Lobster Man from Mars

In addition to parodying lovably bad Sci-Fi movies this movie is also,in essence, a remake of The Producers. The difference is that instead of a movie designed to fail in order to make money, the failure of the movie is to lose money for a tax write off. The improbability of the IRS allowing such a loophole to work can be easily dismissed by the viewer as you're already on board for the ride by the insane title of the film.

I'm partial to everything I've seen Deborah Foreman in, and this is no exception. It is a shame that she moved away from acting with only one film appearance past the year 2000. While hardly a classic film role here, her presence alone makes it worthwhile.

Stanley Sheff's goofy sci-fi take on Mel Brooks' The Producers is smart enough to not take itself too seriously, nor too self-consciously play up how "bad" it is. As opposed to such contrived "cult" films like the crass Sharknado series or the ineffective likes of NAKED MONSTER, GIANT PAPIER MACHE BOULDER, this one just hums along gleefully to its own beat.

The title is attributed to Orson Welles who originally was slated to play JP Sheldrake, a film mogul who buys the cheezy movie, 'Lobster Man From Mars', as a tax shelter scheme. Tony Curtis enjoyably chews the scenery as Sheldrake. Anthony Hickox and Deborah Foreman (VALLEY GIRL) play the couple who made the film within a film. Patrick Macnee and Billy Barty play actors in the crustacean epic and Bobby Pickett is the King of Mars. It's all done with tongue firmly in cheek, but, humbly and amiably so. The cast, SFX, Music, Costumes and Cinematography follow suit.

P. S. I knew a good number of people who worked on the film including lead actress Debbie Foreman and had worked with Tony Curtis. I even got to visit the set. Gives it a bit of extra nostalgia to me.

So what have we got here with this "Lobster Man From Mars" (1989) movie? Think "The Producers" (1968) meets "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (1959). If you don't get parody you should give this one a wide berth. If you want really "clever" parody you should probably skip it as well. If you thought Buster Crabbe's Flash Gordon stuff was fun because it was so "unintentionally" hokey you might want to go into avoidance mode along with the others.

The hokey elements in "Lobster Man From Mars" are anything but unintentional, it wants your attention like a one-trick pony mad for a carrot. This lack of subtlety would pretty much doom the thing had it not already expired from a case of terminally lame screen writing.

The root of the problem is that they were given too much money to make this thing. Much like the fake disaster movie playing in the background of "Drive-In", it utilizes a film within a film device; only this time a Hollywood executive is screening what is supposed to be a bad "student" film. The saving grace of bad student films is their unity of weak writing, poor production values, and unpolished acting. But the student film being viewed in "Lobster Man From Mars" has some recognizable cast members and enough money for semi- authentic production design; which does not work to its benefit.

Here's the premise: a Hollywood studio needs a really bad film to use as a tax write-off. They screen a high school kid's science fiction film, which while really bad would be another "Citizen Kane" compared to any bad student film. In the film within the film, Mars is running out of air and sends the "dreaded" Lobster Man to earth where he and a hairy sidekick begin randomly zapping people with a ray gun. The too competent cast includes Patrick Macnee (playing a British scientist) and Deborah Foreman looking (as the film moves along) like she is gradually deciding in favor of retiring from acting (which she actually did-was it coincidence or was her decision made midway through the production of this turkey?).

The problem is that there is very little in the movie that is particularly funny, intentional or unintentional. The only bit that works repeatedly involves the zany space bats who fly around cackling manically. And there is one good line by Tommy Sledge, as a film noir parody private detective who inspects the giant lobster tracks leading away from the site of an explosion and then says: "It means that either he escaped, or he walked backwards from the horizon to commit suicide in this bonfire".

If you want to see this stuff done right, cleverly written and with a student film level of production design, check out Larry Blamire's "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" (2001). 90 minutes of inspired spoofing.

Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

First of all, I understand what parody is, and I realize that this movie is supposed to be bad, as it's poking fun of bad 1950s science fiction movies. My rating is not based on the acting, special effects, or dialogue, which, as I said, are meant to be bad. Unfortunately, I just didn't think this was particularly funny! For one thing, the whole film-in-a-film conceit seemed to be weakly developed. I wasn't quite sure why they even bothered doing this, except to highlight that the movie isn't meant to be taken seriously. However, if you have to explicitly tell people that your movie is a parody, maybe you're not doing it right. Or you're underestimating your audience (and thus insulting their intelligence).

Anyway, I thought it was somewhat amusing, and I dutifully recognized each of the pop culture references, but, really, it just wasn't all that funny. Something like Killer Klowns From Outer Space makes me laugh hysterically every time I watch it, but this.... not so much. Chalk it up to personal taste, I guess.

Again, I've been rather let down by Anthony Hickox, after really liking Waxwork and Waxwork II. I just don't think I've ever really liked anything else he's done since then.

i saw this film some years ago now, and i can still remember it. at the time, and on subsequent viewings, it made me laugh myself quite silly, not quite as silly as this film however. it is somewhat like a cheaper, tackier, Z grade, sci-fi version of gremlins two, just taking the piss out of as many things as it can. somtimes it misses, but mostly it hits. a bizarre indie classic. go find it now, you won't regret it.