Amazon Women on the Moon
4.6 /10 1 Votes
64% Rotten Tomatoes Budget 5 million USD Duration Language English | 6.1/10 IMDb 0.5/4 Roger Ebert Genre Comedy, Sci-Fi Country United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Director Joe DanteCarl GottliebPeter HortonJohn LandisRobert K. Weiss Release date September 18, 1987 (1987-09-18) Cast (Apartment Victim), (Taryn Steele), Debby Davison (Weatherperson), Rob Krausz (Floor Manager), (Brenda Landers), (Harry Landers)Similar movies The Hunger Games: Catching Fire , The Final Girls , 21 Jump Street , , Independence Day , Scary Movie 5 Tagline Shameless! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Amazon women on the moon trailer
In this film of unconnected humor sketches, bad movies and late-night television are parodied extensively. A doctor (Griffin Dunne) has to help Brenda (Michelle Pfeiffer) give birth, with unexpected results. In "Son of the Invisible Man," Griffin (Ed Begley Jr.) is actually more naked than invisible. Among the many other segments, there is a spoof of alarmist 1950s hygiene instructional films featuring a woman (Carrie Fisher) being harshly advised about her new sexually transmitted disease.
Contents
Amazon Women on the Moon is a 1987 American satirical comedy film that parodies the experience of watching low-budget movies on late-night television. The film, featuring a large ensemble cast, was written by Michael Barrie and Jim Mulholland, and takes the form of a compilation of twenty-one comedy skits directed by five different directors: Joe Dante, Carl Gottlieb, Peter Horton, John Landis and Robert K. Weiss.
The title Amazon Women on the Moon refers to the central film-within-a-film, a spoof of science fiction movies from the 1950s that borrows heavily from Queen of Outer Space (1958) starring Zsa Zsa Gabor, itself a movie that recycles elements of earlier science fiction works such as Cat-Women of the Moon (1953), Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1955) and Forbidden Planet (1956).
Film actors making cameo appearances in various sketches included Rosanna Arquette, Ralph Bellamy, Griffin Dunne, Carrie Fisher, Steve Forrest, Steve Guttenberg, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kelly Preston and Henry Silva, alongside television actors such as Ed Begley, Jr., Bryan Cranston, David Alan Grier, Howard Hesseman, Peter Horton, William Marshall, Joe Pantoliano, Robert Picardo and Roxie Roker.
Other notable people in the cast included voice actors Corey Burton and Phil Hartman, talk show host Arsenio Hall, adult film actress Monique Gabrielle, science fiction writer Forrest J. Ackerman, B movie stars Lana Clarkson and Sybil Danning, musician B. B. King, radio personalities Roger Barkley and Al Lohman, composer Ira Newborn, director Russ Meyer, model Corinne Wahl, comedian Andrew Dice Clay, Firesign Theater member Phil Proctor and independent film actor Paul Bartel.
John Landis had previously directed The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), which employed a similar sketch anthology format.
Acclaimed director John Landis (Animal House, The Blues Brothers) presents this madcap send-up of late night TV, low-budget sci-fi films and canned-laughter-filled sitcoms packed with off-the-wall sketches that will have you in stitches. Centered around a television station which features a 1950s-style sci-fi movie interspersed with a series of wild commercials, wacky shorts and weird specials, this lampoon of contemporary life and pop culture skewers some of the silliest spectacles ever created in the name of entertainment. A truly outrageous look at the best of the worst that television has to offer.
Plot
Fictional television station WIDB-TV (channel 8) experiences problems with its late-night airing of science-fiction classic Amazon Women on the Moon, a 1950s B movie in which Queen Lara (Sybil Danning) and Captain Nelson (Steve Forrest) battle exploding volcanoes and man-eating spiders on the moon. Waiting for the film to resume, an unseen viewer begins channel surfing — simulated by bursts of white noise — through late night cable, with the various segments and sketches of the film representing the programming found on different channels. The viewer intermittently returns to channel 8, where Amazon Women continues to resume airing before faltering once more.
These segments feature:
Alternative versions
An alternate version of the "Pethouse Video" sketch was filmed for the television broadcast of the film, with Monique Gabrielle in lingerie instead of appearing naked throughout the segment. However, most European television broadcasts of the film retained the original theatrical version. Bullshit or Not? was retitled Baloney or Not? for the television version.
The American television edit, in addition to the alternative "Pethouse Video" sketch, features an additional bridging sequence between the death of Harvey Pitnik and his subsequent celebrity roast. In it, the mortician successfully cons Pitniks widow into having the celebrity roast as part of the funeral, and her performance gets such strong positive feedback, it becomes a continuing performance series lasting for weeks.
The DVD release features an unreleased sketch titled "The Unknown Soldier", starring Robert Loggia. Some television broadcasts of the film featured the sketches "Peter Pan Theater" and "The French Ventriloquists Dummy", which were not present in the theatrical version.
Similar Movies
John Landis directed Amazon Women on the Moon and The Kentucky Fried Movie. Michelle Pfeiffer appears in Amazon Women on the Moon and Into the Night. Airplane II: The Sequel (1982). American Raspberry (1977). Rosanna Arquette and Griffin Dunne appear in Amazon Women on the Moon and After Hours.
Critical reception
The majority of critical opinion agreed that the quality was inconsistent throughout the film. Variety called it "irreverent, vulgar and silly... [with] some hilarious moments and some real groaners too." Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times felt that the exercise was somewhat unnecessary: "Satirists are in trouble when their subjects are funnier than they are."
Janet Maslin of the New York Times, in a largely positive review, described the film as "an anarchic, often hilarious adventure in dial-spinning, a collection of brief skits and wacko parodies that are sometimes quite clever, though theyre just as often happily sophomoric, too."
Certain portions of the film were singled out for praise. "The funniest episode probably is Son of the Invisible Man, directed by Carl Gottlieb, in which Ed Begley, Jr. plays a man who thinks he is invisible but is not", wrote the Chicago Sun-Times. "The films best sight gags come from Robert K. Weiss, who deserves kudos for the inspired idiocy of his Amazon Women segments", was the opinion of the New York Times.
In a retrospective article for Entertainment Weekly, Chris Nashawaty called this film "the beginning of the end of Landis career". He cited the episodes featuring Monique Gabrielle, Archie Hahn, Ed Begley, Jr. and David Alan Grier as "inspired", but criticised others for their failure: "Youll never see Michelle Pfeiffer look as trapped as she does in her skit with thirtysomething???s Peter Horton, or Joe Pantoliano and Arsenio Hall as unfunny as they are in their skits."
Amazon Women on the Moon has a rating of 64% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 11 reviews, indicating a mixed critical response.
References
Amazon Women on the Moon WikipediaAmazon Women on the Moon IMDbAmazon Women on the Moon Rotten TomatoesAmazon Women on the Moon Roger EbertAmazon Women on the Moon themoviedb.org