First, I'd like to have a word with the folks at Alpha Video - could you have possibly found a crappier print to transfer? Film dirt so bad it makes you want to floss, and an equally ragged soundtrack. But, if you can wade through the muck, there's quite a trippy little film going on here.
The plot is fairly typical - enlightened aliens come to Earth to tell us what bad housekeepers we are, and warn us of an impending catastrophe. The hook that makes this movie unique, though, is that the aliens look like giant starfish with a giant, glowing blue eye at their center. (OK, actually, they look like giant rayon starfish costumes with a gift-shop novelty lamp in the stomach, but work with me, here.)
Wacky hijinks ensue as the StarFish attempt to infiltrate human society, only to find that humans react to the presence of six-foot walking invertebrates by screaming, running away, or shooting. Just because the invertebrates in question were skulking outside windows and crashing dance parties. Stupid barbarian humans.
So, their chief scientist takes the form of a sexy nightclub singer to get some attention. Unfortunately for her, the human cast of this film (consisting of the usual assortment of scientists, scientist's daughters, and their boyfriends) seem completely uninterested in the plot. They go on picnics, take in a show, do anything to avoid working to prevent a rogue planet from colliding with Earth. At one point, the key scientist who knows the formula that will save the day is kidnapped, and apparently is left tied up, alone, in an abandoned building for a month (!) before anyone even bothers to go looking for him. These people are just not motivated!
Yet, somehow, in the end, the day is saved through the combined efforts of human and StarFish (was there ever any doubt?) We're supposed to have learned something here, something warm and fuzzy about accepting others no matter what they're like inside, as long as they conform outwardly to our narrow expectations of acceptable appearance. And also that, if we all work together, we can build a big enough bomb to knock a planet off its course! Touching, no?
The plot is fairly typical - enlightened aliens come to Earth to tell us what bad housekeepers we are, and warn us of an impending catastrophe. The hook that makes this movie unique, though, is that the aliens look like giant starfish with a giant, glowing blue eye at their center. (OK, actually, they look like giant rayon starfish costumes with a gift-shop novelty lamp in the stomach, but work with me, here.)
Wacky hijinks ensue as the StarFish attempt to infiltrate human society, only to find that humans react to the presence of six-foot walking invertebrates by screaming, running away, or shooting. Just because the invertebrates in question were skulking outside windows and crashing dance parties. Stupid barbarian humans.
So, their chief scientist takes the form of a sexy nightclub singer to get some attention. Unfortunately for her, the human cast of this film (consisting of the usual assortment of scientists, scientist's daughters, and their boyfriends) seem completely uninterested in the plot. They go on picnics, take in a show, do anything to avoid working to prevent a rogue planet from colliding with Earth. At one point, the key scientist who knows the formula that will save the day is kidnapped, and apparently is left tied up, alone, in an abandoned building for a month (!) before anyone even bothers to go looking for him. These people are just not motivated!
Yet, somehow, in the end, the day is saved through the combined efforts of human and StarFish (was there ever any doubt?) We're supposed to have learned something here, something warm and fuzzy about accepting others no matter what they're like inside, as long as they conform outwardly to our narrow expectations of acceptable appearance. And also that, if we all work together, we can build a big enough bomb to knock a planet off its course! Touching, no?