Vicious Lips (1986) User Reviews

Not one of Pyuns' best.

[Hey_Sweden · 5/10 · 8 March 2015]

This is essentially a rock 'n' roll fable set in a sci-fi environment, as the title band vies for fame and fortune. A gig on a distant planet could be their ticket to the big time, but first they have to get there. Next, they have to learn to start getting along. Judy (Dru-Anne Perry) is brought in to replace the original singer, and Judy has to struggle to be accepted. The balance of director Albert Pyuns' script deals with the girls' being marooned on a desert planet after a near accident in space.

The problem for this viewer was that there really wasn't a strong enough story, or characterization, to latch onto and draw him into the movie. The movie is a curio, to be sure, but for too much of the running time, things are rather dull. Most of the gals in the band are interchangeable, although they are indeed a good looking bunch (gotta love that huge 80s hair!). Perry does her best to create a somewhat engaging character. The best value in "Vicious Lips" comes from the look of the movie, with appropriately trashy and colourful production and costume design. The songs are certainly catchy. There are some fun makeup effects courtesy of Greg Cannom, and John Carl Buechler and his team, and one major creature role, "Milo", played by Christian Andrews. Milo creeps on board the ladies' spaceship and sneaks around, but it takes too long for him to actually interact with any of them. The names of these people are fun; lovely Pyun regular Linda Kerridge ("Fade to Black") plays a band member named "Wynzi Krodo". Mary- Anne Graves seems to be having a good time as rock promoter Maxine Mortogo, but Anthony Kentz is simply annoying as Vicious Lips manager Matty Asher.

A late-in-the-game plot twist is groan inducing, but the resolution creates some good vibes as Vicious Lips rock the joint with a ditty dubbed "Lunar Madness".

Five out of 10.

What on earth did I just watch???

[AlsExGal · 3/10 · 18 February 2017]

I was in my 20's in the 1980's and there just wasn't too much to worry about during most of the decade, so films often drifted into sci-fi fantasy territory, just like they did during the 1950's, an also relatively carefree decade.

This is a sci-fi musical about an all-girl group named the Vicious Lips that lands a gig at an interstellar concert event. On their way to the venue, their spaceship crashes on a desert planet, and they bicker and fight with each other in the dark ship wreckage. There's also a monster of some sort lurking around, and the girl's sleazy manager is wandering around the desert looking for help with two mostly-naked blondes.

The girls look like a live-action Jem and the Holograms, and their New Wave rock music is awful. They're shown on stage using fictional musical instruments, kind of partially disassembled guitars with blue bug zappers on the end. Starring no one you've ever heard of, and they are uniformly terrible actors. Written and directed by Z-movie auteur Albert Pyun. Empire Pictures produced it, but from what I read, this wasn't released in the U.S. until the DVD in 2011. Some people seem to have elevated it to cult status, and it is actually on a "Cult Movie Marathon" DVD set, which seems to get pretty good reviews on the world's largest website, probably owing to the viewers' collective nostalgia, not the quality of the film.

I give it 3/10 for originality.

Ruthless Lips.

[morrison-dylan-fan · 5/10 · 30 December 2015]

With a fellow IMDber having recently done a great thread about Rock movies on IMDbs Classic Film board,I was pleased to discover that a family friend had recently got hold of girl band Sci-Fi flick!,which led to me getting ready to find out how vicious their lips could be.

The plot:

Hired to be the new singer after the original one has died, Judy Jetson finds herself playing in burnt-out Rock clubs with her Punk band.Trying to get the band to hit the big team,the groups manager is pleased to reveal that they have been invited to perform a huge gig,but there is a catch,which is that the venue is on a different planet.

View on the film:

Made as Hair Metal was just reaching its peak,writer/director Albert Pyun & cinematographer Tim Suhrstedt turn their spaces travels into glitz covered music video,with smoked covered corridors,flashing lights and huge hair giving the title a delightfully kitsch atmosphere.Whilst he gives the movie some catchy songs and is surrounded by great looking girls,the screenplay by Pyun fails to grab the glitter on screen,due to Pyun sticking the group in a spaceship for most of the film,where the music is left behind which leads to the spaceship plodding along to its destination,in a movie which has no vicious lips at all.

