Rating: 
Summary: JOHN AGAR LIVES!
Review: "Nice guy" John Agar is transformed into a lecherous, nasty man, thanks to aliens from outer space. There's nothing really scary or shocking about this movie; I think it's really for John Agar fans, like me. There are some real tedious moments in it, as well. But is is fun to see his demented, grinning face when the alien takes over. And a German Shepherd saves the day!Okay, but for better John Agar films, I reccommend "The Mole People", "Hand of Death" & "Tarantula."
Rating:
Summary: A good movie actually
Review: Although low budget, and limited special effects, the plot is good and can get you thinking. I liked this movie. It has more invovled and thoughtful plot than many of the recent movies (enough with the dinos and mummies chasing people around!). In fact, take the plot, update the brains to be "energy fields", and you could have a good movie. In this movie an evil brain (mind) posseses a nuclear scientist. It's objective is not only to take over the world, but to use people to build space craft and attack its own planet. Meanwhile a "good brain" arrives instructing the guy's girlfriend on how to deal with the evil that possses her boyfriend. Sort of an alien cops and robbers working through people. The floating brains aren't the best special effects, but a original idea for the 50s when most monsters are simply people in a man shaped monster suit (heck even today we're still stuck on dinos and mummys going back to the 1930s). The idea of the brains possesing people is good also - sort of a "you never know what really controls people -id- concept". And they good against evil concept is timeless. Like I said, take the plot and make a modernized version and you could have a good movie today.
Rating: 
Summary: Ludicrous, hugely entertaining B-flick; crisp, clean DVD
Review: From the producer (Jacques 'Jack' Marquette) and director (Nathan Juran) of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Brain from Planet Arous (like 50 Foot Woman) has to be one of the top five or ten most entertaining bad films of all time. Apparently Juran was so ashamed of these two movies that he took the pseudonym 'Nathan Hertz' as his screen credit. Unlike say, Dick Cunha, Coleman Francis, or Ed Wood's movies, it's not technical incompetence or lack of funds that create the magic here (although those were no doubt factors), but the completely loony, ludicrous script by Ray Buffum (Teenage Monster, Island of Lost Women). John Agar delivers a deadpan, tour de force performance (perhaps matched only by Jack Nicholson in The Shining) as Steve, the alien-possessed hero: relaxed and easygoing one minute, smug and sarcastic, leering lustfully, writhing in agony, or laughing maniacally the next. Joyce Meadows actually emotes quite convincingly as his frightened, confused fiance Sally, and familiar faces Robert (Wagon Train, Laramie) Fuller, and beaky Thomas B. Henry (Beginning of the End, How to Make a Monster, etc.) fill out the 'name' cast. The only evidence of legendary makeup artist Jack Pierce's participation are Agar's silver eyeballs (re-used by Pierce five years later in Creation of the Humanoids). The lecherous (!?) brain itself is a wonderfully silly only-in-the-50s creation, while Agar, laughing psychotically, telepathically destroying chintzy model airplanes, and his climactic showdown with evil alien brain Gor are cheese-lover's delights. The sweat stains, Agar's distorted face in the water cooler, the no-fx alien craft (seen landing behind the opening credits, watch closely), 'good' brain Vol inhabiting Agar's dog, the highly visible wires suspending Gor in the hysterical climax; there are just too many bizarrely precious moments to catalog in a short review like this. If you're a bad film lover this is a must-have.
Image's DVD package is typical of other releases in their Wade Williams Collection. Minimal extras consist of a mediocre-quality 'Brain' trailer, 16 chapter stops, nicely designed menus, and five bonus trailers 'hidden' in a cookie. The DVD box boasts a "pristine" transfer from original source materials. While there is some very light, sporadic speckling and scratching and a few seconds of damaged frames, the print does look terrific otherwise. Very bright and sharp, with excellent grayscale, contrast, and detail. It's probably never gonna get any better than this. Aficionados of le films bad, go for it.
