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DESTINATION MARS Review
In the tradition of great film documentaries like FORGOTTEN SILVER, there comes a new Documentary and accompanying film entitled DESTINATION MARS
I keep forgetting to write this baby up, not because it is forgettable... quite the contrary, I've just been insane mad busy and lazy forgetful.
Do you love 50's Sci Fi?
Does the thought of watching a new 50's Sci Fi film get you all wet and juicy?
Are you tired of so much work going into movies that you don't get to use your own imagination any more?
Tired of on-location shooting? Do you crave cardboard sets? Do robots with accordian tubing arms make you pop wood?
Well then DESTINATION MARS is the movie for ya. It is for me too. I don't look at those old sci-fi flicks and think... HA HA, LOOK HOW BAD THAT IS!! HA HA!!! Instead I have a genuine reverence for the world of fifties sci-fi.
Why can't aliens from outer space all be women wanting a man to play with? Why can't a boy and his Boy Scout morse code flashing flashlight communicate with flying saucers (missing the coffee cups atop that is)?
This long lost treasure of cinema has languished too long in the vaults of the FBI... This isn't Red Propaganda... this is a film about our own morbid fascination with death leading to the annihilation of every living thing on the planet Earth!
This is DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL, but with everything that made that film great gone!!! And in its place we find Klaatu with tits!!! And they are covered in some sort of space sequined looking thing... And she has a cut bob hair cut with the Sue Storm upturns on the end... Sigh...
Basically the long forgotten filmmaker of DESTINATION MARS was making a DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL meets PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE meets EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS flick... and really... when you think about that... can you imagine anything more fun to watch with an assload of your best friends... Hurling back fermented oats and grain and becoming one with the 50's Sci-Fi.... Don't fight it... Become 50's Sci Fi.... You can do it....
The documentary at the beginning that precedes this long lost treasure really shows how painfully hard filmmaking has been... for quite some time.... Not only that, but the fact that you could finish the film and have the United States Government confiscate it and declare it a work of Communism, when the very concept of the film was to CAPITALIZE on the film world to make a PROFIT!!! Sound like Communism to you? Me Neither....
I have no idea what is going on with DESTINATION MARS... or how the rest of you good folks in the world can see it, but DARK HORSE (yes the comic company) picked up the rights and so it is in their court now... Will we see a straight to Video release? Be a shame if this forgotten classic never saw the interior of Mann's Chinese... ya know? Well folks... I'll find out where this flick is, and let you know...
At BUTT-NUMB-A-THON last year, this was the film that folks kept reminding me of... all night and next day long... I'd get up to talk about the next film and they'd remind me by various vocalizations all about DESTINATION MARS... It definitely follows in the tradition of Ed Wood Jr...
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Man, this movie was great. A hell of a way to start the Butt-Numb-a-Thon.
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Ok, so why doesn't he review Citizen Kane next?
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I think that's the funniest line in this flick, uttered by what's his name. He stows away on the rocketship and when his captain and commanding officer finds him after blast off the space base cook pulls out the toothbrush, hands it to the handsome young space explorer and says "You forgot your toothbrush!" Fun stuff. Does anyone know who played this old cook? Can't remember his name he was a funny old gruff character actor.
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50s Sci-fi didn't rely on great effects, dialogue, plots or even logic. They certainly didn't rely on science.
What they did have was cool and lots of it.
Cool cars, cool chicks with torpedo appendages, cool music and cool esthetics.
50s sci-fi is a skewed universe of its own. It might prove trying to today's video junkies who diss the surrealist elements of the film (like we have real life precedents for the events depicted) and will prefer ID4 over MARS ATTACKS but it's a trip for anyone willing to bask in its cheesy glory.
I can't wait to see this. If only for the fact that the usual boner I feel whenever I see the word MARS in the title has been salpetered by Brian DePalma.
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Not everyone has seen it. And I have never seen this movie, so I appreciate being told about it. The back story of FBI confiscation adds a whole new level of interest. Thanks, Harry for the info.
