This was on TCM recently for some reason. The ridiculousness of the name intrigued me so I recorded and watched it. I immediately thought wow this is exactly the sort of movie Allison Pregler would review. And sure enough here it is.
This movie is at once completely ridiculous and trying very hard to claim some credibility, it does not really work, but is an interesting experience. It is amazing how disjointed it is to there are so many half-explained things (the “rules” of the game), things brought up to go nowhere (that knife gadget never shows up again) and so on. Your review might make more sense than the actual movie…
Also, on the use of the phrase Star Wars to describe the anti-missile system: the whole put anti-missile stuff (including possibly lasers) in space to stop nuclear missiles or the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was often called Star Wars in the press and by critics etc. It was named after the movie (SDI starts in the 80s). Some would say that the name was to make the Reagan administration proposals look ridiculous, I would say that may have been part of the intent but surely the name stuck because what else are you going to call a plan to put Lasers in Space! So it is more real life’s fault for being ridiculous in this case not the movie (although US government officials might one imagine be less likely to use the popular press name for the program, but these guys seemed pretty chill).
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This was on TCM recently for some reason. The ridiculousness of the name intrigued me so I recorded and watched it. I immediately thought wow this is exactly the sort of movie Allison Pregler would review. And sure enough here it is.
This movie is at once completely ridiculous and trying very hard to claim some credibility, it does not really work, but is an interesting experience. It is amazing how disjointed it is to there are so many half-explained things (the “rules” of the game), things brought up to go nowhere (that knife gadget never shows up again) and so on. Your review might make more sense than the actual movie…
Also, on the use of the phrase Star Wars to describe the anti-missile system: the whole put anti-missile stuff (including possibly lasers) in space to stop nuclear missiles or the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) was often called Star Wars in the press and by critics etc. It was named after the movie (SDI starts in the 80s). Some would say that the name was to make the Reagan administration proposals look ridiculous, I would say that may have been part of the intent but surely the name stuck because what else are you going to call a plan to put Lasers in Space! So it is more real life’s fault for being ridiculous in this case not the movie (although US government officials might one imagine be less likely to use the popular press name for the program, but these guys seemed pretty chill).