It's an Albert Pyun movie... so you know what to expect

[Wizard-8 · 17 December 2013]

Doing a little research on "Vicious Lips", I unearthed the fact that the movie never got a home video release in North America until more than twenty-five years after the movie was completed (though the movie was released on video in other countries.) Watching the movie, it becomes clear why apparently no North American video company was eager to distribute the movie. The fact that it was written and directed by Albert Pyun (for some reason billed as "Albert F. Pyun" here) should give a clue. This is an AWFUL movie. It's a real cheap production, often looking like it was filmed in basements as well as abandoned buildings, and often with the camera zooming in very close to the actors to hide the cheapness and to have stuff happen out of camera range so no expense has to be spent to actually show it. The movie is broadly acted so that every character comes across as a dimwit. The songs are very forgettable, and would have been considered that even back in the 1980s when the movie was made. But the worst thing about the movie is the screenplay. The characters are really thin, and there are huge chunks of the movie when little to nothing is happening. Not only that, in the last ten minutes there is a surprise twist that will have you throwing your remote at your television. All of which makes this movie one of Pyun's worst efforts among the countless bad movies he's made.

The first 30 minutes are good, the rest not so much

[movieman_kev · 5/10 · 27 February 2012]

Judy Jetson, the new singer for a futuristic all-girl punk band from the future gets stranded on a desert planet after the spaceship that they are taking to a promising gig runs out of power. Oh and there's a homicidal maniac in the ship too.

This film was just kooky enough to let me forgive the Director/writer's later made '90's Captain America travesty. The songs were actually quite catchy and I found my foot tapping to many of them. Unfortunately, the movie does lag in the middle. But the first half hour is trashy b-movie gold.

Eye Candy: A 'blink and you're miss her' and two rather fetching topless sand-people

Out of Sync

[scythertitus · 3/10 · 21 March 2019]

A bit like if Pitch Black were filmed in the 80s, made no sense, was about a female rock band and rubbish.

Some of the songs are good but the background music playing on a loop is deeply annoying and the cast just keep on repeating the same lines over and over. There is about two sentences of plot in the entire thing.

Overall this collection of clips and songs is barely a movie, it is stylised for sure, but that is really all it has. It's an extended 80s music video and nothing else. If you like that type of thing then great, for everyone else it's a pass.

not as bad as it could be

[dromasca · 4/10 · 20 June 2008]

This is really a film in a weird genre - punk music combined with science fiction. Yet, taking into account the almost total lack of subject and action and the low-cost budget preventing any spectacular effects specific to science-fiction movies the film is not as bad as it could be. First the music is quite could, catches the attention and somehow justifies the events that trigger the story. Then the characters in the future world are quite carefully sketched and even if they remind somehow the intergalactic bar in 'Star Wars' they are quite funny by their own. The film not being too long is quite a quality here, and at the end of the 75 or so minutes of screening the remaining feeling is of a not so complete loss of time.

Disappointing!

[BandSAboutMovies · 3/10 · 18 October 2018]

The Vicious Lips are trying to become the biggest rock band in the galaxy. Made up of Bree Synn (Gina Calabrese, The Dungeonmaster), Wynzi Krodo (Linda Kerridge, Marilyn from Fade to Black!) and Mandaa UUeu (Shayne Farris, who was also in Down Twisted with Kerridge), they've just lost their lead singer Ace to, well, death and need to get to a gig across the universe. Luckily, they find Judy Jetson (Dru-Anne Perry, who also plays Ace) and give her their dead singer's name and get on their way.

I wanted to love this movie based on the first ten minutes or so, but then I realized that it came from Albert Pyun (The Sword And The Sorcerer, Cannon's Captain America), so I had to adjust my excitement level. Here I was, hoping to get a movie about a punk rock girl band hellraising through the cosmos with the art direction of Heavy Metal and what I got was a hair ballad playing girl group slowly moving in a boring plot with art direction by whoever did the Rinse Dream's Cafe Flesh or The Dark Brothers' movies. That doesn't sound like a bad thing actually. But here it is, as this film commits the cardinal sin of being boring.

Disjointed as heck

[jellopuke · 3/10 · 8 December 2019]

Some of this was amazing, cheesy 80's hair/music/effects but the overall movie was a confused jumble of nonsense with no real storyline or plot. Great songs, but the stuff on the ship goes on forever and leads nowhere. Still worth checking out, but hardly a lost classic.

