Friday, December 13, 2024

LET’S GET PHYSICAL: GRAMPA’S SCI-FI HITS (1989) *** ½

FORMAT:  DVD

Al “Grandpa” Lewis returns with more movie trailers, this time with a Sci-Fi theme.  There’s much more of a “story” this time around as Grandpa hops into his rocket ship and blasts off into outer space looking for “transmissions from the past”.  (AKA:  Sci-Fi movie trailers.)  His spaceship gets shot down by a UFO, and he crash lands on a planet where he is chased by a monster.  It’s then up to his pal Igor to fix the ship and get them back to Earth. 

The plot wasn’t really necessary for something like this, but it’s kinda cute and Lewis is a real treat to watch.  The rocket ship interior is all green-screened, and it looks like it was drawn and colored by a little kid.  That’s part of the charm though.  Also, to go along with the Sci-Fi theme, Lewis adds a Star Trek style tunic and a Doctor Who inspired scarf to his usual vampire costume. 

There’s a little bit more in terms of variety in this collection as there is a nice mix of subgenres represented.  The trailers were also culled over several different decades this time around.  I also liked that the trailers were more or less organized by theme.  We get to see trailers for the old Flash Gordon serials followed by the teaser for the Dino de Laurentiis version, there’s also Godzilla (Godzilla, King of the Monsters and Destroy All Monsters), comedies like The Rocky Horror Picture Show (the trailer spells Susan Sarandon’s name wrong) and Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, dystopian futures (The Omega Man and Fahrenheit 451), and giants (The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, Village of the Giants, and The Amazing Colossal Man). 

It was nice seeing some R rated material like Rocky Horror and Alien in there for a change too.  I know this collection is mainly for kids, but you’ve got to spice things up a little bit now and again.  Overall, I think my favorite preview was the cool re-release trailer for Buck Rogers that calls him, “The Original Star Warrior!”

The trailers include:  Flash Gordon (1936), Flash Gordon’s Trip to Mars, Flash Gordon (1980), Godzilla, King of the Monsters, Destroy All Monsters, King Kong (1976), Alien, Barbarella, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs, Buck Rogers, The Omega Man, Fahrenheit 451, The Lost World (1960), The 30 Foot Bride of Candy Rock, The Amazing Colossal Man, Godzilla vs. Megalon, Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster, Varan the Unbelievable, Reptilicus, Atragon, The Creation of the Humanoids, Battle of the Worlds, Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, This Island Earth, The Day the Earth Stood Still, and The Blob. 

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