Killers from Space (1954)

I honestly wonder how bad the average movie was back in the 1950s.  Plenty of great movies were released in that decade.  There were also some pretty crappy movies released in that decade, as well.  I realize that I’m getting a lot of my movies from boxed sets of public-domain material.  That’s going to skew the quality of films that I get.  That’s no excuse for a title like Killers from Space.

It starts innocuously enough.  The military is conducting experiments.  Dr. Doug Martin is being flown around the test site for an atomic bomb.  When the plane crashes, the pilot is found dead, but Martin is completely missing.  He returns a few days later with an unexplained scar on his chest.

This is where things get strange.  Martin is given a dose of truth serum.  He tells a strange story of being taken by aliens, who are operating out of nearby caves.  They help him (and not the pilot) because Martin can get information on the tests being conducted.  The aliens are harnessing the power from the tests and any details would be helpful.

They even show him some mutant animals that will be used to kill humans.  Why?  So the aliens can take over the planet, of course.  They have everything figured out.  They just need some figures so they can adjust their equipment.

The last third of the film is Martin trying to save humanity by shutting down a nearby power plant.  He worked out that the aliens have a shield that protects them, but it requires so much power that they had to tap into a reactor.  (Come to think of it, I find it odd that the power company didn’t notice the increased usage.  It’s implied that it’s a lot of power.)

Martin’s story is fantastic, to say the least.  I mean, these are some strange aliens.  Their eyes are basically the part of the egg carton used to hold the egg.  It leads to some unusually stiff acting.  I wouldn’t believe it if I were there.  However, a burst of light lets us know that Martin was successful and telling the truth.

I have just a few questions about this movie.  The most notable aspect is that several military pilots used the code name Tar Baby for their planes.  Is there a non-offensive usage that I’m not aware of?  I know there are some words used by the British that Americans would find offensive.  In Spanish, mariposa literally means butterfly, but can also be used to refer to a gay man.  Is there something I’m missing?

It also seems odd that the hero can take matters into his own hands.  Martin is able to run into a power plant and find the control room rather easily.  You’d think they’d have better security.  Maybe they did.  I don’t know.

I also wonder where they got the footage for the animals.  They were all animals that could be found on Earth, meaning that the aliens were probably mutating local animals rather than bringing their own.  That allowed the effects department to find some footage rejected by a nature documentary and edit it into the movie via green screen.  (I know it looks obvious by today’s standards.  I wonder how it looked in 1954.)

There’s a lot about this movie that makes it look like minimal effort was put into it.  Even made-for-TV movies and straight-to-video productions have better standards on average.  I do wonder about production standards of the era.  I suppose someone will be looking back in 70 years at today’s stuff and wonder the same thing.

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La flûte à six schtroumpfs/The Smurfs and the Magic Flute (1976)

Note:  There are two English dubs.  The most notable difference is that in one, Peewit is called William and McCreep is called Oily Creep.
 

Many years ago, there was a man named Pierre ’Peyo’ Culliford.  In 1952, Peyo introduced the world to Johan and Peewit.  Six years later, The Smurfs made their debut.  Long before the Smurfs got their current CGI/live-action movie franchise, there was an animated film called The Smurfs and the Magic Flute.  First released in 1976, it was based on the comic stories of Johan, Peewit and The Smurfs.

It starts with Johan winning a competition and Peewit subsequently demonstrating what a horrible musician he is.  When a traveling merchant shows up with his wares, the king immediately sends the merchant away.  It isn’t until a few minutes later that he and Johan realize that a six-holed flute has been left behind.  The king tries to destroy it, but ends up attracting Peewit’s attention.  He discovers the flute, which he washes off and starts playing.  It’s soon discovered that the flute can make people dance until they collapse of exhaustion.

Enter Matthew McCreep, who has been looking for the flute.  He comes to the castle and soon manages to get the flute from Peewit.  You’d think that this would be a good thing, as Peewit is having fun making people dance.  The thing is that McCreep is a thief.   It’s McCreep’s intent to use the flute to steal people’s valuables.  They can’t resist if they’re sleeping.  Right?

The king sends Johan and Peewit off to find and recover the flute.  The problem is that when they do find the flute, McCreep is able to use it to foil them.  So, Johan and Peewit visit Homnibus, a wizard who is able to send them to the Smurf’s village.  Since the Smurfs built the flute, they may be able to find some way of counteracting its powers.  It turns out that there’s no way to negate the effects.  For this reason, they have also been looking for the flute.

