150 Movies You Should Die Before You See - Miller Steve [71]
Thumbs Down Rating:
The Crappies
The Worst Actor Award goes to … Glyn Whiteside for his role as Michael, one of film history's most uninteresting villains, made so both by the weak script and an uninspired performance.
And the Worst Script Award goes to … Jon Sorensen for getting around to thinking about narrative only after production had wrapped. And don't get me started on the idea of vampires in a movie about alien mothers being chased by gun-toting morons.
They Really Said It!
The Vampires (in unison): Boo!
Betcha Didn't Know
Jon Sorensen worked in the visual effects departments on such films as Alien (1979), The Dark Crystal (1982), Outland (1981), and Time Bandits (1981).
“True” tales of alien abductions and landings didn't become common until the late 1940s and into the 1950s when science fiction became a popular genre.
Trivia Quiz
In what British science fiction classic does technology left behind by a long-extinct alien civilization threaten to destroy London?
A: Quatermass and the Pit (1967)
B: Four-Sided Triangle (1953)
C: Doctor Who: Dalek Invasion Earth 2150 (1966)
D: CQk (1969)
Answer: A. In Quatermass and the Pit, a subway construction crew digs up a Martian device, leaving cranky scientist Bernard Quatermass to save London from it.
BAD CHANNELS Full Moon Entertainmennt, 1992
PRODUCERS Charles Band (executive producer) and Keith S. Payson (producer)
WRITERS Jackson Barr (script) and Charles Band (story)
DIRECTOR Ted Nicolaou
STARS Paul Hipp (Dan O'Dare), Martha Quinn (Lisa Cummings), Michael Huddleston (Corky), Aaron Lustig (Vernon Locknut), Roumel Reaux (Flip Humble), and Victor Rogers (Sheriff Hickman)
A disk jockey known for crazy on-air stunts (Hipp) becomes the unwitting partner of an alien who has come to Earth to abduct beautiful women via radio waves, otherworldly technology, and rock music.
Why It Sucks
The film is driven almost entirely by its wacky script. The actors showed up for work but not much more than that. The director further dilutes the film's entertainment value by including three full-length songs, wasting entirely too much running time on second-rate filler.
Thumbs Down Rating:
The Crappies
The Worst Director Award goes to … Ted Nicolaou for not having the sense to realize that three full-length music videos were overkill even for a film about aliens weaponizing rock 'n' roll. We want alien abduction action, not MTV!And the Worst Actress Award goes to … Martha Quinn, who, through her portrayal of frustrated TV reporter Lisa Cummings proved that as an actress she made a darn good VJ. She comes across as so shrill and obnoxious that you'll be praying for the aliens to zap her or infect her with their lethal variant of athlete's foot.
They Really Said It!
Dan O'Dare: Ladies and gentlemen, I know this sounds crazy, but the Super Station studios have been taken over by creatures from another planet.
Betcha Didn't Know
Martha Quinn was one of the original five VJs when MTV debuted in 1981. She hosted programs on the channel for the next decade.
When Charles Band used clips from this film in the pseudosequel Dollman vs. Demonic Toys, he rewrote the ending using dubbing, so that the abducted nurse rather than the high-school student remained miniaturized.
Trivia Quiz
What actor/director directed and narrated a radio play about an alien invasion that caused panic in U. S. towns when it was broadcast in 1938?
A: Orson Welles
B: Alfred Hitchcock
C: Lowell Sherman
D: Leonard Nimoy
Answer: A. Orson Welles's Halloween eve broadcast on CBS Radio's Mercury Theater created national hysteria. In Concrete, WA, a power outage knocked