| Article: 208
From: [email protected] (Barry Perlman)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews
Subject: SF-18 review
Date: 19 Feb 93 15:27:20 GMT
Sender: [email protected] (USENET News System)
Organization: Open Software Foundation
SF-18
The eighteenth annual 24-hour science fiction movie marathon. From
noon Sunday to noon Monday, the Coolidge Corner Theater (Brookline,
Massachusetts) was packed solid with sci-fi fans and assorted weirdos for an
audience participation event the likes of which are not to be found
elsewhere.
The first event of the day (after a Duck Dodgers cartoon) was the
1950 television premiere of Space Patrol, complete with the ads. The main
sponsor was Rice Chex and Wheat Chex breakfast cereal, and the audience
spontaneously split into two camps, chanting "Rice Chex"/"Wheat Chex" in
strict alternation. This continued for the remainder of the marathon,
during intermissions and whenever anyone on screen ate any breakfast.
Space Patrol was followed by the 1953 original "Invaders From Mars",
after which came a great treat. A 1924 Soviet silent called "Aelita:Queen
of the Martians" aka "Aelita:Revolt of the Robots" with live musical
accompaniment by two very competent musicians who scored separate themes for
each major character and location. The artistic style was 1924 avant-garde
cubist and fabulous to watch. The plot was a Socialist twist on a story by
Tolstoy. After the proletarian revolution of the robot-people on Mars, this
big beefy blacksmith is shown hammering some molten iron on an anvil. It
takes the shape of a sickle. When he is done he places the hammer on the
anvil along with the sickle to make the Communist logo. The audience went
ape! It was still back in 1924, before Stalin's reign of terror, before
cynicism, when the film-makers still believed. It was great.
Then we had "The Adventures of Buckaroo Bonzai Across the Eigth
Dimension", a strange movie if there ever was one. I can't even begin to
describe it. Either you've seen it you haven't. If you haven't, it's
available on video. After repeated watching the plot becomes apparent. I
can't explain. Starring Peter Weller (Robocop), John Lithgow, Ellen Barkin,
Jeff Goldblum, and Christopher Lloyd (the Professor in "Back to the
Future"). Extremely funny. After the movie, the director came and talked
with us, answering questions for about 45 minutes.
Then we had a brand-new print of the newly-restored "20,000 Leagues
Under the Sea", a multi-Academy-Award winner. James Mason plays Captian
Nemo and Kirk Douglas takes his shirt off a lot. Peter Lorre has a big
role.
"Breakfast of Aliens" followed, a pre-release screening of a movie I
do not recommend to anyone. The premise is that an alien lands on the roof
of a building and falls through the roof into the cereal bowl ("Rice
Chex"/"Wheat Chex") of a total loser, who eats the alien (small alien) and
becomes a stand-up comic. Good premise, lousy movie. Plenty of loud booing
at the closing credits.
At 11:30 pm we had the annual costume contest, this year for "Queen
of Outer Space." The winner had these Madonna-like conical breast-weapons,
and won big cheers with a campaign promise to kill the makers of "Breakfast
of Aliens."
Then "Beneath the Planet of the Apes", with the classic line "Glory
be to the bomb and the holy fallout." James Franciscus and Charleton Heston
run around in loincloths.
"Mant" followed. Half-man, half ant, "Mant" is the movie-within-
the-movie of "Matinee." "Matinee", starring John Goodman, is about a guy
who makes early 1960's B-movies, and "Mant" is the movie he's making. The
producers of "Matinee" allowed us to see "Mant" as a movie on its own.
Shown nowhere else. I thought it was great.
Finally to the cheesecake, at 2am we saw "Galaxina", a not-very-
good spoof of "Alien" and "Dark Star", but starring Playboy's 1980 Playmate
of the Year Dorothy Stratten in skin-tight spandex. (Tragically, she was
murdered by an insane ex-boyfriend after this movie was made.)
A little more "Space Patrol", then on to "Cat Women of the Moon"
(1953) starring Sonny Tufts (descendant of Charles Tufts, the founder of
Tufts University). Sonny Tufts was pure beefcake. In 1944 he was promoted
by Paramount as the studio's "Reigning Pin-Up King", and was selected by a
poll of film distributors as the Hollywood actor with the greatest potential
for superstardom. You probably never heard of him because he couldn't act,
and he ended up in a lot of B-movies aimed at teenage audiences. "Cat
Women" is in _The Book of Golden Turkeys_ as the worst Sonny Tufts movie
ever made. He doesn't even take his shirt off, so what good is he? The
control room of the spaceship was borrowed from a submarine movie and the
city of the Cat Women was from an old movie about Marco Polo. On the other
hand the Cat Women had huge breasts and wore skin-tight black body suits,
with plenty of profile shots.
"Cat Women" was followed by a sort-of new-age "Alien" called "Star
Crystal" (1986). When it was over the audience chanted in unison "That
Sucked! That Sucked!" It did.
But all was forgiven when we got "Starcrash", a spaghetti space
opera with rockets, ray guns, Gucci space suits, and a robot with a heavy
Texan accent. And cleavage. It starred Caroline Munro, a real treat to
anyone attracted to women. Supermodel-turned-actress, she can't do much in
the way of acting but it doesn't matter. They dressed her up in a variety
of leather bikinis with high boots, spandex bodysuits, and other
Italian-design outfits, occasionally with a bright red triangle (point down)
strategically placed, just in case anyone didn't understand the costume's
message. If you don't love this movie, you're not a heterosexual male. The
spaceships weren't bad either. Produced by B-movie king Roger Corman.
The marathon concluded with a pre-release screening of "Fortress",
which should be out in a month or two. Since it was a pre-release showing,
we saw the director's cut. (The producer's cut is what will be showing up
in the theaters.) It's about a privately operated super-high-tech prison in
the next century. Intense. Very well made and convincing. A good movie, I
recommend it with the caveat that some parts take a strong stomach. The
arch-villian is *really* bad.
There were assorted cartoons and shorts, the traditional
paper-airplane contest, and plenty of prizes. I won a beautiful framed
hologram of the Enterprise (firing phasers) from the MIT museum.
After staying awake all day Monday, I finally went to sleep around
9, and had weird dreams until morning.
Barry
=====================================================================
Barry Perlman 11 Cambridge Center
email: [email protected] Cambridge, MA 02142
Open Software Foundation Tel: 617-621-8828
Distributed Management Environment (DME) Fax: 617-621-0584
"Life itself punishes us for our mistakes." - M.S. Gorbachev.
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