I was expecting heading into ‘Dr. Alien’ that I was going to get a cheap and cheerful porno affair with maybe a couple of minor plotlines basically existing to make the sex scenes make a bit more sense. And I couldnt have been further from the truth.

While there is a LOT of upper body nudity present here. I could best describe this ‘vibe wise’ as “Imagine if Rick Sloan made a teen sex comedy” Because. Thats basically this film in a nutshell. Its a camp as christmas, over the top, bizarre experience that feels like ‘Hobgoblins’, ‘Weird Science’ and ‘The Nutty Professor’ all got put in a blender and the end results were poured over a SUPER low budget, though, to it’s credit it works with what its got effectively.

Dont get me wrong, this things no masterpiece. In essence its a goofy, cheesy way to kill 85(ish) minutes in a very pleasent and upbeat way. But it wont be winning any awards anytime soon.

The scripts solid enough, We follow a college freshman on his first day back to campus. A few days prior his science teacher got hospitalised after a car accident he says was caused by ‘UFOs’ which everyones pretty suspicious about. Replacing him in the classroom is a new Blonde Bombshell of a science teacher who…seems overly interested in reproduction and is desperately looking for a volunteer to help with some ‘extra credit’ studies.

Enter our freshman, who accidentally ends up putting himself forward and is injected with a strange serum that turns him from dweeby dork to charismatic lethario in less than 10 seconds. As you can imagine it turns out the new science teacher isnt all she seems and sexy hijynx commence.

And I actually really got on with this thing, its total brain rot cinema, but in the best possible way. it’s FUN! it’s not trying to be high art or mainstream fashionable, it’s trying to be a goofy little comedy thats working to try and win over people in the home video market looking for goofs and plenty of T&A. And it makes NO apologies for being that.

The scripts lightweight, nippy and zooms across its 3 acts pretty nimbly, the plots a tad repetative, but the dialogues so odd and charismatic that I was kind of happy to see similar scenarios play out a couple of times just to hear some strange dialogue. It has a clean act structure and it gives us just enough character depth that we feel invested in the world this scripts made, without going SO deep that it becomes too complex or messy.

I was STUNNED to see that David Decoteau directed this, but then after some thought it actually kind of made perfect sense. I personally think it’s my favourite Decoteau movie i’ve ever seen. While its not his best from a technical standpoint (that would be Puppet Master 3 for my money) it’s still visually very interesting, the character direction is rock solid, its nicely styalized and David seems to have worked with all aspects of the production crew in delivering a package thats not exactly going to change the world, but is BLOODY good considering how low on resources they were through this thing.

The cines solid as well, shots do dither a little bit in terms of compositional choices and how they’re cut together in the edit. But Id say there was more hit than miss here and theres even some nice experimentation with both the structure of the edit and in terms of the use of practical effects (Which again actually dont look too bad for a film of this kind of budget).

Theres some rock solid performances here with Billy Jayne as the freshman ‘Wesley’ working a HUGE range performance wise and actually really holding up as a leading man in this thing. I dont *quite* think he fully won me over as lead material here. But I still thought he did an excellent job and showed a real physicality and animation that I thoguht was quite impressive.

Judy Landers as the otherworldly Miss Xenobia equally delights, she doesnt get *too* much to do here, but when shes on screen she really does sell the idea of having a vague understanding about earth culture, but not fully grasping it.

Stuart Fratkin and Raymond O’ Connor equally delight as Wesleys best friend ‘Marvin’ and Miss Xenobia’s assistant ‘Drax’ both playing comedy foils to our leads but both from opposite ends of the spectrum. With Marvin being an easy going, ‘surfer’ type who wrankles Wesley up no end. And ‘Drax’ being incredibly muted and even more ‘fish out of water’ than Xenobia on all things earth culture. They really support the main in a big way and I feel the film would be a poorer experience without them.

In fact, the whole ensemble here are just really quite solid, they’re all clearly enjoying themselves, they’re animated, bright, and campy. they deliver their lines with relish and only adding to that, some nice little cameos from Linnea Quigley and Michelle Bauer only further sold me on this production.

Throw in some mixed to decent 80s synth pop that must have been MASSIVELY out of place for 1989 but fits the tone of this thing perfectly and you have a movie that was about 5 years out of fashion when it came out, but is a near PERFECT 80’s sex comedy in retrospective. Some damn fine work from Decoteau, I had a ball with this thing, and I think if you are okay to switch your brain off for a bit and just let this big daft mess wash over you, you’ll probably have a blast with it too!

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/dr-alien/

A bizarre low budget creature feature that seemingly wants to be anything BUT a creature feature. Theres a VERY clear reason why the ‘Godmonster of Indian Flats’ was a mainstay of the ‘Something Weird’ Library for so many years.

It’s plot, a bizarre mesh of 66% a somewhat ‘wicker man’ esq thriller about a rich businessman rocking up at a small previously abandoned town in the Indian flats thats been restored back to it’s 19th century ways by an eccentric land owner with intentions to buy the area. Only to then find out that theres devious goings on just under the surface and the town may not be all it seems.

Mashed together with a 34% plot (and I swear im not making this up) around a shepard who wins it big at a casino on his first ever attempt completley by chance, ends up attracting the attention of some of the folk who LIVE in the 19th century throwback town on the Indian flats, they take him back to the town and rob him, and while drunkenly returning to his flock, he gets hit with an extraterrestrial show of lights and gasses that mutates one of his sheep into a hideous blob of congealed cells.

