I saw this movie one late night at around 3:00 AM on WGN TV Chicago and loved it. Sure the actors are unknown, but an excellent story line with a space craft that crash landed, releasing some really wild and bizarre zoo creatures that Stan Winston would be proud of. The pilot of the spaceship must pose as a human being, in order to re- capture or kill the creatures so no harm to the earth people. Its typically these low budget movies that the locals invest in that are really good. You just have to overlook the acting and go with the story. I strongly recommend watching this movie. Its a shame that these movies never have good prints.
Reviews
7 Reviews
Atlas
(1961)
Atlas
4 December 2016
As much as I am a fan of Michael Forest from Star Trek, The Outer Limits,to name a few - this movie is an absolute farce. Frank Wolf who up to this point is really a 3rd rate actor, is the lead bad guy in this movie that plays out like a high school play with just a handful of extras. 1st blunder is when they announce that the wrestling match will begin when the trumpets blow. The trouble is that the horns are never heard. The Wardrobe Designer must have been on break with Barbara Morris wearing shorts that look like she should be on the set of Beach Blanket Bingo and not a Greek sword and sandal movie. The story line is very poor and really makes no sense. Soupy Sales could have played the lead baddie with the same results.
"Arena" not an original story
25 November 2016
Anybody who has watched the original Outer Limits TV Series in 1963 will immediately recall an episode titled FUN & GAMES. Fun and Games, like the latter written Arena, dealt with a superior race of beings, transporting male and female representatives from their respective planets and pitting them against one another, with the winner saving their planet. Fun & Games starred Nick Adams and Nancy Malone representing the planet earth, fighting two monsters with boomerangs, with an end sequence of Nick Adams fighting the male monster on a log bridge over a bubbling water or acid. The games is to see who wins first. In this case although the alien fell into the acid, Nick Addams held on a split second longer making him the winner. Arena is the same story line in pitting alien vs. alien on a unknown planet.
End of the Beginning
18 November 2016
I loved the character of the Golden Hind in the series HERCULES< THE LEGENDARY JOURNEYS, portrayed superbly by Sam Jenkins, now Kevin Sorbo's Wife. But Sam Jenkins no longer wanted to play the golden hind, so Kara Zediker was tapped to play it. Visually much smaller in frame and height, I though Kara Zediker did a fantastic job. The same mask and costume was obviously used, but her acting as the Hind was very sincere and touching. I found her scenes with Kevin Sorbo showed more emotion. She went on to do work in Charmed, Star Trek which she was very good in. Its a shame she did not play the character again. Its worth a watch.
Man Beast
11 July 2015
As a fan of Voyage To The Bottom Of The Sea, I must say that MAN BEAST is without doubt the best "monster" type show without being silly or fake. 1st, the episode was cleverly written to include the character of the Doctor posing as a cripple, conveying the appearance of conducting a landmark experiment, when in fact he is not wheel chair bound at all and using Captain Crane as a guinea pig to find a cure for the beast that he to is infected with. But I also feel that credit must go to the well designed makeup for David Hedison, making clever use of the old school fright wig and applied makeup, rather than a bulky and hokey head piece like in Werewolf, where you can see the actor himself and not some stunt double. The makeup coupled with Hedison's "operatic" movements, as he also performs in The Fly during the destruction of the lab, and his out cries of pain during the transformation sequences creates a very scary hour for the viewer. Leith Stevens musical score and "beast" cues adds to the eeriness by using only piano and string instruments vs. the more melodic and bombastic scores heard in the first three seasons. This may be the reason why this episode is a favorite of David Hedisons.
Angel Heart
(1987)
Angel Heart .......................................................Huh!
26 July 2013
Warning: Spoilers
Angel Heart is an awful movie and for one to compare this to Psycho is an insult to a master director in Alfred Hitchcock. Psycho was shot in black and white film noir with a story line that people could follow and understand, even before the doctor analyzed Norman Bates, since the movie title was called Psycho. I am a fan of Mickey Rourke in the days of Rumble Fish and Rumble Fish was dark but you could follow it through to the end. But in Angel Heart, its a movie literally drenched in characters, story lines, blood, chickens, gratuitous sex and killings to such a degree where the viewer can't follow and understand. One moment Angel is having sex with a Voodoo Priestess and the next moment she's his daughter? Huh! Angel is hired to investigate a man who later in the movie turns out to be himself? Huh! Amnesia is not a criteria for a P.I. When the movie ended, I said to myself, Huh! I walked out of the theater totally confused not knowing what the conclusion was. Norman Bates was the Psycho with a split personality dominated by his mother. Johnny Angel or whatever his name was since he had so many aliases, was an investigator, investigating a missing person who happens to be himself who murdered people but had no memory of it, had sex with a woman who was his daughter .............................? To much to absorb. No conclusion. Take a Pass On It.
Superb Episode and Series
14 June 2010
I saw this episode when I was 9 years old and was glued to my TV. David McCalum's makeup was designed by John Chambers who later did the ears for Mr. Spock. This series had the best special effects people in the business, designing the most grotesque looking monsters you will ever see. Unlike the Twilight Zone which played their monsters for laughs, the teaser of The Outer Limits each week gave you a taste of what to expect in the next hour and you did not have to wait until the very end to see them. 1st Season Director of Photography, Conrad Hall and his camera man William Fraker shot episodes with fish eyed lenses and weird camera angles coupled with high contrast lighting producing black and white quality equivalent to feature films. Monsters like the Chromoite from THE MICE looked like a quivering Jelly Fish with claws for hands and a slit for a mouth where it ate its own goo from the lake and male and female Aliens from FUN & GAMES who used boomerangs as weapons to kill their opponents is an example of the monsters on The Outer Limits. Twilight Zone had nothing like this.
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