It’s #FondueSunday in #SciFiJanuary and todays second entry is Angry Red Planet (1959 US). I’m finishing up a color grading project on a film so my mind is on color. I was curious how they made the Martian scenes in this film. Apparently, they shot those parts in black and white then applied some manner of chemical to it in the development of the film. The budget was $200 k and the sets were cheesy af so they were able to hide that and an added bonus is that B/W is cheaper to film in. Two birds with one stone. Clever! But OMG the dialogue was cringe and the lead astronaut was such a douche. I liked the color effect but I kinda got over it after the first five minutes. Overall though this is classic fondue. Find it on Amazon or for rent if you are so inclined. #SciFi #ScienceFiction #Film #Films #FilmFan #Movie #Movies #Cinema

It’s #FondueSunday in #SciFiJanuary and todays entry is LaserBlast (1978 US) a moody teenager finds an alien laser gun in the desert. Things don’t go well after that. Well folks I don’t know what to say. It’s really bad. However, I am in awe of how many explosions they were able to have on a $280k budget. Those things aren’t cheap. The stop motion aliens were kinda fun. I loved the scene where a senior alien was chewing out the juniors for losing the laser. A black ops sort of character looked exactly like the guy on the cover of Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here Album. You know, the guy that was on fire. I gotta say I checked out from watching the film. I really should have watched the Mystery Science Theaters 3k version. Believe it or not this film made money at the Box Office. It’s on Tubi and Amazon free and available to rent if you are so inclined. #SciFi #ScienceFiction #Film #Films #FilmFan #Movie #Movies #Cinema

Todays second entry into #FondueSunday is this future oriented #Scifi. Just Imagine (1930 US). A man from 1930 is struck by lightning and frozen(?). Idk how that worked. He is awakened in 1980 where the government is imposing their values on the public. I do think this was about censorship and the Hays code. Although, the code was not officially enforced until 1934 it was in effect informally before that. They really pushed the boundaries of the code. Why? Cuz it was stupid. In the name of “decency” Nazi spies were able to influence speech via the church pre WWII. Anti nazi depictions were banned under the Hays code “decency”. Chilling! This film cost a lot of money in sets. It flopped at the box office but they later sold some sets and props to make up the budget. You will recognize the space ship as Flash Gordon’s. Find it on YouTube free. SciFi #SciFiJanuary #ScienceFiction #Film #Films #Movie #FilmFan #Movies #Cinema

It’s #FondueSunday and todays entry is Queen of Blood (1966 US). We had this weird obsession for awhile with alien vampire movies. This is one of them, green vampire queen. She’s Martian but sucks blood. It has a 17% Rotten Tomatoes score. The budget was 65k and while I was watching it I noted that’s an awful lot of models and sets for 65k. So I looked into it. They (as in Roger Corman uncredited) took footage from two Soviet films and earlier Corman films. That is the most Cormany thing a filmmaker can do. It looked surprisingly good too. They weren’t afraid to show off the footage of the amazing models and sets. Although, I can’t say I liked it, lots of people did. It made 11 million at the box office. It was part of a double feature. What I liked about it was the art and that’s pretty much it for me. If you like fondue, though, you will love this. Find it on Tubi and Amazon free and available to rent on most streaming. #SciFi #SciFiJanuary #ScienceFiction #Film #Films #FilmFan #Movies #Movie #Cinema

It’s still #FondueSunday and todays second entry is The Andromeda Strain (1971 US). Although, there is a fondue factor (title of my next film) because of the effects (being shot in 1971 and all) I’m not going to officially label it functionally fondue (the sequel to the fondue factor). Tbh it’s been awhile since I’ve seen it but what I loved about it is this is the most sciencey #ScienceFiction i can think of. The scientists looked like scientists of that era including the female lead. But sometimes it can overload you with sciencey science. I enjoyed it. Find it for rent on most streaming. #SciFi #Sci-Fi #SciFiJanuary #Film #Films #Movie #Movies #Cinema #FilmFan

It’s Sunday and that means it’s time for #FondueSunday. Todays entry is Battle Beyond the Stars (1980 US) this Roger Corman space opera classic stars George Peppard and Robert Vaughn and is Seven Samurai in space. Wow this is bad. Husband says it’s glorious so there you have it folks. This was actually Corman's highest budget film at 2 million of which was spent mostly on Peppard and Vaughn. There were an awful lot of sets to build and models to make as well as detailed costumes and post production laser blasts for such a low budget. James Cameron stumbled into being production design and art director. He did a fantastic job keeping the building costs down and making it look good. In fact much of the ship was spray painted take out containers. In addition Corman reused footage and models from his previous shoots. It made 11 million at the box office. Corman is the undisputed king of budgets. What I love about this film is the ship that looks like a uterus with falopian tubes and ovaries….with engines. Peppard played a drunk cowboy complete with a belt bar. Yup you read that right. Whiskey, soda and ice. Peppard had a reputation for heavy drinking and on set. He said he went dry in 1978 but idk, that may have been real whiskey. I can only imagine Corman looking at Peppards sauced ass and think OK let’s make it part of the character. Can’t prove any of that but it sure makes sense. Find it on Tubi free. #SciFiJanuary #SciFi #ScienceFiction #Film #Films #FilmFan #Movie #Movies #Cinema

It’s #FondueSunday in #SciFiJanuary and todays entry is Death Race 2000 (1975 US). I got constipated from all the cheese in this one. Bad acting? check! Bad dialogue? Check! Bad Soundtrack? Double check! This Roger Corman futuristic SciFi masterpiece stars David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone as two race car drivers in a race across the country. Here’s the hook. The drivers collect points along the way by killing civilians. It features over the top sportscasters who normalize the random killings. It features a president who stays in power by giving the people what they want, a Death Race. It even has a woman led rebellion against the race and the current president. Hmmmm I feel like I’ve seen these elements before but I just can’t put my finger on it 🤔. Corman spent a whopping $300-500k and I feel like he spent his budget on car parts and insurance. I love how the US miraculously looks exactly like Southern California. Find it free on Tubi. #SciFi #Sci-Fi #ScienceFiction #Film #Films #FilmFan #Movie #Movies #Cinema

It’s Sunday in #SciFiJanuary so it’s time for #FondueSunday. todays entry is Dark Star(1974 US). This ultra low budget film was John Carpenters student film at USC. After graduation Carpenter and Dan O’Bannon wrote a feature length film, scraped a few dollars together and made this quirky sci-fi comedy. It came real close to being dirty SciFi if only Carpenter had more money. Instead it was hippies in space. Critics refer to this as a 2001 Space Odyssey parody. It is not. Since O’ Bannon was co-writer on this and aliens, I would consider it a precursor to Aliens more than anything. It was not well received by audiences. With a whopping 60k budget, production quality was quite low. like really low. It later became a cult classic with home viewing (vcr). I forgive a lot of sins in low budget films including a beach ball alien. You could hear and see everything that you needed to. This was Carpenters first feature and you could tell he was going places. Carpenter had a cheekiness about his directing, which makes it just fun. Find it free on Tubi. #SciFi #Sci-Fi #ScienceFiction #Film #Films #FilmFan #Movie #Movies #Cinema