In 1979 I had two film makers Joost and Iris van Rees come to my office when I was working in California. They were making a documentary about the Tunguska Event, asked for an interview. I did it. I did not even know they made the documentary, years later I saw it on television, it is awful, Victor Buono plays Homer the Archivist, he obviously figured out fast that this awful and so he just acts nuts. Here is the weird thing, Googling Target Earth, there are hits where the 1954 film is credited to Joost van Rees who made the 1980 film. And there are places where the poster art for the 1954 film , used on the VHS box turns up as the VHS box for the Target
. Earth? In fact check out IMDb's 'art' for Target
..Earth? It's the one for the 1954 film! Somehow in some crazy way the 1954 and 1980 film have gotten mixed up together.
3 Reviews
Very boring documentary using insane host to keep you awake
OADman14 March 2023
This documentary is about the Tunguska Incident and analyzes the possible causes of this huge mystery. Some synopses I've read say this is about alien theories, but the movie is more about scientific well known theories and the alien possibility is very briefly brought in.
What makes this film standout is that at some point the producers realized they had just a bunch of footage of boring science professors talking to the camera and decided to make things more fun by adding a host, which is a fat man in a spaceship talking to a sentient computer that has an evil robot voice! This host segments are just there so we don't fall asleep. The guy starts as some wise investigator but he becomes more and more weird and lunatic as the movie progresses.
In the final third through the movie they run out of Tunguska material and the documentary switches to a completely unrelated recapitulation of the space race!
And when you are near the ending and wondering, what the hell I am watching? Out of nowhere is a final very cheesy scene of aliens (which are just women in Egyptian costumes) coming from space and destroying Earth. Oh, so that explains the title?
What makes this film standout is that at some point the producers realized they had just a bunch of footage of boring science professors talking to the camera and decided to make things more fun by adding a host, which is a fat man in a spaceship talking to a sentient computer that has an evil robot voice! This host segments are just there so we don't fall asleep. The guy starts as some wise investigator but he becomes more and more weird and lunatic as the movie progresses.
In the final third through the movie they run out of Tunguska material and the documentary switches to a completely unrelated recapitulation of the space race!
And when you are near the ending and wondering, what the hell I am watching? Out of nowhere is a final very cheesy scene of aliens (which are just women in Egyptian costumes) coming from space and destroying Earth. Oh, so that explains the title?
Occasional moments of brilliance
CobraMist26 December 2019
Warning: Spoilers
This is a documentary that focuses on Tunguska event. It specifically focuses on the idea that it was caused by aliens. The overall format is to have some very old talking heads (various types of "scientists") offer their knowledge on various Tunguska event theories before the film cuts back to some skits that feature Rick Overton and Victor Buono.
The skits take place on an alien spaceship with Rick plays a super computer (think HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey) while Victor plays the ship's sole biological occupant. Together they work on assessing humanity's appetite for destruction and how humanity has responded to the Tunguska event.
The spaceship scenes (aka skits) are incredibly hammy but they rarely produce entertaining material. A lot of really tired jokes are brought out while Victor either summarizes what a talking head just said or sets up the next straw man argument.
The quality/feel of spaceship set is on par with the one used for MST3k as is most of the dialog in these scenes. There is the occasional use of spooky moog music but for the most part there isn't any music to be found. Nearly all of talking heads are incredibly boring and lifeless with the exception of Carl Sagan's brief appearance. His appearance seems to mostly be stock footage but his screen presence in that is still head and shoulders above the rest.
Beyond the talking heads it's mostly the skits. Occasionally you will get some fun photos or artwork, backed by a nice moog score but those moments are few and far between. I'm not sure I'd suggest this to anyone unless you are a big fan of either of the skit actors.
The skits take place on an alien spaceship with Rick plays a super computer (think HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey) while Victor plays the ship's sole biological occupant. Together they work on assessing humanity's appetite for destruction and how humanity has responded to the Tunguska event.
The spaceship scenes (aka skits) are incredibly hammy but they rarely produce entertaining material. A lot of really tired jokes are brought out while Victor either summarizes what a talking head just said or sets up the next straw man argument.
The quality/feel of spaceship set is on par with the one used for MST3k as is most of the dialog in these scenes. There is the occasional use of spooky moog music but for the most part there isn't any music to be found. Nearly all of talking heads are incredibly boring and lifeless with the exception of Carl Sagan's brief appearance. His appearance seems to mostly be stock footage but his screen presence in that is still head and shoulders above the rest.
Beyond the talking heads it's mostly the skits. Occasionally you will get some fun photos or artwork, backed by a nice moog score but those moments are few and far between. I'm not sure I'd suggest this to anyone unless you are a big fan of either of the skit actors.
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