Thursday 6 November 2014

Evil Brain from Outer Space (1964)



I initially mis-typed the title of this film as Evil Bran from Outer Space, which is a movie I would now like to see.  I mean, the tag-lines write themselves: "Let's get roughage!" or "Do you have the fibre to withstand this alien terror?"

Alas, what we actually get is a Starman movie.  Only instead of being cobbled together from two episodes of the Japanese serial Super Giant, this one is cobbled together from three.  Three standalone episodes at that (the others were made from two-parters), so it is even more disjointed and random than usual.

On the plus side, it's the last of the Starman movies in this set.  So we won't again have to endure his overstuffed codpiece or the interminable fight scenes that the show loves so much (especially bad in this movie since they have three episodes' worth to inflict on us).

The plot: evil alien brain tries to take over the Earth.  The Peace Council of the Emerald Planet sends Starman to protect it.  Since it's hard to engage in badly-staged fisticuffs with a disembodied opponent, the brain has a horde of mutant servitors.  Most of these, conveniently enough "are disguised as human beings".  Which has the dual benefits of saving the production company money and us from too much of this:


Anyway, Starman battles evil-doers, interacts with the inevitable "cute" children (one benefit of merging three episodes is that only one set of kids get used, so they're a comparatively small part of the film this time) and saves the day.

Unless you're desperate to learn what Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers would have been like if it was made fifty-odd years ago, you can skip it.

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