Amazon Women on the Moon
Centered around a television station which features a 1950s-style sci-fi movie interspersed with a series of wild commercials, wacky shorts and weird specials, this lampoon of contemporary life and pop culture skewers some of the silliest spectacles ever created in the name of entertainment.
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- Cast:
- Michelle Pfeiffer , Peter Horton , Monique Gabrielle , Steve Forrest , Griffin Dunne , Joey Travolta , Sybil Danning
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Reviews
The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.
This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.
Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.
Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.
While it's not as outrageously over-the-top as KENTUCKY FRIED MOVIE, AMAZON WOMEN ON THE MOON indeed has its moments. It's a minor thing, but the opening credit sequence had me smiling ("Starring: Lots of people..."). Unfortunately, the opening skit is easily the least of the offerings this time around- but, if you can make it through it, there are rewards to be had. Henry Silva's deadpan delivery makes BULLSHIT- OR NOT? one of my favorite segments: finding out the "truth" about Jack the Ripper is worth the price of admission. It was great to see the late William Marshall (BLACULA himself) as the leader of a band of VIDEO PIRATES (who Tape and Pillage) and the black and white sequel to THE INVISIBLE MAN, SON OF THE INVISIBLE MAN, was as inspired as YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN. Another highlight was seeing the late Forrest J. Ackerman as The President in AMAZON WOMEN ON/OF THE MOON. The "roast" of the dead man was chock full of classic comedians who were still capable of "killin' 'em" even that late in the day. "Miracle Pictures: If it's GOOD, it's a Miracle!"
Anybody that remembers late night television in the 70's and 80's will surely get a kick out of this. A couple of the skits are cringe-worthy,but most are spot on when it comes to what they are parodying.**Spoiler Alert**Some hilarious spoofs of commercials for instance,like the old K-Tel records ads features a singer, Don "No Soul" Simmons doing renditions of pop songs that make Pat Boone look hip by comparison. The Hair Club for Men send up features a man literally having carpeting installed on his head. The 50's sci-fi film being shown, Amazon Women on the Moon, is appropriately cheesy and low-budget with a chimp,no less.Plus,I swear I actually saw a film like this with Zsa Zsa Gabor, of all people.The spoof of all those supposed "true story" shows(Believe It or Not,Fact or Fiction,Beyond Belief,etc.)is called "Bullshit or Not" here and it's hilarious.The film critics review of an ordinary guy's life was good,but the Celebrity Roast Funeral that followed went on a little long. The date night and hospital skits fell flat,but the opening sequence with the apartment that attacks a man returning home from work,is a slapstick gem.There are some very familiar faces here: Arsenio Hall,Michelle Pfieffer,The old-time comedians,as well as Ed Begley,Jr.,Howard Hessman and Rosanna Arquette. But the stand outs are clearly David Alan Grier as the aforementioned soulless singer and Carrie Fisher in her hilarious turn as the victim of a social disease in a PSA that clearly used Reefer Madness as it's inspiration. Because of the nudity,it isn't recommended for kids,but adults, especially those of us that remember this stuff actually being on at 2;00 a.m. should enjoy this silly,fun movie.
