Cosmonauts on a scientific expedition to Venus encounter a succession of difficulties. There are people calling this one of the best science fiction films ever made. TedG honours it on these pages with one of his longest reviews. I'm baffled. It's rubbish; corny pre-teen fare at best.
The film-making is not quite Ed Wood level, but almost. There's not a single original or interesting idea in it. No surreal or existential depth, just guys walking around hacking at rubber tentacled plants and ineffectual dinosaurs. There's a robot - built like a Sherman tank - but it was lifted from The Forbidden Planet. The most remarkable thing about the film is that one of the crew members happens to look a bit like William Shatner.
It was the height of the Cold War and the space race. Is this all the west was up against?
The film-making is not quite Ed Wood level, but almost. There's not a single original or interesting idea in it. No surreal or existential depth, just guys walking around hacking at rubber tentacled plants and ineffectual dinosaurs. There's a robot - built like a Sherman tank - but it was lifted from The Forbidden Planet. The most remarkable thing about the film is that one of the crew members happens to look a bit like William Shatner.
It was the height of the Cold War and the space race. Is this all the west was up against?