I actually went to see
Laserblast in the theater when I was sixteen, probably after seeing the TV spot below. At the time, I kinda enjoyed it, more for what the movie could have been than for what it was. The story is actually pretty cool - an "alienated," angry teenager stumbles across a powerful weapon that slowly transforms him into a
literal alien as he uses it - but the execution is just terrible. The acting is horrible and the direction by Michael Rae is worse. No wonder it was his only film.
It's even become one of the more popular
Mystery Science Theater 3000 episodes, and gives the
MST3K crew plenty of fodder. Still, I actually own
Laserblast on DVD and I even dig it out and watch it once every couple of years. I like the green, Hulk-ish alien make-up, the laserblaster prop, and David Allen's stop-motion extraterrestrials are amusing and well-animated (even if some of the sequences are poorly staged and composited), and I still think there's a potentially decent story buried in there somewhere. Someone should remake it.
I saw this in the theater too as a kid - the images haunted the back of brain for years until i stumbled across a dvd a few years ago.
ReplyDelete"The story is actually pretty cool - an "alienated," angry teenager stumbles across a powerful weapon that slowly transforms him into a literal alien as he uses it... I still think there's a potentially decent story buried in there somewhere. Someone should remake it."
ReplyDeleteI don't suppose it'd be any comfort to note that the description for the overall plot above could with only a few tweaks be used for DISTRICT 9 by any chance...
BTW, that isn't Lorne Green doing the narration on the spots, is it?
I saw this movie at a drive-in, believe it or not and have not seen it since. I may get the DVD later on.
ReplyDeleteI saw this on cable back in the early 1980's. Despite the many shortcomings the film has,it's still pretty entertaining. And for trivia buffs,there's the Laserblast/Star Wars connection since Kim Milford,the star of "Laserblast" was in a movie that same year with Mark Hamill called "Corvette Summer." Cool huh?
ReplyDeleteI was actually going to mention the Corvette Summer link, and the fact that a Star Wars billboard is blown up in Laserblast... but between the time I started typing the entry and the end of the second paragraph, I forgot.
ReplyDeleteOld age is a terrible thing. :(
No, I don't think that's Lorne Greene. It sounds like Ernie Anderson's voice with an electronic echo added.
ReplyDeleteJust thought I'd let you know that they DID remake Laserblast in 1989, as "Deadly Weapon." There's a review here: http://www.mrsatanism.com/movies/deadlyweapon.htm
ReplyDeleteOkay. I was kinda thinking of a "good" remake. :)
ReplyDeleteI saw this recently-the party scene with that nerdy guy from 1941 is like the worst/best thing ever.
ReplyDelete