Remake Mars

 

 (wikipedia)

INVADERS FROM MARS-1986-In this remake, David (Hunter Carson), a young boy sees a UFO land behind his house. When his father (Timothy Bottoms) goes to investigate he comes back acting very strange with a bruise on the back of his neck. Later his mom (Laraine Newman) and everyone else in town have become weird, possessed zombies including David's crabby teacher Mrs. McKeltch (Louise Fletcher) and the police. After he sees the teacher eat a frog, David convinces the school nurse Linda (Karen Black; Carson's real-life mom) that something is going on. Grotesque slimy aliens are planning to conquer Earth. The duo run around town being chased by the police and McKeltch in a yellow school bus. When it seems the whole town have been turned into slaves by the aliens, David and Linda convince Gen. Wilson (James Karen) of the truth and he brings in the army. One scientist (Bud Cort) tries to talk to the invaders and is killed. Eventually the invasion is crushed but….

This so-so remake of the notorious 1957 original succeeds more than it fails though pretty unnecessary as most remakes are. Original little kid star Jimmy Hunt appears as a policeman. Dan O'Bannon is one of the the credited screenwriters. Director Tobe Hooper made this the same year as the disappointing TEAXS CHAINSAW MASSACRE 2.

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Buster!

 

 (imdb)

THE GREAT BUSTER: A CELEBRATION-2018- Well done documentary about the lengendary Buster Keaton, produced, directed & narrated by Peter Bogdanovich. The first half which discusses Keaton's life is good but has actually been done to death in other docs recently. It's nice to hear from people that knew him like Dick Van Dyke and James Karen but do we really need the opinions of Quentin Tarantino and some guy from JACKASS? The second half where his films are analyzed is great despite Bogdanovich's rather monotone voice.

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Mummy From Outer Space

 

 (imdb)

TIME WALKER-1982-In King Tut's tomb college professor McCadden (Ben Murphy) finds the mysterious sarcophagus of Akhn Venharis (Jack Olson). He brings it back to LA where he and his students examine it. Stupid student Sharpe (Kevin Brophy) accidentally gives the mummy too much radiation while x-raying it. He also steals some crystals in a secret compartment. McCadden and his girlfriend/student Susie (Nina Axelrod) also discover a green fungus which Dr. Melrose (Austin Stoker) can't figure out. Dean Rossmore (James Karen) and his ass kissing assistant (Gregory Prendergast) want to show it off but the mummy disappears. They think it's a college frat joke. Meanwhile the mummy wanders around killing people (mostly shown in POV shots). When a student is burned by the fungus his arm has to be amputated by a doctor (Antoinette Bower). Shari Belafonte Harper is a college DJ/photographer. Idiot Sharpe starts spreading the crystals all over town and Venharis wants them back. It seems he's not Egyptian but an alien from outer space.

This is low budget nonsense that's pretty boring and dumb and ends with the words " to be continued". Unfortunately there was no sequel as this was the only film directed by Tom Kennedy who co-wrote the story with co-producer Jason Williams, star of FLESH GORDON.

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Franky In Space

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACEMONSTER-1965-Another “classic” bad movie, most of it filmed on Long Island in New York. 

U.S. space ships are observed then destroyed by some aliens: Princess Marcuzan (Marilyn Hanold) and pasty-faced Dr. Hadir (Lou Cutell; as of this writing still an active TV actor). NASA and the army team up to send a man to Mars but instead of using a real astronaut they send Col. Frank Saunders (Robert Reilly), a kind of “synthetic man” made up it seems of human body parts (just like...well you know...). The aliens destroy his ship but he ejects to safety...sort of. 

The aliens land on Earth and one of the crew finds Frank and blasts him. He doesn't die but one side of his face becomes horribly burned. It turns out that the aliens' home planet (never named) had an atomic war (“They lucky ones are dead”) and radioactivity has made the place uninhabitable. They also need “breeding stock” ( i.e.: women) to repopulate. Frank wanders around San Juan and kills a guy. The scientist in charge of the project, Dr. Steele (James Karen), his assistant Karen (Nancy Marshall) and army general Bowers (David Kerman) fly down just as the aliens begin kidnapping women in Puerto Rico (there are scenes actually filmed there!). The princess checks out their first captured “breeder” while Steele and Karen take a motorcycle ride around town. They find Frank in a cave and Steele tries to repair him while Karen goes for help. Unfortunately at that very moment the aliens invade and at a swinging pool party all the women there are taken captive and Karen is kidnapped as well. She's the only one who doesn't go quietly. All the rest of the captured females seem to be quite docile and unperturbed by the fact that they are in a UFO being watched over by its strange looking inhabitants who are treating them as livestock! 

Frank is taken prisoner later on but Karen gets him to save her and the others while he's forced to fight a very dumb looking monster to justify the title. Unbilled Bruce Glover appears as another alien. 

The alien make-up is really bad and lots of stock footage is used to pad out this strange movie. Star Marilyn Hanold (from Jamaica, NY) was the Playboy Playmate of the Month for June 1959. A few years before FMTS she had appeared in another “notorious” horror film THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE. She didn't do much after this except marry a Texas oil tycoon and quit show biz. 

Well known character actor James Karen was also in the experimental Buster Keaton FILM (written by Samuel Beckett) the same year. This was director Robert Gaffney's only effort. He was later the director of photography on SUPERFLY TNT and may have made some uncredited photographic contributions to 2OO1: A SPACE ODYSSEY...

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