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Plan 9 from Outer Space

Plan 9 from Outer Space

List Price: $9.98
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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A true classic, well sort of!
Review: What in the hell is wrong with the two laughs and pleasure that an Ed Wood film provides for camp movie buffs.

PLAN 9 is "trash" movies at it's peak, it's has bad acting, paper plate flying saucers, phony screams, a soundtrack taken from another sci-fi flick, 400-pound Swedish ex-wrestler Tor Johnson struggling with his English but in the end it all leads to pure entertainment. Not exactly for all tastes but I had sure a great time. Oh, I forgot to say; Bela Lugosi died two days after the making leaving it to diretor, Wood's girlfriend's taller, younger chairopractor to do the rest of his job....with a cape over his face.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Really greatly awful!
Review: A classic. Even if you're the most forgiving movieviewer in the world, you'd probably find something horrible about the movie--like the constant switches between day and night, the wobbly flight of the flying saucers, (almost as if they were on strings...) the appearing and disappearing language barriers, the narration, ("The flowers, planted by her own hands, reminded the man only of the faded roses of her cheecks." I'm quoting from memory.) the dialogue, (Another quote from memory, "It's strange how the Earth people who can think, are so afraid of those who cannot.") the premise, (Aliens come to the Earth to tell people not to invent something. Then they explain how it works, and how it will destroy the entire universe. This is of course a vital task, so it is assigned one ship with two crew members. Did I mention that these aliens have to ressurect the dead so that they can be acknowledged?) the whole thing. Watch it. It's horrible. It's probably the worst movie you'll ever see. It's hilarious.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: One star only because there were no negative integers.
Review: This movie has provided more comedic relief than any other "intentionally" funny movie I have ever seen. If you are a true movie fan, you cannot miss the opportunity to watch it over and over again hoping for the chance to spot one more incredibly ridiculous "prop", acting screw-up or intoxicatingly absurd line of "dialog". This movie is absolutely the most entertaining and best "worst" movie ever to waste film. When you start memorizing "dialog", you can proudly consider yourself a true "9'er" which I just made up (sort of like the script technique). Pay close attention to the incredibly realistic"graveyard", the transformation from day to night and night to day, the metamorphosis of Bela Lugosi, the terror on the faces and the state of the arts spaceship which transports our 2 human-like aliens. Amazing!!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: good
Review: Like George Romero's 1968 zombie flick, NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. PLAN 9 borrows the soundtrack from those old 50's paranoia films. Yes, it sure s unoriginal but still it's worth listening to. It's soundtrack isn't as eerie as NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: basically, aliens come down and revive the dead for, Plan 9
Review: END

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GET THE CORRECT VERSION OF THIS DVD!
Review: After reading many of the other Amazon.com reviews of the "Plan 9 From Outer Space" DVD, the consumer MUST be aware there are two different companies that are distributing this movie on DVD. The first is PASSPORT which, from all the other reviews seem to say, should be avoided. Apparently the company has their logo visible on screen the ENTIRE movie and featurette which follows. And they also don't even include a chapter index. The other company which distributes this movie is IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT. This is the version I have and THIS is the DVD to get of "Plan 9". (The cover of my version is the one Amazon.com has displayed in the picture above.) The picture quality is near perfect and the Dolby Digital Mono sound is excellent. And. . . .no annoying logo in the bottom corner of your screen. While the (seemingly) inferior PASSPORT version supposedly has a few interviews cobbled together from Tim Burton's "Ed Wood" press junket, the IMAGE version includes a 111 minute documentary which includes some of the stars of Plan 9 (including Vampira) as well as cult horror directors Sam Raimi and Joe Dante! It's two movies for the price of one! So unless you're a die-hard Johnny Depp fan and NEED to have a couple of clips of him speaking, the IMAGE ENTERTAINMENT DVD is the absolute one to purchase. I believe Amazon.com offers both so just beware. And if you're thinking of buying one from an on-line auction make sure you ask the person selling which version they have. I hope this helps.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: "You see. You see. Your stupid minds. Stupid. Stupid."
Review: Also known as "Grave Robbers From Outer Space", Edward D. Wood's masterpiece of horrific filmmaking has been called the "worst movie ever made" by more than a few critics and movie fans. This hasn't kept this unintentially hilarious sci-fi dud from becoming a massive cult classic. And rightfully so. Ed Wood's art for making movies so bad that they're actually good has never been more apparent than it is here.

"Plan 9" revolves around a couple of space invaders in bad suits who fly around in spaceships on strings and resurrect the recently dead to haunt the inhabits of a small town where it seems to go back and forth from night to day a lot. The humans aren't having it though as a joint team of the local police, military, and an overacting airline pilot refuse to be terrorized by the undead creatures (who can't decide whether they're ghouls or vampires). But these visitors from a badly-drawn planet resembling Saturn have their own intentions. They're hear to warn us of a new solar-powered weapon that the Earth will eventually create and wipe out the universe. But our heroes aren't going down without a fight. They've got enough army movie stock footage to send them aliens back where they came from.

What makes "Plan 9" so entertainingly terrible? Where do I start? There's the overly-descriptive narration of Criswell who practically gives play-by-play for every action in the film. You've got Bela Lugosi who appears courtesy of silent footage recorded before his death and with the help of a stand-in who looks nothing like him. And who could forget those cooky cops who don't allow the discovery of their Captain's horrifying death to damper their moods any? Also there's Duke Moore's hards-as-nails detective who fearlessly uses his gun to fix his hat when necessary.From the bargain basement graveyard chalk full of cardboard headstones to the hungry young overactors spitting out silly dialouge, "Plan 9" is truly the "Citizen Kane of bad movies".