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The documentary on was great,but cough, cough, cough, cough- damn- cough, cough, cough, cough- cough, cough, cough, cough- cough, cough, cough, cough- I can't stop coughin- cough, cough, cough, cough- cough, cough, cough, cough- cough, cough, cough, cough-
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The documentary on was great,but cough, cough, cough, cough- damn- cough, cough, cough, cough- cough, cough, cough, cough- cough, cough, cough, cough- I can't stop coughin- cough, cough, cough, cough- cough, cough, cough, cough- cough, cough, cough, cough-
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Apr 03, 2001 12:49:50 PM CDT
Forgotten Harry reviews the forgotten classic 50s forgotten sci
by z-man
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For my money, Anne Francis as Altira in "Forbidden Planet" has the best space hooters of the 1950's. Great gams, too. 23 skidoo! Vote Quimby!!! And yes, it has been a glacially slow day at work!!!
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Apr 03, 2001 5:02:59 PM CDT
"Gort? But, hes's a robot. What can he do? He can destroy the en
by uncapie
Who was in "Destination Mars?" Who's named in the credits on the director and the actors?
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Apr 03, 2001 6:19:16 PM CDT
Can't find this @ IMDB. Oh, and lay off them cigs, SubversiveRus
by sith lord jesus
I also can't find it at ohthehumanity.com, which specializes in b-flicks. A quick google search pulls up nothing but the recent CNN documentary of the same name and one or two references to butt-numb-a-thon. Who was in it?
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Destination Mars is a classic, but I don't think putting it in the "Ed Wood" context is really accurate. It would have to be much more artfully inept to achieve that status. For true lovers of awful cinema, check out "The Astounding She-Monster" on DVD. When I first saw this film, I shouted out loud, "We have a new champion!" The film is so wonderfully bad that I believe it has dethroned Plan 9 as the worst film of all time. Director Ronnie Ashcroft allegedly had Ed Wood as his mentor on She-Monster. If so, then Ashcroft is Skywalker to Wood's Obi-Wan. The film is unforgetable and provides an abundance of huge laughs... More in the "Destination Moon" category is Richard Cunha's excellent masterpiece, "Missle To The Moon", where the space ship has lawn chairs with no seat belts. It's classic. But for those who like their movies just plain BAD, check out "The Monster of Camp Sunshine". It has just been released as second feature on Something Weird's Drive-In Double Bill DVD release, along with "The Beast That Killed Women". You'll want your 74 minutes back after suffering through this mind boggling turd... Thanks Harry for paying tribute to these wonderful, awful movies.
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Having seen this wonderful film I must make a comment as such. I see some bad talkback brewing and heard some rumblings by those who haven't seen it in chat so I decided to comment. This really is a fun film and well worth your time...what has not been mentioned is that it is not currently available although the documentarians are trying to sell it to the Sci-fi network for distribution (or at least thats what they said in december. See this, Harry is not wrong about this one. You won't be disappointed.
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I heard it was seized by the State Department for having a Commie Director back in the early fifties. The special effects were supposed to be amazing for the time. Didn't this film cost more than Forbidden Planet to make? Harry you are a Prince among men for finding this film and showing it at Butt-numbithon-2.
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Holy Shit!
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Let the tribes of Earth agree that a man of Harry's---um, carriage--never again be allowed to use the phrase "wet and juicy" in public.
Or in private, for that matter. But I doubt that has/will be ever an issue.
Thank You and Keep Watching the Skies. -
I love old Sci-fi and can't wait to see this movie. I was trying to find more info on this and came across the website. The backstory on this flick is really interesting. The fimmaker named names in exchange for money he needed for the movie and cast and crew members ended up killing themselves. This film was more cursed than Rebel Without A Cause, if you buy into that sorta thing.
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I like 50s sci fi too!
So why can't Harry give us some clue as to what the film is about?
Or who made it?
Or when?
I get from what he says that the film was confiscated because it was thought to be communist propaganda...but why/?
This is a potentially intere4sting story. So where is it? -
. . .thanks for the link! It actually explained a lot more then Harry's review. This thing looks to me like a more worthy target for Tim Burton's energies then PLANET OF THE APES. Flicks like DM--interesting concepts hamstrung by lack of budget/talent--are the ones that should be redone, not films that were allright to begin with.
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