Invisible Invaders / Journey to the Seventh Planet

Rating:
Summary: Agar And Carradine Chew The Scenery!
Review: This is a wonderful double dose of silly sci-fi features from 1959 and 1962, the golden era of the genre. John Agar is a principal in both, and in both cases plays his role in his typical, formulaic, yet understated, way while chaos erupts around him and he takes on various monsters, including one with a "honeycomb cyclops brain".

In "Invisible Invaders" invisible invaders from the moon take over the corpse of scientist John Carradine who brings extra-terrestrial warnings from space to the protagonists of the film. (We also get to thrill to many Carradine voiceovers.) The Earth is engulfed in a stock footage war, but fortunate for us all, the brilliant cast is able to figure out not only how to make the aliens visible (it involves a latex bath, in part) but how to destroy them as well. (Whew!)

In "Journey to the Seventh Planet" John Agar and friends venture to Uranus in a ridiculously roomy spacecraft and discover lots of hilarious stock footage monsters (I am especially fond of the spider) and a brilliant opponent that can alter nature based on the memories of the humans. It is like a more primitive episode of "Star Trek" featuring John Agar as Kirk. This one is hysterical. It is set in the peaceful world of 2001, which is ruled by the brilliant and wise United Nations, and where everyone is happy and prosperous and there is no more war. (I will pause to let you collect yourselves now: I told you it was silly.) The film was made by the infamous Sid Pink in Denmark, with a mixed group of Danish and American actors. The result is a peculiar spectacle where only some voices are dubbed, It also features music you have no doubt heard in other movies of this ilk, most notably in "Zontar, The Thing from Venus" (also starring Agar, of course.)

This is a great little package of early cold war nostalgia, and I recommend it highly to anyone who likes B-movies.


Rating:
Summary: Unearthly aliens, John Agar and a giant space brain oh my!
Review: Two schlocky sci-fi movies for the price of one? I certainly give MGM credit for releasing these low end movies in this two for one format.

Let's see, Invisible Invaders...I would call this a mix of The Day The Earth Stood Still and Plan 9 From Outer Space, with the end result leaning much closer to Plan 9. Apparently, aliens have been living on the moon for the last 20,000 years, and have decided the time was ripe to take over the earth. Thier timing had something to do with the the fact that the earthlings were just beginning to harness the power of the atom. They decide the best way to do this is by inhabiting the bodies of the recently deceased and sabotaging earths' ability to fight back and basically annihilate all earth men unless they surrender control of the planet to the aliens. A small group, two scientists, the daughter of the older scientist, and an army major secure themselves away in a bunker in order to devise a plan on how to deal with the alien invaders, specifically for a way to make the aliens visible...I think....anyway, it's all hokey stuff. John Caradine gets top billing, but he's only in the movie for about 4 minutes. John Agar was the real star in this goofball movie. The earth is coming to an end, and he still finds time to put the moves on the scientists daughter. Funny stuff, a bit slow at times, and lots o' stock footage. In the end, humanity prevails, and the aliens get their cumuppence.

Journey To The Seventh Planet...another Agar classic. The movie starts out with a bit of narration telling us how it's the year 2001, there is no more war, and the earth is governed by the UN...make your own jokes. Anyway, an international group *cough cough* of astronauts have been tasked to explore the Seventh planet, Uranus. On arriving, they discover the planet is very much like earth, atmosphere, trees, grass, etc. , and it is all quite puzzling until they discover that a giant, pulsating space brain is manipulating them for it's own nefarious purposes. Once the astronauts discover what's going on and what the Giant Space Brains' plans are, they try to come up with a scheme to destroy it before it destroys them. All of it is rather goofy, but I kinda enjoyed some of it. I did like the stop motion on the rat monster. It was nowhere near the level of Harryhausen, it was nice to see, especially in this era of CGI. John Agar is the star of this, and he plays a really [frisky] astronaut. I mean, he seems like he is always taking about getting women or coming on to women (yes, the Giant Space Brain creates space babes from the astronauts memories). Well, stuff happens, and the Giant Space Brain trys to destroy the astronauts with their own worst fears turned into reality. You see, now that the Giant Space Brain has learned about earth from the minds of the astronauts, it wants to make the earth it's new home, and plans on hitching a ride with the astronauts or something like that. In the end, humanity prevails, and the Giant Space Brain get its' cumuppence.

I may be making these movies sound better than they are, but don't be fooled. With both of these movies I had to take numerous breaks while watching because they made my little earth brain hurt, but I did get quite a few laughs from them. Both movies are prime candidates for Mystery Science Theater 3000 (RIP).

Rating:
Summary: Unearthly aliens, John Agar and a giant space brain oh my!
Review: Two schlocky sci-fi movies for the price of one? I certainly give MGM credit for releasing these low end movies in this two for one format.

Let's see, Invisible Invaders...I would call this a mix of The Day The Earth Stood Still and Plan 9 From Outer Space, with the end result leaning much closer to Plan 9. Apparently, aliens have been living on the moon for the last 20,000 years, and have decided the time was ripe to take over the earth. Thier timing had something to do with the the fact that the earthlings were just beginning to harness the power of the atom. They decide the best way to do this is by inhabiting the bodies of the recently deceased and sabotaging earths' ability to fight back and basically annihilate all earth men unless they surrender control of the planet to the aliens. A small group, two scientists, the daughter of the older scientist, and an army major secure themselves away in a bunker in order to devise a plan on how to deal with the alien invaders, specifically for a way to make the aliens visible...I think....anyway, it's all hokey stuff. John Caradine gets top billing, but he's only in the movie for about 4 minutes. John Agar was the real star in this goofball movie. The earth is coming to an end, and he still finds time to put the moves on the scientists daughter. Funny stuff, a bit slow at times, and lots o' stock footage. In the end, humanity prevails, and the aliens get their cumuppence.

Journey To The Seventh Planet...another Agar classic. The movie starts out with a bit of narration telling us how it's the year 2001, there is no more war, and the earth is governed by the UN...make your own jokes. Anyway, an international group *cough cough* of astronauts have been tasked to explore the Seventh planet, Uranus. On arriving, they discover the planet is very much like earth, atmosphere, trees, grass, etc. , and it is all quite puzzling until they discover that a giant, pulsating space brain is manipulating them for it's own nefarious purposes. Once the astronauts discover what's going on and what the Giant Space Brains' plans are, they try to come up with a scheme to destroy it before it destroys them. All of it is rather goofy, but I kinda enjoyed some of it. I did like the stop motion on the rat monster. It was nowhere near the level of Harryhausen, it was nice to see, especially in this era of CGI. John Agar is the star of this, and he plays a really [frisky] astronaut. I mean, he seems like he is always taking about getting women or coming on to women (yes, the Giant Space Brain creates space babes from the astronauts memories). Well, stuff happens, and the Giant Space Brain trys to destroy the astronauts with their own worst fears turned into reality. You see, now that the Giant Space Brain has learned about earth from the minds of the astronauts, it wants to make the earth it's new home, and plans on hitching a ride with the astronauts or something like that. In the end, humanity prevails, and the Giant Space Brain get its' cumuppence.

I may be making these movies sound better than they are, but don't be fooled. With both of these movies I had to take numerous breaks while watching because they made my little earth brain hurt, but I did get quite a few laughs from them. Both movies are prime candidates for Mystery Science Theater 3000 (RIP).