After watching this weeks MOVIE OF THE WEEK , I was in a bit of a nostalgia comic book mood, and after recently getting a 3D version of this flick, I decided to make it a Sunday afternoon double feature. This movie is so bad its almost genius:
THE ROBOT MONSTER
Now to give you some idea of how bad this flick is, here is a true story. After this flick was hated by every critic and reviewer and did so badly when it was first released, the director Phil Tucker found it impossible to find any further work in the movie industry. Depressed and dejected he attempted suicide by shooting himself. Fortunately for him he missed.
Of course, I loved this movie. The story is about this gorrilla with a robot head that wipes out the world with Tesla coils and bubble machines, all except for 8 people.
Actually, if you pay close attention, the story line is right up there with any episode of StarTrek TNG. And it goes where most film-makers would never dare to go(especially in the '50s); hell the Hero and even a little girl end up killed. I think, however, it got lost in the translation. Even in 1953, $16 000 was peanuts for a budget so consessions had to be made and vision sacraficed. I read a story once that the deal behind the gorilla suit was that the original Ro-Man costume didn't fit the actor and there was no time or money to fix it so they just used the helmet and got a gorilla suit.
Still, it's all those little imperfections (and I use this term loosely) that just adds to this flicks charm. The dialogue for example, trys to be oh so philosophical, but it just drips with cheesiness. And the effects, wow, those fighting dinosaurs just blow Jurrasic Park away (for hiliariousness anyway).
And that awesome Ro-Man hardware, no wonder they could wipe out the human race, with that futuristic bubble machine and a high-tech wooden table and all those fancy antenas. Still the humans had those fancy rocket ships going for them...watch them blow up real close, you can see a guy hands and arm holding one of them up.
I'm not even going to discuss the awesome (that's sarcasm) acting. I could spend many pages cutting the ham in this flick, especially the love scenes. The dialouge is very reminencent of Ed Wood's movies and it's dished out with just the same quality.
But my personal favourites in movies of this sort is the continuity errors. Even the most oblivious persons (ie. everyone else in my family) can spot at least one or two. I'd list a few, but how about this?
THE ROBOT MONSTER DRINKING GAME
Rules:
1) Get your booze and and plop this baby into your VCR.
2) If you got the 3D version get your glasses on, anyone caught looking at anything without their glasses drinks
3) Whoever can point out a continuity error, makes everyone else drink twice!
4) And everybody drinks when:
-the film flashes negative (ie. when the Roman does some zapping)
-every time Alice gets picked up and carried.
-dinosaurs fight
-everytime the Great One says "ERROR"
-everytime RO-Man moves his Antena on his machine
As I mentioned, this flick was released originally in 3D, and RHINO has released it on video in 3D which is the version I have, however, the quality of my copy made the 3D not so 3.
You can get a 2D DVD version at AMAZON.COM but for my money, someone should release a 3D DVD version like they did with 13 GHOSTS in Illusion-O.
And same goes for this one as for the MOVIE OF THE WEEK . This movie makes a perfect Sunday afternoon waster for a beer and comicbook monkey like myself!!!
