Smile Your Little Smile...
Nov. 2nd, 2007 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rain_gryphonHoly shit! It's Batter Blaster! It's pancake batter in a spray can! The store locator tells me they sell it at the Cleveland Road Meijer's. I don't even like pancakes, but I'm going to buy and use this! I hadn't even dreamed anyone would try to market such a thing anymore. This is the kind of "space age" product you used to see in the late 50s / early 60s. I love stuff like this.
I will make spray pancakes, and I will eat them off my compartmented plastic TV tray, sitting in my Eames chair, watching old SF movies...
This just made my day.
*****
The other day I got a 99 cent DVD with four old SF movies on it. I got "War of the Planets", "Assignment: Outer Space", "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet", and "Warning from Space". If nothing else, DVDs have made it easy to get niche-market movies. You never could find this stuff on VHS.
"Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet" I was already familiar with (and indeed is what I bought it for). It's the old Russian feature "Planet of Storms", redubbed and slightly re-editted. It's good, entertaining matinee SF, with cosmonauts and a cool robot exploring a jungley Venus, and finding the ruins of a dead civilization.
"War of the Planets" was unwatchable. I gave up after fifteen minutes. It's far and away the newest of the four too, a sort of inept Star Wars clone.
"Warning from Space" is stupid, but enormously entertaining, in the way that only Japanese SF movies can be. Aliens come to warn the earth that we're going to be hit by a runaway planet ("Planet R" - I succumbed to temptation, and mentally transcribed all references to it into "Pranet L"). They look like giant starfish who walk upright, though, so everyone panics and tries to kill them. They use a transforming machine to transform one of their scientists into a clone of a popular singer. This leads to some bizarre scenes as the alien scientist gets mobbed by fans of the singer, but she eventually manages to communicate with earth's scientists, and explain the danger. In the meantime, Pranet L approaches. It just sort of appears in the sky on the designated day. Crowds stand out in the streets watching it with handheld telescopes. For some unknown reason, it's on fire. They decide to evacuate Tokyo, which seems to me a questionable precaution against being hit by a planet. I'll avoid spoilers, but it only gets stupider from there :)
The real prize of the bunch was "Assignment: Outer Space", from 1961. I'm amazed that I've never seen this before. It plays out like a Heinlein juvenile, with a lovely assortment of Chesley Bonestell spaceships. It's about a newspaper reporter assigned to write about daily activities on a refueling station in the asteroid belt. While he's there, a big ship comes in from the outer solar system, headed for earth. The crew are dead, and the ludicrously powerful meteor defense system is still turned on. The ship's going to automatically take up earth orbit, at which time its defensive system will effectively strafe the earth, killing millions. Someone really needed to think the design through a bit better. They solve the problem fairly, in classic hard SF fashion, without a deus ex machina, just by taking advantage of the situation as described.
It's visually magnificent, with good model shots of Bonestell ships. The vacuum ships look like vacuum ships. The ships meant for atmospheric use are pointy, with big wings. There's no smoke, the usual bane of spaceship model shots. The ship interiors are cramped and believable. The astronauts have to crawl over one another at points. The directing leaves something to be desired, sadly. He apparently just can't get a handle on the distances involved, showing ships cruising along in plain sight of one another when they're supposed to be maintaining a formation 5000 miles apart. Despite that, it's worth it. This would have been a solid childhood favourite had I seen it then.
*****
So this Sunday the Indianapolis Colts will face the evil New England Patriots. Both teams are undefeated. I'd been thinking about the zoo, but I'll prolly stay home to see this.
I will make spray pancakes, and I will eat them off my compartmented plastic TV tray, sitting in my Eames chair, watching old SF movies...
This just made my day.
*****
The other day I got a 99 cent DVD with four old SF movies on it. I got "War of the Planets", "Assignment: Outer Space", "Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet", and "Warning from Space". If nothing else, DVDs have made it easy to get niche-market movies. You never could find this stuff on VHS.
"Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet" I was already familiar with (and indeed is what I bought it for). It's the old Russian feature "Planet of Storms", redubbed and slightly re-editted. It's good, entertaining matinee SF, with cosmonauts and a cool robot exploring a jungley Venus, and finding the ruins of a dead civilization.
"War of the Planets" was unwatchable. I gave up after fifteen minutes. It's far and away the newest of the four too, a sort of inept Star Wars clone.
"Warning from Space" is stupid, but enormously entertaining, in the way that only Japanese SF movies can be. Aliens come to warn the earth that we're going to be hit by a runaway planet ("Planet R" - I succumbed to temptation, and mentally transcribed all references to it into "Pranet L"). They look like giant starfish who walk upright, though, so everyone panics and tries to kill them. They use a transforming machine to transform one of their scientists into a clone of a popular singer. This leads to some bizarre scenes as the alien scientist gets mobbed by fans of the singer, but she eventually manages to communicate with earth's scientists, and explain the danger. In the meantime, Pranet L approaches. It just sort of appears in the sky on the designated day. Crowds stand out in the streets watching it with handheld telescopes. For some unknown reason, it's on fire. They decide to evacuate Tokyo, which seems to me a questionable precaution against being hit by a planet. I'll avoid spoilers, but it only gets stupider from there :)
The real prize of the bunch was "Assignment: Outer Space", from 1961. I'm amazed that I've never seen this before. It plays out like a Heinlein juvenile, with a lovely assortment of Chesley Bonestell spaceships. It's about a newspaper reporter assigned to write about daily activities on a refueling station in the asteroid belt. While he's there, a big ship comes in from the outer solar system, headed for earth. The crew are dead, and the ludicrously powerful meteor defense system is still turned on. The ship's going to automatically take up earth orbit, at which time its defensive system will effectively strafe the earth, killing millions. Someone really needed to think the design through a bit better. They solve the problem fairly, in classic hard SF fashion, without a deus ex machina, just by taking advantage of the situation as described.
It's visually magnificent, with good model shots of Bonestell ships. The vacuum ships look like vacuum ships. The ships meant for atmospheric use are pointy, with big wings. There's no smoke, the usual bane of spaceship model shots. The ship interiors are cramped and believable. The astronauts have to crawl over one another at points. The directing leaves something to be desired, sadly. He apparently just can't get a handle on the distances involved, showing ships cruising along in plain sight of one another when they're supposed to be maintaining a formation 5000 miles apart. Despite that, it's worth it. This would have been a solid childhood favourite had I seen it then.
*****
So this Sunday the Indianapolis Colts will face the evil New England Patriots. Both teams are undefeated. I'd been thinking about the zoo, but I'll prolly stay home to see this.
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no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 04:15 am (UTC)I cracked up at that.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-06 11:33 pm (UTC)I'm honestly surprised that you've seen that. I recall you expressing surprise that I owned a copy of "Frankenstein Conquers the World", and figured you not to be a fan of such movies.
So far as the quote, that's the kind of thing I love about Japanese SF. It's by means a bad or inept movie. The camerawork is outstanding, especially the challenging night scenes outside the restaurant, and at the docks. The direction is capable too, but is used in the service of completely deranged scenes.
In the end, it's carefully and capably made, but ultimately plays like it came from another planet. I think a lot of what's going on is stylized or symbolic, and not meant to be taken literally, but I lack the cultural basis to see it as it was meant to be seen. Instead it looks like the work of gifted lunatics. I hope they have as much fun watching our stuff.
no subject
Date: 2007-11-07 04:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 04:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-06 10:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-03 05:53 am (UTC)I got this same DVD a few months back, but haven't gotten around to watching it yet. Sounds like a good way to spend a quiet Saturday at home, though...
no subject
Date: 2007-11-06 10:53 pm (UTC)