AWOTM is a strictly confidential delight, a comedy with a surrealist and _absurdist twist ;seldom spoken of. Now cinema has such treats—I mean, wonderful Bs little spoken or extremely badly spoken of—the Rourke comedy—HARLEY DAVIDSON --is one such treat, and SAVE ME with L. Anthony and Ironside, and POSSESSED BY THE NIGHT with the gorgeous Mrs. Tweed, and a sexy comedy with Tanya Roberts and Joan Severance, and some others . Make no mistake—acknowledging them requires true sophistication. Then by the middle of the '90s the B passed out. Most parodies are mean, and meant to insult and criticize sourly, while AMAZON is essentially and fundamentally friendly and cheerful and nice—to the viewer as well as to the shows it pastiches ceaselessly. I can casually enjoy a parody, there are some I have liked indeed; but AMAZON is so much more than that. It's wonderful spirit makes one sad as well as glad—sad, because its example was not matched afterward. It is made by people who like the shows they lampoon, while the regular parodies lampoon recent successful movies—not movies particularly enjoyed by the parodists. I liked AMAZON so much that the next evening I needed to see it once more.It's not a parody, how could it be one, but a strangely affectionate entry into the wacky movies' genre. The endearing ingenuity is the feature I enjoyed most. It is rather long since I have delighted so much in a comedy; I have found it crassly, wonderfully and hysterically inspirational, an anthology comedy featuring an awesome battery of movie stars; I liked Mrs. Pfeiffer's sketch the best. I had the vague impression that Mrs. Tweed should pop in somewhere in this flick, and I think she did not, perhaps I was mainly misinformed—but guess what, dear fellow buff—Mrs. Pfeiffer, Carrie Fisher, one of the wonderful Arquette sisters . AWOTM was half—sad, nearly heart—rending—half—stupid and half—bitter, and unselfconscious enough . An addictive comedy, better than the flicks it spoofs, merry and sometimes truly funny . The '80s still had this kind of ingenuity and inoffensive comedy . The almanac—format allowed for a host of persons to be assembled such as to turn the movie into a celebration of a B world. Afterwards the B became prosaic, dull and trite—I know the flicks made by Rourke, Eric Roberts, and Don Johnson and Madsen and Hopper .AWOTM was doubtlessly very good, better than, say, the Monty Python similar formats—more cheery and mindless and affable; it cheered me, while most American comedies do not. It is a cult movie? I wish it were. But it's also good that such movies remain our secret and, as it were, our password. It was directed by several known names from the genre movies; this kind of trivia you will get from IMDb. Nowadays even this kind of extravaganza is forbidden to us B flicks buffs. Perhaps this also makes AWOTM so sad; so cheering and sad—a lost continent. They smashed those B movies; some of us needed them. Now being given all liberality of taste, if you indeed disliked AWOTM, I do not know what kind of a person you are; I would rather not meet you.
Starring: Steve Forrest, Robert Colbert, Joey Travolta, David Allen Grier, Sybil Danning, Belinda Balaski, Archie Hahn, Henry Silva, Steve Allen, Rip Taylor, Slappy White, Charlie Callas, Henry Youngman, Jackie Vernon, Michelle Pfieffer, Peter Horton, Griffin Dunne, Steve Guttenberg, Rosanna Arquette, Carrie Fisher, Paul Bartel, Arsenio Hall, Lana Clarkson, Ed Begley Jr., Robert Picardo, William Marshall, Matt Adler, Ralph Bellamy, Monique Gabrielle, Joe Pantoliano, Forrest J Ackerman, BB King, John Ingle, Kelly Preston, Phil Hartman, Steve Cropper, Howard Hesseman, Andrew Dice Clay, Corinnie Wahl, Marc McClure, Russ Meyer and others.This is what sketch comedy is made of. This is a theatrical release motion picture that features 25 sketches, some connecting, some totally random. It's supposed to give you the feel of channel surfing through old movies, commercials for stupid products and just some funny random stuff. It's presented by John Landis and he also directed several of the segments, in this sequel (?) to 1977's "Kentucky Fried Movie".The main stories are "Amazon Women on the Moon", which is a cheap 1950's sci-fi movie that is purposely as cheesy as possible. "Blacks With No Souls" is another storyline that comes in several times in the movie, about Don Simmons who is a souless black singer that's just all to stupid. "Bullsh*t or Not?" is a reinacment fact or fiction type show hosted by Henry Silva. In the episode in this film he ponders if Jack the Ripper was really the Loch Ness monster and if the Titanic was real or not."Murray in TV Land" is about old man Murray getting trapped in his TV and getting changed from channel to channel and is a running gag in the film.The other sketches include Arsenio Hall having a bad day when he gets totally massacred in his apartment by freak accidents. A sketch about a Playhouse Plaything and he she survives in life...fully naked. An invisible man that's not so invisible. Joe Pantalino as a hair loss victim. It's pretty easy to get into the sketches. It just feels good for some reason to channel flip through a bunch of random and stupid stuff. Some say it's not funny, because the stuff on their is actually the kind of lame junk you would fin on TV, but the humor is there, and it's funny. I totally recommend this especially with friends.My rating: 3/4 stars. 84 mins. rated R for full frontal nudity, sexuality, some violence and brief language.