An okay and authentically weird sci-fi oddity

[Woodyanders · 6/10 · 3 January 2014]

Shot in a hypnotically funky-punky neon 80's New Wave style (y'know, loads of bright lighting and smoke swirling in the corners of the frame throughout), with a bouncy'n'catchy soundtrack, a cool and colorful array of bizarre extraterrestrial creatures, a quirky sensibility, and amusing touches of flaky humor, writer/director Albert Pyon's offbeat tale of an all-female rock group from outer space who aspire to make it big starts out well enough, but alas runs out of gas at the halfway point and stalls prior to kicking back into energetic first gear for a lively climactic musical number. The key problem is that the weak and meandering narrative seriously lacks the necessary cohesion to come together as a satisfying whole, which ensures that this picture never completely realizes the full potential of its inspired and promising central premise. The erratic stop'n'go pacing counts as another major flaw. Fortunately, the zesty acting by the enthusiastic cast keeps the film watchable: Linda Kerridge as the vain Wynzi Krodo, Gina Calabrese as the sweet Bree Syn, Dru-Anne Perry as spunky goody goody two shoes Judy Jetson, Shayne Farris as the snippy Mandoza, Anthony Kentz as smarmy hustler manager Matty Asher, and Mary-Anne Graves as bitchy rock promoter Maxine Mortogo. Moreover, the gaudy make-up and humongous hairdos give this honey a gnarly 80's period charm while the rather primitive (not so) special effects are a hilariously hokey sight to behold. An acceptable outré diversion.

Directed by Albert F. Pyun: I'm guessing the 'F' stands for ****ing awful!

[BA_Harrison · 2/10 · 20 July 2020]

Vicious Lips is a new-wave sci-fi musical directed by Albert Pyun. If that sentence isn't enough to loosen your bowels with fear, you either have no idea of who Pyun is, or you're a fan of really, really bad films.

For those not familiar with the director, allow me to enlighten you...

Pyun works mainly in the science-fiction and action genres, churning out low-budget straight-to-video garbage. His work includes mediocre sword and sorcery film The Sword and the Sorcerer (his first and probably best film), the atrocious action thriller Down Twisted (1987), the mind-bogglingly bad Journey to the Center of the Earth (1988), early Van Damme vehicle Cyborg (1989), a long forgotten version of Captain America (1990), the Nemesis series of sci-fi films (good luck watching them all), and countless other low budget efforts that, being a glutton for punishment, I will no doubt subject myself to at some point.

Pyun is not the man I would choose to make a futuristic rock opera. But here it is anyway.

Dru-Anne Perry plays aspiring songstress Judy Jetson, who is given the chance to perform with the band Vicious Lips at a make-or-break show at Maxine's Radioactive Dreams club. Manager Matty Asher (Anthony Kentz) 'borrows' a spacecraft to ferry the girls to the gig, but a close encounter with an asteroid leaves them stranded on a barren planet. Worse still, the girls find themselves menaced by a ferocious beast that has escaped from the ship's cargo hold.

What follows is a sloppy mess of scenes that seem to have been made up on the fly, with the occasional musical interlude. To be fair, the songs in this film aren't half bad, but everything else is more than terrible. After lots of dull conversation between the girls on board the ship, a strange meeting between Matty and two almost naked blonde women, the band being chased by the monster, and Judy (now named Ace Lucas) meeting some bizarre mutant cannibals, the film pulls the old 'it was all a dream' trick, cutting to Judy at Radioactive Dreams, the band having arrived safely.

Not one of the characters is likeable, several are extremely irritating, the direction is unfocused, the acting is awful, the editing is erratic, and the whole things tries to cover up its lack of budget with those '80s visual clichés, smoke and neon lighting. Because I liked a couple of the songs, I won't give this one the 1/10 rating I awarded to Pyun's Down Twisted and horror/western Left For Dead (2007) - but it was a close call.

ST:TOS with Big-haired Beauties and Better Sound?

[Azundris · 9/10 · 19 August 1999]

"Vicious Lips" is set in the far future, where a band finally gets the opportunity for That Breakthrough Gig -- if they can make it to an "in" club on another planet in time...

Given that the plot features no major twists, turns or surprises, given that the set is extremely trashy, the number of locations limited and the choice of them not overly inspired, Vicious Lips seems like a longish episode of the original Star Trek sans the familiarity with the characters we all know and love -- so whatever persuaded me to rate it "excellent"?

