Shock-O-Rama Cinema | Buy at Amazon | Review by Lou Goncey
My Dad and I watched this one night while my stepmom was over at her Mom's changing the puss bandages on her legs. I was told by Dante that this was like FORBIDDEN WORLD aka MUTANT but on a lower budget. He was right about the lower budget.
The flick is set on Mars some time in our future. Basically the people there are just like the people here. The bosses are middle management types who don't do anything but follow the Employee Manual and the employees try to get away with everything they can except for working hard. There is no reason to be there except to open up more Mars bases. It's like The Office on Mars, and about just as funny.
It starts out with a 'Joe Shmoe' named Will who discovers a Martian fossil in an underground cave and brings out a camera to film it 'cause he wants to make a ton of loot. Then he dies and is taken over by something. Luckily, the fishbowl space helmets have a sunscreen mode (for when it's too bright on Mars) that makes them completely black to those on the outside, so no one notices it's not Will.
Hijinks ensue.
My favorite character was the cook, who used to be in the Texas Mafia (what the hell is the Texas Mafia?! Dammit I wanna see that movie!). He is so gun happy it's pretty crazy. He gets teamed up with this gutless guy who is slightly pudgy and they discover that they aren't the only ones with a Mars base. It ends up with a 'all corporations are evil' kinda ending like ALIEN but nowhere near as terrifying.
The credits are the same style that Carpenter uses and the "Big Budget Production" credit got laughs out of my Dad, if that's important to you.
Pretty low-budget, but it makes up for it with a lot of laughs. Worth seeing when you've got nothing to do that night, or if you're suffering from the flu. Gonster out.
