The Angry Red Planet

Poster tagline: SPECTACULAR ADVENTURE BEYOND TIME AND SPACE TAKES YOU TO THE ANGRY RED PLANET!!! A pretty popular sci-fi B-movie in its day. Firstly, it was filmed in colour and with Cinemagic technology (the predecessor of today's 3D), which gave the an impression of spatiality and depth. When the action takes place aboard the spaceship (about two-thirds of the runtime), the film is static and doesn't deliver much in terms of entertainment, but at least the dialogue, performed by experienced and popular actors of the time, is easily survivable. The real fun only starts on Mars, when the overabundance of red (overly contrasting camera filters) will make your pupils spin. The props of the Martian flora and fauna consist of a pair of bushes and a garishly painted backdrop; a giant carnivorous plant comes into play, with the actress wrapping one of its tentacles around herself to make it look real; there's also an attack by a Martian cross between a bat and a rat with crab tentacles; and a mysterious jelly-like amoeba that emerges from the Martian sea. The film concludes with an audible appeal from a three-eyed Martian, who warns Earthlings that another visit could be much worse. Thanks for the warning, but as you can see these days, NASA scientists don’t care too much :o) (23.10.2012)

No, it definitely isn't a great film and it can be quite naive at times, but it still has a charm that I simply must appreciate. Some of those trick scenes, especially the use of the red filter and subsequent distortion, those funny puppets, all of this contributes to the fact that I just had to like the film. A beautiful piece of cheap filmmaking, but with heart. (17.11.2015)