The Smurfs can, however, build another flute with the same powers, so as to put Johan and Peewit on equal footing with McCreep.  The bad news is that Johan and Peewit are now on a schedule.  Word is that McCreep is going to fund an army to take over the king’s castle.  They manage to track him to an island, where McCreep and Peewit engage in a flute battle with Peewit just barely winning.

There’s a certain nostalgia factor in watching this movie.  The video quality of the version Netflix has isn’t particularly good.  (I don’t know if a good transfer even exists, as the film is from 1976.)  I remember the Smurfs primarily from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon in the 1980s.  I also remember having seen the movie.  I don’t recall how good the quality was back then, but I do remember having liked the movie.

The story is appropriate for younger children.  (It has a G rating.)  I don’t recall any violence onscreen.  (The worst would be the vendor being chased out of town.)  The story is simple and easy to follow.  It’s fairly entertaining for a child, although I don’t know if most children will put up with the animation.  There’s a pretty big disparity between what was available in 1976 and what’s available today.

The animated series ran for several years.  I’m not sure I’d watch it if it became available; it’s clearly meant for children without much regard for adults.  This is basically the kind of movie a parent of the 1980s would leave their child to watch for an hour and a half without worrying about it.  What vague memories I had of the TV series were the same.  It was a very basic plot meant for children.  I don’t know that it would hold much entertainment for me as an adult.  I’d probably get bored with it after the second or third episode.

As for today’s children, I think it’s going to be hit or miss.  If you can still get it streaming on Netflix, it’s worth a shot.  I don’t know that I’d recommend buying it on DVD, though.  I don’t know how many children will take well to it, as it has a very dated feel to it.

IMDb page

Star Trek: The Next Generation - Episode 22 (Skin of Evil)

Note:  This review was originally posted to my Epinions account.

Warning: I’m about to give away major details about the plot. If you want to be surprised, don’t read this review.


The Enterprise is supposed to meet Counselor Troi, who’s coming back from a conference. The shuttle crashes on a near-by planet, but the Enterprise can’t make it in time since they’re working on the warp drive. When they do get there, the shuttle has already crashed. Troi is all right, but the pilot is badly injured.

A landing party beams down to attend to Troi. When they get there, they find this big puddle of some sort of black liquid. The puddle is able to move to block their access to the shuttle. When Data points out that it may be a life form, it addresses them. It reveals its name to be Armus and says that it won’t allow access to Troi. When Chief of Security Tasha Yar tries to go to the shuttlecraft anyway, Armus kills her with an energy blast. The landing party beams up, but Dr. Crusher can’t do anything for her; Yar dies.

The remaining members of the landing party return to negotiate with Armus, who has been tormenting Troi while they were away. He seems to take pleasure in hurting people, but grows bored quickly. He engulfs Riker and tortures him. He also uses Data to point a phaser at the other members of the landing party. Eventually, Picard beams down and is able to enrage Armus enough to let the Enterprise beam both him and Troi back to the Enterprise.

This episode is the epitome of everything that was wrong with the first season. First off, the effects were horrible. When Armus is seen moving, the effect is very cheesy. I can’t even describe to you how cheap it looks. It’s like it was airbrushed on or something. Also, after Yar is brought into sickbay, you can see what I assume is blood. It looks like Halloween makeup that someone found in a remainder bin at a dollar store. It not only looks fake, but it looks cheap. I guess they ran out of effects money.

The idea of pure evil is interesting, but they should have held this episode until they could write it better. Armus is what you might call a one-dimensional villain. His only purpose is to kill Yar. I understand that it was at her request, but if she had made that request just a little earlier, she could have been killed off in the previous episode. At least for a senseless death, it would have been at least believable. A lot of the first-season episodes missed the mark in terms of writing, but this one was way off. If I were to make an analogy to playing darts, this is the attempt that misses the board completely and hits someone where the sun doesn’t shine.

There’s also one major mistake that a lot of people have pointed out. After Armus engulfs Riker, Armus covers the shuttle. However, Armus remains very flat. There’s no lump that would be big enough to be Riker. What happened to Riker?

One thing of note is that this episode aired out of order. Episode 23 aired before this one did because the anti-drug message of “Symbiosis” appealed to Denise Crosby. She wanted to appear in that one, so the powers that be decided to hold off on airing this one. However, the episodes are numbered (and sold on VHS) according to production order. This is why the episode where she dies comes before another episode where she lives.

Other than the fact that Yar dies, this episode has nothing of any real interest. Not only can you skip this episode, but I also would have recommended that the series do the same. As I said, Yar’s death could have been put in another episode, making this one meaningless. Even if this episode comes on TV, you’re better off reading a book. 

IMDb page