This attracts the attention of some scientists who wish to study the creature as they work in cellular research. So, they incubate the specimine and within a couple of days, the blob has mutated into a hideous goat monster.

SOME HOW, these two plots connect and intertwine, but i’ll be damned if I know for sure how…But the results are QUITE far from dull it’s fair to say.

The scripts totally inconsistent, the main plot of a black businessman rocking up in an all white town and meeting the prejudice and weirdness that comes with that has it’s more racially motivated tones softened by the other subplot around the shady dealings of the town and of course the GIANT WALLOPING SHEEP MONSTERS larking about and…well not really doing very much. I honestly feel for the guy in the monster costume. wearing 100lb’s of wool in the desert is absolutely not worth the paycheque.

Despite the uneven pacing and strange plot structuring of this thing, I find it offers a unique texture that I can honestly say I havent really seen before in cinema. It’s kind of like a mash up of ‘Sssss’ and ‘2000 Maniacs’ it shoulnt work, it DOESNT work. and yet, I felt totally compelled to see this thing through to the finish to see just exactly how weird this thing would get (and the answer is VERY weird).

The directions nothing particularly to write home about, its a bit flat and aimless, theres no sense of a personal touch present and apart from the occasional flourish on the cine front it doenst particularly show itself to be a film that utilises the multiple aspects of it’s production particularly well. I can absolutely say it just about does the basics. But thats not really anything worth shouting about.

Same goes for the cine really, theres a couple of interesting uses of practical effects here and there, but compositions seem to be largely shot for function and barring literally 2 scenes in the 3rd act of this film which DID seem to get a bit of a bump in terms of production quality, the majority of the film could best be described as lifeless, bland and fairly by the numbers on a technical level. it’s not good, but there was nothing that jumped out at me as truely awful.

Sequences are edited together quite loosely, this thing could have easily been 10 minutes shorter, the lack of the actual Godmonster for most of the movies runtime is dissapointing and with so much going on, producing a cohesive edit that manages to tell the story effectively and coherently was always going to be a struggle.

as for the performances. TOTAL HAM. everyones playing it goofy, as well they should! But I do feel theres a certain lack of animation from most of the cast and the ones who do put the effort in, never really get the chance to really truely go out there.

It also has to be said that, while I absolutley sympathise with the guy in the Goat costume who was basically steamed alive for the half a day he filmed for. He doesnt really animate all that much, and he spends at least 2/3rds of this movie sat unmoving, in a tank. it would have been nice to have had a bit more of a lively creature and…y’know…the vibe that this creature feature ACTUALLY WANTED to have a monster in it wrecking up the place.

Mix in a score thats oddly melancholic and string arranged and you have a shonky but mesmorising feature that I didnt hate, didnt love, but I could absolutley see myself watching again. Your milage may absolutely vary on this thing. But if you like your cheesy movies, this thing would be prime MST3K fodder and is absolutely worth trying at least once i’d say.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/godmonster-of-indian-flats/

After a few years of hearing nothing but good things I decided to finally give ‘Rad’ a try. I figured that kids films can be kind of hit or miss, but with enough positive endorsements, I put this one expecting a pretty cheesy but enjoyable time…and thats pretty much what I got. No more, No less.

Its a basic tween/teen plotline…In a world in which bikes and stunt biking IS the be all and end all of living, a local business man with alterior motives sets up a 10k biking challenge to anyone who fancies themselves a winner. inviting several pro cyclists to take part in the challenge. But when a plucky local boy whos SO good at BMX’ing rocks up and wants to take part, well the powers that be will try everything in their powers to stop bikey man from biking a bike to win 10k to spend on a bike…or something.

Basically, the long and short of this movie is, if you’ve seen anything like ‘Footloose’, or ‘The Wizard’…you’ve seen this movie. The scripts SUPER 80’s fueled and hits every teen ‘team sports’ movie trope its possible to hit in a 90(ish) minute runtime. Its evenly paced, slows down a little bit in the middle, but is ultimately just a fairly by the numbers team drama movie made interesting and eccentric by the bike gimmick.

It’s technically proficient on the direction and cine front, it has a mixed ability cast who range from ‘barely able to string some sentences together’ through to full blown hamtastic electric performances…It’s got a really killer soundtrack…

I dunno, I wish I kind of had more to say about this one really, I was expecting something as OTT and nutty AS movies like ‘The Wizard’ or ‘Robot in the Family’ and it just…isnt…it’s actually kind of flat all things considered…perfect riffing fodder for sure if you want to get some beers and a few friends around for a screening. But it’s not as colourful or lively as other schlocky titles like ‘Miami Connection’ outside of the biking motif, it isnt as enthralling as many other weird films from this time. I didnt hate it by any stretch…I just kind of thought it was passably okay.

I honestly dont really know what I was expecting, maybe that it’d have been a bit more styalized, or had a bit more weirdness going on, or some stranger performances…or just…something a bit more bombastic than what was presented. But as it stands…I’d absolutely check this thing out again, and if you havent seen it i’d wholeheartedly recommend it. But temper your expectations. A lot of people have billed his as ‘one of the greats’ in terms of cheesy 80s b-movies…and I feel thats a bit of a stretch. I dont really feel this thing broke new ground.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/rad/