Zombies of the Stratosphere

One of my all time.... SO BAD IT´S REALLY GOOD FAVORITES! What is there to say about Movies like this one??? On just about every imaginable level... And in about every single production area you can name... This one is truly a STINKER! Everyone has heard of LOW BUDGET.... In this case... It is more like..... NO BUDGET!

Dozens of untintended laughs guaranteed!!! ..... If...Of course ... You can manage to sit through the ENTIRE 1 Hour and 15 Minutes!!!! ENJOY!!!

When viewing "Zombies of the Stratosphere " out of the context of the 1950's, it can be said that the serial falls short of avg. standards, but that said, if you have a Sat. afternoon to spend with your son, and conditions warrant you from going outside, then get out the popcorn, warm up the VCR, and pop in this adventure!!! While evil Martians(Zombies) plot to knock the Earth out of its orbit, with an Atomic(Hydrogen) bomb, Larry Martin and friends , outwit and out hustle, this dedicated group of Evil Doers, with 11 Chapters of car crashing , boat chasing, robot fighting, cliff hangers, that may amuse the over 35 crowd, and could delight younger viewers, whose Fantasy of Flight, is fulfilled, from those of us that are gravity challenged !!! Even the Female leads fight , and are not intimidated by the Outer Space villains !!! While the plot is so-so , this serial is very nostalgic , of a time when the future held so much promise, and the Universe, that was so close, still held so much mystery !!! Get the COLOR version, much more depth !!! Watch the landings onto the Spaceships, by flying humans, needs a little work !!! Enjoy !!!

This one (so to speak) is for lovers of the old Republic Serials, those incredibly silly (by modern standards) episodic films that kept our parents or grandparents coming back to the Saturday matinée week after week. Produced on budgets not much larger than Ed Wood ever had, and on sets sometimes recycled from film to film, they still offered a weekly dose of action and adventure in the days when those terms were not synonymous with earth-splitting explosions, computerized special effects, and "I'll be back." The plots were straightforward; of course, most a/a genre films are simple of plot even today, but there is something about these old cans of cheeze that satisfies more than constant viewings of "Terminatorsaur" and "Predatalienator". The goods guys wear white hats (so to speak) and smell good; the bad guys wear black hats and stink of cigarette smoke; and the simplicity of the 'fex are lovely in themselves. Yeah, things still blow up and burn down, but that is still a function of a/a films, I guess. The logic is, bigger isn't always better, and the serials prove the point.

In this Saturday-morning peanut-gallery special, the plan is for the aliens to blow up Earth, so that Mars can take its orbital place and get warm. Out to foil them is Larry, a "security agent," armed only with a .45 and a miraculous suit that lets him fly through the air just by twisting knobs (and jumping on a hidden trampoline for the initial takeoff). Can he stop the terrible zombies from completing their dastardly scheme before the train runs off the track, he gets burned in a raging inferno, or the movie runs out of reels? Return to the theater next week for the next exciting chapter...or just keep playing the tape. Get plenty of popcorn, settle in for a Saturday with the kids to introduce them to what film really was like, and keep your eyes open for Leonard Nimoy, sans ears and "Live Long and Prosper", in an early film appearance!

One of the best-remembered of the serials, as well as one of the last ones (Republic stopped producing them in the mid-Fifties or so; check a specialist film-history Web site). Warmly recommended to all, unless you have no tolerance for cheesy sci-fi. I only hope it comes out on DVD eventually, and with Nimoy to comment on it or do a special feature!

Okay, so this is corny to the max. But I get a kick out of this stuff anyway.

I can't figure out why they called this "Zombies" as there aren't any zombies (except maybe the robot built by the guys from Mars). Zombies aren't even mentioned except in the last episode.

I do know most everybody in the cast had to get wet at some time or other in this production. They had the entrance to the bad guys hideout go thru an underwater tunnel. Sorta goofy eh!. Speaking of goofy---Larry Martin's rocket pack never fired (although he flew in it a lot---maybe it's invisible rocket blast).

The story is really simple: Guys from Mars want to set off a big H-bomb to deflect Earth out of its orbit so they can put Mars where the Earth was---to warm it up more I guess. They go thru all sorts of contortions to get materials for this project with Larry Martin foiling them at every stage. Lots of cars, boats, trains get wrecked in the process too---Usually at the end of each chapter. Many gunfights occur, along with the usual hokey fist fights in which everyone involved gets up and walks off with no bruises, blood, or even rumpled clothing.

Oh yeah. Mr. Spock was in this, but he didn't do much of anything except say "Yes, sir" to the big shot Martian goon. I think he attacked Larry Martin a couple of times in the underwater passage. Or maybe it was the other goon. It was sorta hard to tell with the goofy, sparkly costumes on that covered most of their heads.

Luckily I didn't have to buy this as I downloaded it from that www.archive.org site (I think all their movies are copyright expired or something so it's legal to download from there). Actually a friend referred me to that site saying "This stuff is your style." I think I'm getting a bad rep here! But I do watch a lot of this old, corny stuff. It amuses me and that's what I watch movies for.

Don't dis this too bad as it's good for a laugh or two. Outlandish costumes and goofy electronic gear will make you chuckle.

Around 1990 Television NZ screened a colourised feature of this serial. I've never seen any reference to it elsewhere. It ran about 100 minutes. Considering how bad some colourisations can be this one was quite good, being very similar to Eastmancolour in the tones but without the saturation.