We are first introduced to a man who has apparently styled himself at least somewhat after Michael Jackson with a fedora he never takes off. He encounters a girl named Renee on the street, goes dancing with her, and in the middle of sex, she takes off his hat and discovers that he has elf ears. Instead of just saying it was a birth defect or something innocuous like that, he tells her he's an alien from the planet Styx, currently living on Earth and working full time as a private detective for some reason. We learn that he has two other aliens paying him to get some kind of disk. It seems to be significant from a historical standpoint, but it actually has something to do with this addictive drug called soma. Some drug dealers keep shooting people up with the soma and our alien friend is going to stop them. There are more specifics to the plot but it doesn't really matter.
What matters is that this movie is nuts. The acting is deliciously campy and a special shoutout goes to a guy who is doing a Peter Lorre impression the entire time and it's just grating and ridiculous. At one point a bad guy prays to Hitler just so you know he's evil. Every time someone gets shot up with drugs, you're in for a treat. The alien aspect is almost removable from the film in how minor it is. There are some absolutely amazing music stings that make it sound like the musicians themselves are reacting to what's on screen. And, of course, it's poorly written with strangely choreographed fight scenes. We even got a cameo from a boom mic!
There was a bit of a debate about what to rate this one. Adam was fairly certain it was rewatch worthy but the rest of us were a bit more borderline and annoyed by the poor quality. This might mean that Adam will be purchasing a copy of the film from the UK. Either way, we compromised on our rating.
Spoon Rating: 7
No comments:
Post a Comment