When I need an amusing diversion, nothing helps quite like watching one of those dreadful 50's sci-fi flicks: "Teenagers From Outer Space", "The Brain From Planet Arous", or my personal favorite: "The Giant Claw". Ed Wood's infamous "Plan 9 ..." is a good choice too. Criswell, in his sing-song voice, cracks me up every time I hear him intone: "Future events such as these will affect you in the future."
I can forgive "Plan 9..." for some of its, let us say ... "imperfections": anthropomorphic aliens who speak English; women aliens who wear lipstick; the hammy, sophomoric acting; the dime store special effects ... But there's really no excuse for a mickey mouse script. You get the feeling that the film was put together by a quarrelsome committee of third graders, and aimed at an audience of chimpanzees.
Criswell drones on: " ... the secret testimony of the miserable souls who survived ...". And later, a VO intones: "The ever beautiful flower she had planted with her own hands became nothing more than the lost roses of her cheeks." Evidently, Wood saw no need to hire a script editor.
And yet, specifically because of its technical crudeness, "Plan 9 ..." is fun to watch. We may not want to admit it, but the film gives us viewers a chance to feel superior to Ed Wood; we get to conjecture that even we could make a film that has more credibility than ... that.
I can forgive "Plan 9..." for some of its, let us say ... "imperfections": anthropomorphic aliens who speak English; women aliens who wear lipstick; the hammy, sophomoric acting; the dime store special effects ... But there's really no excuse for a mickey mouse script. You get the feeling that the film was put together by a quarrelsome committee of third graders, and aimed at an audience of chimpanzees.
Criswell drones on: " ... the secret testimony of the miserable souls who survived ...". And later, a VO intones: "The ever beautiful flower she had planted with her own hands became nothing more than the lost roses of her cheeks." Evidently, Wood saw no need to hire a script editor.
And yet, specifically because of its technical crudeness, "Plan 9 ..." is fun to watch. We may not want to admit it, but the film gives us viewers a chance to feel superior to Ed Wood; we get to conjecture that even we could make a film that has more credibility than ... that.