This film is supposed to be what life will be like in the distant future of 1980! And, amazingly enough, they got almost nothing right--sort of like "The Jetsons" portrays the future--but even worse! Because of this and the very, very strange musical numbers, it's probably the weirdest film I've seen in years--and I've seen a ton of films!
In this future, everyone flies about in airplanes instead of cars (sort of like Jetson's vehicles) and there are traffic cops directing people in their own private hover planes. People are numbers and letters--names are no more. Marriages are only allowed by the government and they decide who you marry--in other words, a eugenics program to weed out the "undesirables". Everyone uses videophones. And, people eat and drink in pill form. Oddly, at the same time, fashions are mostly that of 1930!
One of the weirdest story elements is a guy who is brought back to life by doctors. He'd been dead 50 years and the doctors didn't seem to care one bit about the man--just that the experiment worked!! So much for professional ethics, but in the bizarro world of the future, ethics are really not especially important.
But, by far the weirdest part was late in the film. Since the hero in the story cannot marry his beloved (as he was rejected by the government organization that approves marriages), he's decided to try to make himself famous in order to gain their approval. So, he agrees to take a trip to Mars!! This first Earth flight to Mars is a hoot, as not only is this the same spaceship from the Flash Gordon series of the later 1930s but the planet is hilarious. The Earth men can breath the air just fine and the planet is populated by scantily clad humanoids (mostly women) and each Martian has an exact double who is evil!! I love the evil twin angle as well as the silly Busby Berkeley-style song and dance numbers they do on Mars! It's too funny for a mere written description! And the costumes and set designs are like something out of an LSD trip!!
The movie, despite having poor acting, terrible writing, a dumb script, horrible songs throughout and many dull moments is STILL well worth seeing for all the goofy moments and the absolutely insane way they anticipated the future would be. I know I said it before, but you just have to see it to believe it. My score of 2 is for the quality of the film--not the watchability. It is VERY easy to see and enjoy despite a constant stream of stupidity! In fact, it's a great film to watch with friends so you can make fun of the thing! Plus, it's fun looking for actors who were later respected (such as Maureen O''Sullivan and Mischa Auer)--so you can marvel at their ability to salvage their careers after this turkey.
In this future, everyone flies about in airplanes instead of cars (sort of like Jetson's vehicles) and there are traffic cops directing people in their own private hover planes. People are numbers and letters--names are no more. Marriages are only allowed by the government and they decide who you marry--in other words, a eugenics program to weed out the "undesirables". Everyone uses videophones. And, people eat and drink in pill form. Oddly, at the same time, fashions are mostly that of 1930!
One of the weirdest story elements is a guy who is brought back to life by doctors. He'd been dead 50 years and the doctors didn't seem to care one bit about the man--just that the experiment worked!! So much for professional ethics, but in the bizarro world of the future, ethics are really not especially important.
But, by far the weirdest part was late in the film. Since the hero in the story cannot marry his beloved (as he was rejected by the government organization that approves marriages), he's decided to try to make himself famous in order to gain their approval. So, he agrees to take a trip to Mars!! This first Earth flight to Mars is a hoot, as not only is this the same spaceship from the Flash Gordon series of the later 1930s but the planet is hilarious. The Earth men can breath the air just fine and the planet is populated by scantily clad humanoids (mostly women) and each Martian has an exact double who is evil!! I love the evil twin angle as well as the silly Busby Berkeley-style song and dance numbers they do on Mars! It's too funny for a mere written description! And the costumes and set designs are like something out of an LSD trip!!
The movie, despite having poor acting, terrible writing, a dumb script, horrible songs throughout and many dull moments is STILL well worth seeing for all the goofy moments and the absolutely insane way they anticipated the future would be. I know I said it before, but you just have to see it to believe it. My score of 2 is for the quality of the film--not the watchability. It is VERY easy to see and enjoy despite a constant stream of stupidity! In fact, it's a great film to watch with friends so you can make fun of the thing! Plus, it's fun looking for actors who were later respected (such as Maureen O''Sullivan and Mischa Auer)--so you can marvel at their ability to salvage their careers after this turkey.