For those looking to pick this gem up on DVD, the Image edition is the only way to go. Not only is the picture the best that it's ever looked but it comes with a feature-length documentary, "Flying Saucers Over Hollywood: The Plan 9 Companion" and the trailer for the movie. Avoid the Passport version which has a company logo imprinted in the bottom corner similiar to the ones that TV networks use.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Well it ain't the worst
Review: In fact besides I'd go as far as to say this is perhaps the most competent Ed Wood movie around. Sure there are glaring errors such as Bela running back and forth to the grave in broad daylight ( when it's supposed to be night-time ) and his replacement is obvious ( come on, he's at least 4 inches taller I reckon ). And indeed the last 20 minutes descended into a farce that unfortunately sunk the film. Yes, it shows a degree of ineptitude on Ed's part but for most of the film there was an almost professional air to how the actors acted.

Ed thought that he'll be remembered for this film. This was his big one and he's right, it's the one we remember him most for. However I don't think he would have liked the tag it's been given but if you want to be remembered he certainly went about the right way in doing it ( even if the results were all wrong )

But if we start at the start with Bela's last real scene where he mourns his lover's death - that was a really touching scene. The emotion in that looks too real that it can't be described as fake or cardboard cut out. If anything that was the most poignant scene Ed ever captured on film. He may have been an inept film-maker but that was a stroke of genius - no kidding!

I get the feeling Ed cast Vampira as Lugosi's wife mainly because if you've seen the Tim Burton movie you'll know that Lugosi thought she was " a honey " and it was certainly a nice gesture to Bela to do that. Vampira doesn't have to do much in this film. Just walk really slowly and look ominous whenever the camera is on her. Looks beautiful while doing so I have to admit. I'm almost certain that she inspired George Romero to make Night of The Living Dead by her walking alone.

Criswell makes his appearance in this film and you have to say, him, along with Vampira and Tor, got almost uncanny lookalikes in Tim Burton's biopic that it seems almost spooky.

Hats off to whoever had the idea of using saucer lids for um the use of flying saucers. Really neat and easily identified even if it was black and white. Still not too bad a job. Oh and who could forget Saturn as a ballbearing - Top Class!

The last 20 minutes are a farce as I've said before mainly because it's supposed to be a showdown between the humans and the aliens....or to be more precise 3 men with guns and a man and a woman in funny clothing that are supposed to be aliens. The acting here is horrifically poor and despite it all being passionately acted it just seems.....well a bit silly. And whatever niggling doubts you had about the film leading up to the last 20 minutes, will no doubt be exposed by the end. A shame because the film showed Ed at his most coherent. And that sadly was the pinnacle of Ed's career.

So all in all it's not the worst movie of all time and certainly not the worst you'll ever see ( unless you're a connoisseur of good taste and in that case what the hell are you reading this for ). Definitely his most enjoyable film. Now if someone could only just tell Criswell to shut up ( I wish Ed had tried, honestly try to do that ).

But for Ed, this would be his shot at greatness and while it backfired, it was about as good as he could make it. Perhaps if he were making these now and not 40 years ago he might have gotten away with it. And I'm sure Ben Affleck would have been great as the dumb pilot if it were made now. Think about it

Here's to Ed though - he may not have been the greatest but he sure knew how to entertain us

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Truly a Bad Movie Worth Seeing
Review: Plan 9 From Outer Space is definitely worthy of being considered one of the worst films of all time. It indeed is terrible and is worth seeing just to hear the ludicrous speeches towards the end of the "film."

However, I would like to point out that the documentary of Plan 9 is at least as poorly made as the film is documents. It's terrible. I turned it off after about three minutes it was so abysmal.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Ed Wood's Pinnacle
Review: When I first encountered this unique item on late-night TV back in the 1970s, it moved me as no other film could. I was one of the people who voted for it as the worst film of all time when the Medved Brothers compiled "The 50 Worst Films of All Time." Sadly, Michael Medved has devolved into a predictable, knee-jerk "social critic" for conservative media. The younger brother, Harry, apparently fell off the Earth.
But none of this diminishes the glory of "Plan 9." Writer-director Ed Wood pulls every one of his tricks out for this one: a ludicrous premise; disjointed editing; wretched sets; and sappy dialogue for inept actors. I would call the special effects the bottom scrapings from the barrel, but that would insult the barrel.
There's always a pathetic underbelly to an Ed Wood production, but nearly every time he overcomes it with his unique, infamous, possibly insane spirit of dedication. He's not trying to make the worst films, or aiming for camp, but that's what happens time and again!
What makes "Plan 9" stand out as his masterpiece (though "Bride of the Monster" offers stiff competition) is hard to define precisely. Sometimes a movie just gels, like "Casablanca" did. All the elements belong, as if the Fates has conspired in a never-to-be-repeated moment of artistic magic.
Sure, you can't go too wrong with Tor Johnson and "UFOs" clearly dangling from strings. Leather-suited aliens raise the dead for their own secret purposes, while cardboard tombstones totter and the chiropractor of someone's wife holds a cape over his face in a failed attempt to pretend he's Bela Lugosi. Criswell the prophet intones, "Can you prove that it didn't happen?" I can't!
I have watched this movie under many different circumstances, and it never fails to entertain. Some people don't appreciate what they might call "stupid," "boring," or "stupid and boring." But for some of us, it awakens in the soul the feeling that we are not alone in being misunderstood in an incomprehensible universe. Plus there are laughs.


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