DEEP SPACE [1988]

 I had waaaaaaaaaay too much fun with this one!  The sainted Fred Olen Ray gave us an 80's ALIEN rip-off where the alien has not only a mouth full of spiky teeth but also a vagina dentata where it's stomach should be  --  which also spews deadly tentacles from it for our Japanese horror fans in da house.  Oh and did I mention it stars the great Charles Napier?!?!  Not only is Charles Napier the leading man/hero of this film but he also gets his end away with Ann Turkel (HUMANOIDS FROM THE DEEP)!  During all this joyous perfection, Napier also plays "buddy cops" with Ron Glass (BARNEY MILLER) against their crotchedy police captain Bo Svenson!  And before you think this abundance of riches is the ultimate he can go, Fred Olen Ray casts Julie (Catwoman) Newmar as a psychic crank!  Can any movie be more sheer perfection, I ask you?!?!?!?

Scientists working for the government engineer a weaponized monster (said ALIEN ripoff) and shoot it into space (for some reason).  Then, as happens in these movies, it then plummets to earth in a fiery crash (a la THE BLOB) and is witnessed by an old wino and a couple necking teenagers (aged 35) who are busy fixing a flat tire -- seriously, couldn't you fix the tire AFTER making out?!?!?!?  Anyway, said brilliant teen decides to poke the large cocoon-like giant roach egg at the crash site; awakening the monster which quickly tears the teenagers to chunks.  Detectives McLemore and Merris (Napier and Glass) head on out there to investigate.  The two detectives find a couple of "giant roach eggs" and take them home (as you do).  Police Captain Robertson (Bo Svenson) continually orders the detectives to see him in his office . . . . for no particular reason.   Another of the "cocoons" is brought to the police lab where it hatches a scuttling spider-like creature that is just as good at tearing people into chunks (as the police lab doc finds out).  Detective Merris puts his "giant roach egg" under the sink while he makes meat loaf.  Detective McLemore (no relation to STAX) and Police Officer Sandbourn (Turkel) bring their "giant roach egg" to a wacky scientist who decides poking it with a drill would be a good idea.  Cue scuttling spider monster attack!  Things and junk and stuff happen from then on to the enjoyment of us all!  Bless director Fred Olen Ray for providing us with not only monster fights but also mega-explosions and car jumps for no reason other than because they're cool!  

My favourite movie is an early 60's B&W art film by Michelangelo Antonioni.  My second favourite film (sometimes 1 & 2 switch places) is an early 60's B&W art film by Ingmar Bergman.  My favourite directors besides these two fellas are Yasujiro Ozu, Howard Hawks, John Ford, Andrei Tarkovsky, Luis Bunuel and Akira Kurosawa to name a few.  Just as much as I love critically-acclaimed cinematic masterpieces, I love movies like DEEP SPACE as well.  Not in that self-aware, 'so-bad-it's-good" way of looking down on these films because I'm so superior.  No, for the appreciation of the sheer entertainment they provide and for the chutzpah these filmmakers show in bringing their work to the screen.  If someone feels that they are "too good" to watch a low-budget flick like DEEP SPACE, I feel sorry for them.  I don't watch critically-acclaimed art films because I'm "supposed to" like them but because I enjoy them and I'm entertained by them.  The same goes for any film; either by Ingmar Bergman or Fred Olen Ray.  Don't limit yourself.  Be open to genres you don't think you like.  The first half of my life I didn't like westerns but now I love them; this is because I slowly watched westerns which were considered "the best of the best" and then I "got it".  This does not mean that you shouldn't know technically what makes a movie better than another.  You should.  However, this doesn't mean that the technically not-so-hot movie cannot be enjoyed for what it is.  Knowing that a movie is "technically bad" does not mean you cannot still enjoy it for entertaining you; even while acknowledging the severe faults the film may have.  I try not to limit myself because I want to experience as much as I can while I'm here.  So that's why I can dearly love both LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD and HORROR OF PARTY BEACH for different reasons.  Losing one or the other of those films because of a prejudice against them would be MY loss . . . . and I don't wanna be a movie "loser".