunt me to my grave. Everything about this movie is Really, Really Ugly. Except for Paul Pedersen, of course. If you really want to see this one, this is the only place to get it on DVD. Thank God.
TEENAGERS FROM OUTER SPACE (1959) (Grade: C+): An expedition sent to Earth to assess its potential as a breeding colony for a fascist alien race's food animals runs into trouble when Derek, the unacknowledged son of the Glorious Leader, rebels. Seems he's been reading (horrors!), and the reading has convinced him that their way of life is wrong. Alien boy meets Earth girl, alien boy gets chased down by homicidal (and just a bit fey) alien boy, alien boy kills giant lobster, alien boy sacrifices life and the rest of his race to save Earth girl. This one did get the MST3K treatment, though I'm guessing it's more for the title and that awful giant lobster monster - otherwise, this movie's kind of sweet. And no, I don't mean the weird sexual subtext between Derek and his pursuer Thor. (Gotta love these names.) Even though David Love and Bryan Grant are aggressively wooden as Derek and Thor, Dawn Anderson as Derek's human love interest is really quite good, and while the disintegrator ray effects are pretty cheaply done, they're not too bad, either. (One of the skeletons left behind by the ray, unfortunately, does reveal its origins via the hook in the top of its skull... oops. Take it back to the medical school, boys.) And once you put aside the giant lobster (no, I can't let that go) and the silly self-sacrifice at the end, it's not that horrible a movie. It's merely Bad. But if you want a clearer print of the unparodied movie, as well as some fine commentary by a man and his bots, buy the MST3K disc of this one, instead.
THEY CAME FROM BEYOND SPACE (1967) (Grade: B): Aliens from beyond the solar system use the moon as a launching point for their plans to come down, take over human bodies, and use them to... ah, but that would be telling. I honestly don't know why this one's here - for one thing, there's a perfectly good "digitally mastered" version on disc already out there, and for another, it's just too good for this disc. This one should be near and dear to DOCTOR WHO fans, and not just because Milton Subotsky, the producer behind the two 1960s DW movies with Peter Cushing, also wrote and produced this one - if you're not watching closely, you might think you put one of those two movies in the player by mistake, especially during the opening credits. BEYOND SPACE can be broken evenly into three sections, with the first third influenced by QUATERMASS, the second third influenced by THE AVENGERS, and the last third prefiguring the Earthbound Jon Pertwee era of DOCTOR WHO. This combination of influences makes for a strangely unbalanced movie, resulting in a less-than-impressive denouement. And the jazzy score sometimes ruins otherwise effective scenes, but otherwise this one is classic SF. The alien takeovers are scary, the Crimson Plague they use on humanity is surprisingly horrific, Robert Hutton is pretty good as the Professor/Doctor/John Steed lead character, and even the wonderful Michael Gough (Alfred from the BATMAN movies) isn't quite wasted here. Director Freddie Francis is also the only director on the disc worth mentioning - some scenes, including the outbreak of the Plague and one in which Hutton's girlfriend is being examined under ultraviolet light to see the alien within her, are actually impressive. But again, if you really want to see this one at its best, go get the prior DVD release - it'll be worth it, as BEYOND SPACE is really Good.
The rest of this disc adds nothing to make this an enticing purchase despite the ten dollar price tag. The only extras are a trivia section, in which we're told Paul Pedersen was on DONNA REED, that Michael Gough was in the BATMAN movies, and that Michael Hawkins whelped Christian Slater - and I've already told you all that, so you don't need it now - and a text essay entitled "UFO Sightings: Ten Compelling Cases," which simply retells some of the most famous UFO cases of the past forty years - with no pictures or anything else. Why it's here, I have no idea, but it's neither edifying nor terribly interesting. The extras just aren't enough to make up for the poor picture quality of all three movies - only TEENAGERS looks at all good due to being in black and white. The other two are in woeful condition, as will you be if you buy this disc. Thanks, Bfs, but I think I'll save my ten bucks for that BEYOND SPACE disc, instead.
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