Monday, February 20, 2017

200 Items Or Less: Invasion Of The Saucer-Men (1957)

A few thoughts: I love watching alien b-movies for how serious yet totally goofy they can be, which is why I have so much trouble with this one. Obviously a major influence on Tim Burton's Mars Attacks, the level of self-awareness here is beyond what you would expect from a movie of this era. While I can appreciate the attempt at making a semi-humorous sci-fi movie like this, what is sad missing here was the humor. I didn't laugh once, and found myself almost scowling at the bad jokes far more often than I was even mildly amused. The alien design is fun and suitably standard (just picture a 1950s alien, odds are it looks something like this), but I felt they were underutilized, as I barely had a chance to see them at all throughout the movie. Also, this is one of those rare instances where I feel the film would have been better suited in color as opposed to blsck and white, but that's just me. It's not a bad movie, I wasn't s just hoping for more laughs -- especially since it's supposed to be a comedy.


Who would I recommend it to? Fans of the especially screwy '50s sci-fi alien movies will enjoy it for its satirical elements and self-awareness, but people expecting anything more accidentally humorous or alien-centric will be disappointed.

My grade: D+

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