Actors: Robert
Horton, Luciana Paluzzi, Richard Jaeckel, Bud Widom, Ted Gunther
Directors: Kinji Fukasaku
Format: NTSC
Region: All Regions
Rated: G (General Audience)
Studio: MGM
DVD Release Date: December 17, 2010
Run Time: 99 minutes
Movie:
Fans
of cult items and B-movies will be happy to know that The Green Slime
has finally made its way to DVD . . . sort of. The disc is available from
Amazon and Warner Archives and is manufactured on demand using DVD-R
recordable media. (Amazon.com's standard return policy still applies
though.) There are no chapter stops and no special features. At more than
$20 the price is a bit on the steep side though.
Still, the movie has been lovingly restored in its original widescreen
aspect ratio with pristine image quality, a far cry from old VHS bootlegs.
Directed by Kinji Fukasaku, who later went on to direct the Battle Royale
movies, Green Slime has been described by Kevin Thomas of the Los
Angeles Times as “one of the funniest made-in-Japan sci-fi monster movies
ever.” We wouldn’t go that far, but a sense of humor is required to
appreciate this slice of goofy, cheesy late ‘Sixties sci-fi.
Even though the movie was released in the same year as
2001: A Space Odyssey, it can be safely described as a pre-2001
movie: the designs and special effects – probably on a budget lower than
your average episode of Thunderbirds
– are strictly 1950s retro.
Sharp-eyed science fiction fans will also wonder whether this movie didn’t
somehow influence later genre efforts such as
Alien,
Aliens and Armageddon:
after blowing up an asteroid headed on a collision course with Earth, a
spaceship crew brings back a green goo alien life form that thrives on
electricity and multiplies at an alarming rate. The alien monsters start
killing off space station crew members and seems unstoppable. Do fans of
this movie include Ridley Scott, Michael Bay and James Cameron? Who knows?
But it is interesting to note how a B-movie plot like this would get A-list
treatment nowadays.
By the way, the cheesy theme song alone is almost worth the price: “Will you
believe it when you're dead? ... Green Sliiiiiiiiiimme!”
RECOMMENDATION: Recommended for the so-bad-it’s-actually-good
Mystery
Science Theater 3000 crowd. Have illegal substances at hand!
