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FEATURED THREADS for 12-6-22

 
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 12:29 pm    Post subject: FEATURED THREADS for 12-6-22 Reply with quote



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If your in the mood for a trible feature which includes a trip to the Red Planet, a desperate mission to save Earth from an asteroid, and a journey to Venus so you can meet it’s “prehistoric women” — then today’s Feature Threads are just what you need!


[img]https://i.imgur.com/XdUwaFu.jpg[/img
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The Wizard of Mars (1965)

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Four astronauts crash-land on the famous Red Planet and set out to do some exploring. They eventually find the remnants of an extinct civilization and an underground complex with glass-encased Martians in suspended animation.

The explorers discover a room occupied by large clockwork gears where they are addressed by the "Wizard of Mars" (the superimposed head of John Carradine).

John makes a speech about how long the ancient civilization has been gone. Suddenly a Mars-quake makes everything begin to shake, rattle, and roll. The explorers get out just before the quake buries the ruins of the Martian civilization.

Flawed acting and less-than-perfect dialogue hamper this low-budget project. In one scene, a photograph of a subterranean pool in the Carlsbad Caverns is used as the background for a superimposed image of the astronauts sitting in inflatable rafts. The actors pretend to row . . . but they don't move an inch against the background. This goes on for several minutes while the actors utter lines like, "It seems like we've been rowing for hours. When are we going to get out of here?"

I'm sure the audience was asking the same question.
Rolling Eyes
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Armageddon (1998)



This isn't exactly science fiction, it's more like science fiction, but it's still loads of fun, especially when you compare it to "Deep Impact" (which could have been called "Deep Coma" Rolling Eyes ).

But hey, if they'd done the TV series "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century" with this much energy and imagination, it would have run for years and years!

The thing I liked the most about this movie was the way the approaching asteroid was depicted as having such a complex shape it was like a tangled forest made of stone and iron ore.



The thing I liked the least was the way the space shuttles zipped around like X-Wing fighters. That's fine for "Star Wars" (which Lucas has always defined as a space fantasy, not science fiction), but this popcorn adventure could have toned down the cosmic hot rodding without losing the audience's attention, I'm pretty sure.

But they stretched the "thrusters pushing down" idea to the wheeled vehicles, and that bit of nonsense had me slapping my forehead right there in the theater. Naturally it became necessary to turn them off at one point so Ben Affleck could live out his boyhood fantasy of driving like Beau Duke on an asteroid.

Crazy as the suit-thrusters-pushing-down idea sounds, however, it makes as much sense as the old "magnetic boots" from days of old. I never bought that wacky idea — and Stanley Kubrick's velcro slippers in "2001" were even worse! Can you imagine the noise those things would make while you were yanking your feet off the floor with every step just to keep from having a wonderful time floating around the cabin?

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Women of the Prehistoric Planet (1966)



Another one of those 1960s sci-fi movies whose poor production standards set your teeth on edge -- but in this case the cast is a hoot!

A space expedition comprised of Wendell Corey ("Cyborg 2087"), the prolific John Agar, night club comedian Paul Gilbert (the comic relief), and Stuart Magolin (Angel from "The Rockford Files") lands on an alien world (a studio set), populated by dinosaurs (stock-footage lizards) and prehistoric humanoids.

The astronauts provide assistance to two local inhabitants, a man and a woman who serve as a kind of Adam and Eve for this strange world -- which turns out to be Earth!

This twist ending was done so often on the Twilight Zone it will never surprise anybody again. The male humanoid's name is Tang and the female's is Linda ( . . . Linda?).

Admittedly the story attempts to interject a few interesting elements; in addition to the roaring lizards, there's a carnivorous plant and a king-sized spider.

IMDB offers this bit of trivia: The original script by Arthur C. Pierce was called simply "The Prehistoric Planet", but producer Jack Broder later added "Women of..." to the title for marketing purposes.

To justify this title change, brief scenes were filmed of three actresses in native garb, prancing and swimming semi-nude in the pond and waterfall on the planet. These scenes were only used in foreign release prints, but are visible briefly in the US trailer for the film.


Co-starring Keith Larson, Irene Tsu, Merry Anders, and Adam Roarke. Written and directed by Arthur C. Pierce.

* Don't you love the Metaluna saucer in the poster, equipped with big "Seaview" windows in front?

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)
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