Rating:
Summary: Ludicrous, hugely entertaining B-flick; crisp, clean DVD
Review: From the producer (Jacques `Jack' Marquette) and director (Nathan Juran) of Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, Brain from Planet Arous (like 50 Foot Woman) has to be one of the top five or ten most entertaining bad films of all time. Apparently Juran was so ashamed of these two movies that he took the pseudonym `Nathan Hertz' as his screen credit. Unlike say, Dick Cunha, Coleman Francis, or Ed Wood's movies, it's not technical incompetence or lack of funds that create the magic here (although those were no doubt factors), but the completely loony, ludicrous script by Ray Buffum (Teenage Monster, Island of Lost Women). John Agar delivers a deadpan, tour de force performance (perhaps matched only by Jack Nicholson in The Shining) as Steve, the alien-possessed hero: relaxed and easygoing one minute, smug and sarcastic, leering lustfully, writhing in agony, or laughing maniacally the next. Joyce Meadows actually emotes quite convincingly as his frightened, confused fiance Sally, and familiar faces Robert (Wagon Train, Laramie) Fuller, and beaky Thomas B. Henry (Beginning of the End, How to Make a Monster, etc.) fill out the `name' cast. The only evidence of legendary makeup artist Jack Pierce's participation are Agar's silver eyeballs (re-used by Pierce five years later in Creation of the Humanoids). The lecherous (!?) brain itself is a wonderfully silly only-in-the-50s creation, while Agar, laughing psychotically, telepathically destroying chintzy model airplanes, and his climactic showdown with evil alien brain Gor are cheese-lover's delights. The sweat stains, Agar's distorted face in the water cooler, the no-fx alien craft (seen landing behind the opening credits, watch closely), 'good' brain Vol inhabiting Agar's dog, the highly visible wires suspending Gor in the hysterical climax; there are just too many bizarrely precious moments to catalog in a short review like this. If you're a bad film lover this is a must-have.
Image's DVD package is typical of other releases in their Wade Williams Collection. Minimal extras consist of a mediocre-quality `Brain' trailer, 16 chapter stops, nicely designed menus, and five bonus trailers `hidden' in a cookie. The DVD box boasts a "pristine" transfer from original source materials. While there is some very light, sporadic speckling and scratching and a few seconds of damaged frames, the print does look terrific otherwise. Very bright and sharp, with excellent grayscale, contrast, and detail. It's probably never gonna get any better than this. Aficionados of le films bad, go for it.
Rating:
Summary: A classic B movie
Review: Gor and Val are alien brains that come to earth. Gor wants to enslave the human race and takes over John Agar's body. Val wants to capture Gor and return him to planet Arous from which he escaped. Val inhabits a dog to be close to Gor. Gor blows up an atomic test site, crisps a couple of people, and destroys a couple of airplanes (the pieces of which hang from their wires afterwards) before his comeuppance. And, of course, Gor has to lust after the female lead. The acting is generally fine and the film exhibits a level of professionalism lacking in a lot of these "classics". This is great B movie fare. And as an extra bonus, the ravine and cave in which Gor and Val are discovered was earlier occupied by that ultimate of alien pests, Ro-man: the alien in a gorilla suit and diver's helmet which appears in Robot Monster, another classic of 1950s sci-fi. The DVD is of good quality. Details are visible in the shadows and the scenes have good tone throughout. The picture is sharp. A very good transfer to DVD. This is an enjoyable, if silly, film. A good example of the alien invader paranoia of the 1950s.
Rating: 
Summary: The Brain From Planet Arous: How To Judge A 'Bad' Movie
Review: Horror movies of the 50s provide a rich vein for critics to explore the meanings of such often bandied about terms as 'great', 'awful', 'bad', and 'good.' Critics like to point at movies such as THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS and say on one hand that it is a 'bad' movie, but on the other immediately qualify the 'bad' with a fuzzily defined 'good.' When critics do that, they suggest that the subjective use of terms normally used to indicate quality or lack of it are not mutually exclusive. There is much to pan in TBFPA: the cheesy special effects, John Agar's hammy acting, a script not believable even by the slovenly standards of the 50s, and the sexist idea that earth women are desired by offworld species. But what is it that separates moves like this one from others that offer nothing but an itch in the brain that vanishes the moment that the concluding credits begin to roll? I suggest that TBFPA is a perfect example of the movie that brings the audience to the very precipice of the gulf that separates momentary fun from a shocking statement that life in our universe and life in a movie exist only to cause pain to the viewer. Dirctor Nathan Juran presents the viewer with the premise that earth is being invaded by two aliens, a bad one (Gor) and a good one (Val). Gor lodges himself in the brain of a human, John Agar, who is clearly meant to represent mortal Everyman, exactly the outwardly handsome but inwardly ungiving sort that Shirley Temple did marry in real life. Val lodges himself in a dog so as to monitor the progress of the invasion. In a wacky sort of way, TBFPA prefigures a similar concept of good cop bad alien later to appear in I COME IN PEACE. Val successfully foils the invasion by causing a freed John Agar to defeat Gor, who is now able to bob about grinning evilly on some noticeably swinging wires. Despite the presence of all the shortcomings noted above, TBFPA has the sense not to cross the line that separates fun from a churning in the stomach that inevitably arises when any film disrespects both itself and the audience. Monstrosities like CALIGULA or I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE work only on crossing this line to exile the audience for the duration of the movie into a world of torment whose only purpose is to remind its captive audience that the power to harm is infinitely preferable than the power to heal. Good-bad films like TBFPA eternally serve to remind us that the enjoyment of any movie is a function of its staying only on the side of a cinematic chasm that has basic respect for human life and dignity.