I'm a sucker for Big Hair, and The Music of the Eighties, both of which the movie has plenty of, since the all-girl band's guitar-and-synth sound is vaguely reminiscent of the early Kim Wilde's, if both "rockier" and catchier (and a lot like that of "Radioactive Dreams", another Albert Pyun-movie of that era with a more coherent plot, but no big hair). Last but not least, the general air of ultra-trash somehow utterly fails to be annoying, lending a certain charm to the movie instead, soon turning the initial impression ("Hey, I could do that!") into a burning desire to phone up all your friends:

"Let's make a movie!"

Not Pyun's best film by a longshot, but for his fans its worth a watch...

[bcbell79 · 7/10 · 13 March 2012]

I am a big Albert Pyun fan (The Sword and the Sorcerer and Cyborg being my favorites), I will watch anything he does. I just came across Vicious Lips on Netflix, and remembered thinking (as a kid) that this movie was a lot of fun. So I just watched it for the first time in probably 20 years. It's fun, if for nothing else, for the 80's big hair and synth music. The premise is simple (and never gets any more interesting), an intergalactic all girls band (in total 80's big hair style) gets a chance for their big break, if they can make it to a club on another planet in time... Yup, that's the plot! So the girls board a space ship carrying a caged monster (don't get excited, it's not at all as cool as it sounds) and head off to there gig...

I remembered this movie being really funny and having lots of T & A, neither is true. I'd classify it as cute (not funny) and it has next to no nudity (except a brief scene with two beautiful ladies on the sand planet). And the caged "monster" is more of Lon Chaney Jr Wolfman than a monster. The all girl band is fun, with all the girls being fun and believable as and 80's hair band. One of the biggest problems is there are only a couple locations in the movie, and it restricts the story immensely (even for a Pyun film!). Once the girls are on their way (about 30 minutes into the film), the ship crash lands on a desert planet, and the rest of the movie takes place here. The films lack of budget shows, and didn't even try to look like it had one.

If you are an Albert Pyun fan, check it out, its definitely worth a watch. If you like bad sci- fi or bad 80's movies, give it a try. All others should probably stay away...

Seriously what was going on in the 80's?

[PIST-OFF · 1/10 · 31 March 2021]

The first question is, is this movie better or worse than Voyage of the Rock Aliens? Both are pretty terrible unless you adore schlocky mid 80's fair dealing with post punk "rock" bands. This one is of particular interest for raising a few questions. Questions like why during that transition from punk (not as music but as fashion) into glam metal did women make themselves up to look like men in drag? The rat's nest hair, the horrifying over use of make-up, the androgynous clothing. Of course that raises another question, maybe men in drag saw that look and really just took to it? These are questions you may ponder while staving off the boredom of watching this mess of a film. The editing looks like an early form of what Oliver Stone used in NBK..... call it "cocaine chic". The plot..... um.... well. I've read content warnings on food that were more entertaining. It's hard to judge acting when the material is this thin. Could any actresses raise this up into something more? Doubtful. Skip it. Anything you could do with your life would be time better well spent.

Anthony kentz

[flk1940-857-716655 · 3 January 2021]

Great actor he reminds me of a few different people. Sad to say it was his only film. He in my opinion should have been a big star Lead singer girl has nice teeth

Bizarre 80's Sci-Fi/B Movie

[gwnightscream · 4/10 · 27 January 2021]

This 1986 sci-fi film takes place in the future where ambitious, female singer, Judy (Dru-Anne Perry) becomes the lead singer of amateur band, "Vicious Lips" and they head across the galaxy to their first gig, but become stranded on a desert planet with an escaped, killer beast. This is a bizarre 80's flick with some cheesy acting, neat creature/make-up effects & obvious nods to "Star Wars" & "Blade Runner." If you like 80's music & big hair or Sci-fi/B movies, give this a try.

Wow! It's painfully fun

[ripbooker-76329 · 4/10 · 18 February 2024]

Given what I would imagine was a limited budget with access to a limited talent pool, the movie has its moments. Albeit some of them are so bad it hurts to watch, there are a lot of really odd and entertaining scenes based on an interesting premise of galactic rock bands touring the universe. The acting is subpar verging on bloody awful and its funny bad. Yet, somehow the quirky 80's sound track and dubious music are a character of their own and help support the open failure at the thespian art. It's pretty telling when a movie isn't released in any form for 25 years after it was made. Man it's bad but worth a view especially if you're an affionado of B movies.

