AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON
USA. 1987. Directors - Joe Dante, Carl Gottlieb, Peter Horten, John Landis & Robert K. Weiss, Screenplay - Michael Barrie & Jim Mulholland, Producer - Weiss, Visual Effects - The LA Effects Group, Production Design - Ivo Cristante. Production Company - Westward Productions. (In order of appearance): Arsenio Hall (Apartment Dweller), Monique Gabrielle (Taryn Steele), Lou Jacobi (Murray), Griffin Dunne (Doctor), Peter Horten (Harry Landers), Michelle Pfeiffer (Brenda Landers), Steve Guttenberg (Jerry Stone), Rosanna Arquette (Karen), Steve Forrest (Captain Steve Nelson), Joey Travolta (Butch), Sybil Danning (Queen Lara), Robert Colbert (Blackie), Forrest J. Ackerman (President of the USA), David Allen Grier (Don Simmons), B.B. King (Himself), Henry Silva (Himself), Belinda Balaski (Beatrice Pitnik), Steve Allen (Himself), Rip Taylor (Himself), Henry Youngman (Himself), Ed Begley Jr (Griffin), Matt Adler (George Bailey), Ralph Bellamy (Mr Gower), Kelly Preston (Violet), Marc McClure (Ray), Corinne Wahl (Sherrie), Carrie Fisher (Mary Brown), Paul Bartel (Doctor)
A number of well-known comedy directors - Joe ("The Howling", "Gremlins") Dante, John ("The Blues Brothers", "Kentucky Fried Movie") Landis and Carl ("Caveman") Gottlieb - came together to make this grab-bag of comic sketches. The sketches self-consciously delve through various popular culture and genre parody without ever really amounting to anything particularly funny. There are a couple of segments that are amusing - a Landis-directed skit in which Arsenio Hall becomes accident prone all at once in his apartment; and a "Ripley's Believe It Or Not" send-up which asks the question: Was Jack the Ripper really the Loch Ness Monster ? The "Son of the Invisible Man" piece, parodying the 1940s "Invisible Man" sequels, in which Ed Begley Jr goes dancing around naked thinking he is invisible, and the title story parodying fifties B-grade outer space films, would probably have sounded funny on paper, but seem terribly belaboured on film. On the other hand there is that which would have sounded pretty juvenile on paper too, ranging from the instantly forgettable - the literally interpreted "Video Pirates" piece, one about a lonely bachelor who finds a participatory dirty video - to that which goes on at length to no - one where Rosanna Arquette's computer throws Steve Guttenberg's pick-up lines back at him - or quite awful points - Griffin Dunne's thoroughly terrible acting as a doctor who misplaces Michelle Pfeiffer's baby.
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Copyright 1999 Richard Scheib
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