Rating:
Summary: The Brain From Planet Arous: How To Judge A 'Bad' Movie
Review: Horror movies of the 50s provide a rich vein for critics to explore the meanings of such often bandied about terms as 'great', 'awful', 'bad', and 'good.' Critics like to point at movies such as THE BRAIN FROM PLANET AROUS and say on one hand that it is a 'bad' movie, but on the other immediately qualify the 'bad' with a fuzzily defined 'good.' When critics do that, they suggest that the subjective use of terms normally used to indicate quality or lack of it are not mutually exclusive. There is much to pan in TBFPA: the cheesy special effects, John Agar's hammy acting, a script not believable even by the slovenly standards of the 50s, and the sexist idea that earth women are desired by offworld species. But what is it that separates moves like this one from others that offer nothing but an itch in the brain that vanishes the moment that the concluding credits begin to roll? I suggest that TBFPA is a perfect example of the movie that brings the audience to the very precipice of the gulf that separates momentary fun from a shocking statement that life in our universe and life in a movie exist only to cause pain to the viewer. Dirctor Nathan Juran presents the viewer with the premise that earth is being invaded by two aliens, a bad one (Gor) and a good one (Val). Gor lodges himself in the brain of a human, John Agar, who is clearly meant to represent mortal Everyman, exactly the outwardly handsome but inwardly ungiving sort that Shirley Temple did marry in real life. Val lodges himself in a dog so as to monitor the progress of the invasion. In a wacky sort of way, TBFPA prefigures a similar concept of good cop bad alien later to appear in I COME IN PEACE. Val successfully foils the invasion by causing a freed John Agar to defeat Gor, who is now able to bob about grinning evilly on some noticeably swinging wires. Despite the presence of all the shortcomings noted above, TBFPA has the sense not to cross the line that separates fun from a churning in the stomach that inevitably arises when any film disrespects both itself and the audience. Monstrosities like CALIGULA or I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE work only on crossing this line to exile the audience for the duration of the movie into a world of torment whose only purpose is to remind its captive audience that the power to harm is infinitely preferable than the power to heal. Good-bad films like TBFPA eternally serve to remind us that the enjoyment of any movie is a function of its staying only on the side of a cinematic chasm that has basic respect for human life and dignity.
Rating: 
Summary: Quintessential "guilty pleasure" Fifties sci-fi.
Review: In the context of "bad but fun" Fifties science fiction quickies, this one rates classic status. John Agar really seems to be enjoying himself, and no wonder. How often does any actor get to play a part as juicy as a nice-guy scientist whose mind suddenly gets taken over by an evil extraterrestrial giant floating brain (with eyes) and who then kills people by glaring at them, but who also lusts after Earth women? The film actually involves TWO brains from planet Arous, the other being an interplanetary cop who temporarily occupies the body of the scientist's German Shepherd while he tracks down the bad guy. The big payoff scene, in which Gor (that's the evil brain) is destroyed by merely being attacked with an ax, is anticlimactic, but the outrageous storyline, and Agar's enthusiastic performance, make this film quite enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Quintessential "guilty pleasure" Fifties sci-fi.
Review: In the context of "bad but fun" Fifties science fiction quickies, this one rates classic status. John Agar really seems to be enjoying himself, and no wonder. How often does any actor get to play a part as juicy as a nice-guy scientist whose mind suddenly gets taken over by an evil extraterrestrial giant floating brain (with eyes) and who then kills people by glaring at them, but who also lusts after Earth women? The film actually involves TWO brains from planet Arous, the other being an interplanetary cop who temporarily occupies the body of the scientist's German Shepherd while he tracks down the bad guy. The big payoff scene, in which Gor (that's the evil brain) is destroyed by merely being attacked with an ax, is anticlimactic, but the outrageous storyline, and Agar's enthusiastic performance, make this film quite enjoyable.
Rating:
Summary: Quintessential "guilty pleasure" Fifties sci-fi.
Review: In the context of "bad but fun" Fifties science fiction quickies, this one rates classic status. John Agar really seems to be enjoying himself, and no wonder. How often does any actor get to play a part as juicy as a nice-guy scientist whose mind suddenly gets taken over by an evil extraterrestrial giant floating brain (with eyes) and who then kills people by glaring at them, but who also lusts after Earth women? The film actually involves TWO brains from planet Arous, the other being an interplanetary cop who temporarily occupies the body of the scientist's German Shepherd while he tracks down the bad guy. The big payoff scene, in which Gor (that's the evil brain) is destroyed by merely being attacked with an ax, is anticlimactic, but the outrageous storyline, and Agar's enthusiastic performance, make this film quite enjoyable.
|