80s Trip Galore

[Tweetienator · 4/10 · 7 May 2022]

Vicious Lips is like a wild but bad trip - without doubt the movie is one of a few but the reasons why you should watch this movie are not the story nor the acting or that wild mix of a story (a little Rocky Horror Picture Show shining through): watch this wonder if you want 80s hairstyle galore, listening to 80s rock music a la Heart (the band who got some fame in the 80s) and 80s fashion with all its unique but terrible taste. Last but not least, director Albert Pyun is responsible for this "gem" - I know and like mostly his post-apocalyptic trash gems like Cyborg (van Damme!), Omega Doom (Rutger Hauer) and Radioactive Dreams (Michael Dudikoff). My exact rate for Vicious Lips is 3 + 1 for all those happy memories of the 80s evoked by this work of trash and the few moments of horror added.

This didn't add anything to the science fiction or horror genre that would make you want to see it

[kevin_robbins · 3/10 · 28 March 2022]

Viscous Lips (1986) is a science fiction/horror film that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows a struggling female band that is invited to an intergalactic party on another planet to perform and hopefully reach their stardom. Unfortunately for the band their ship crashes on a planet filled with creatures trying to hunt them down. Can the ladies stay alive long enough to find a way back to Earth?

This movie is directed by Albert Pyun (Cyborg) and stars Dru-Anne Perry (Cyborg Nemesis), Gina Calabrese (The Dungeonmaster) and Linda Kerridge (Fade to Black).

The storyline for this was lacking in execution but creative in theory. The background music, masks and makeup were okay. The soundtrack was fairly solid. The women chasing Matty through the desert were great. But the women sitting in a crashed spaceship talking dragged and was fairly boring. There isn't much here to recommend.

Overall this didn't add anything to the science fiction or horror genre that would make you want to see it. I would score this a 3/10 and recommend skipping it.

Just another cult flick from Albert Pyun

[Superwonderscope · 8/10 · 12 May 2001]

Albert Pyun gives us here the most disjoncted movie he ever did, a gigantic sing-along-schlock-o-rama that goes all the way. This story of 4 babes in a pseudo punk-rock band Vicous Lips that go to a in club 'The "Radioactive Dreams" as in Mr Pyun's second flick) is simply hilarious.

Near-zero budget allows to create the impossible :from so-so FX of spaceship to the great venusian beast created by master Greg Cannom to monsters & make up extradordinaire by John Carl Buechler and the Chiodo Bros, this is quite unbelievable. it is sometimes beyond criticism and that's why it has to become a cult movie. Almost invisible now, grab it if u can (it sometimes appears under the title "Pleasure Planet"). This is a wild ride, a mix of sci-fi; comedy; musical with some T&A and some half naked bodybuilders + outrageous make up.Something for everyone indeed.

Some fast editing, good photography and bad acting surrounds the whole movie. And as usual, the fabulous & Pyun regular Linda Kerridge erupts with beauty & flair , her eyes saying "what am I doing here?" . A surreal & nightmarish vision.

Vicous Lips is a masterpiece from outer space and deserves to be nominated for the best worst movies ever. An 8, definitely.

Great Movie!

[rphilla · 10/10 · 7 August 2020]

This movie is totally underrated. I found it to be quite entertaining. I have never watched any movies by this director before, but if people say this is his worst movie I will have to watch some off his other movies, because I think this movie was great. In my opion the actors did a great job in their roles and the plot was laid out brilliantly.

do you like space rock operas? yes? this movie is for you!

[secrective · 9/10 · 12 May 2011]

Well Well Well. what a juicy 80s movie. kickin soundtrack, actings alright.

ITS AN ALL GIRL BAND MOVIE, going to a gig, in outer space.

The songs are pretty damn catchy. they are frequent within the soundtrack.

What more do you want from a movie? Why isn't this (and all Albert pyun movies) on the syfy channel? seriously underrated and under watched.

i recommend other pyun movies too.

a space Alice in wonderland. if Alice was in a band.

sfx are good. some cool looking monsters and puppetry.

hair is 80s. some neon showing here and there.

if you like this sort of thing, 'bad channels' and 'critters' make great 80s music/space movies.