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After taking on Rue McClanahan’s Hollywood After Dark, the quirky commentators from The Film Crew (Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy, and Bill Corbett) are back to add their very own observations to an old movie that, up until now, was, sadly, commentary-less.
This time, their billionaire boss, Bob Honcho, appoints the Crew to provide the commentary for the 1954 sci-fi thriller, Killers from Space. This latest cinematic victim—er…project—stars Peter Graves as Dr. Doug Martin, a scientist who’s monitoring a series of A-bomb tests. During one such test, his plane crashes—and though the pilot is killed instantly, Dr. Martin shows up hours later, relatively unharmed, with just a few strange scars.
But Dr. Martin starts acting kinda funny—so his colleagues eventually give him a truth serum to find out what happened after the crash. That’s when he reveals that he was kidnapped by a bunch of aliens who appear to have ping-pong balls for eyes—and who are hiding under the Earth’s surface, preparing to take over the planet. Dr. Martin is determined to save the planet, but—truth serum or not—no one believes him.
Killers from Space is a completely ridiculous old movie that would probably be funny even without the commentary—or it may just be painfully dull. For the first half hour or so, nothing actually happens. No action. No aliens. Just a lot of talk. The effects are bad, and the acting is worse—and the movie is filled with all kinds of extreme close-ups (which the guys explain in more hilarious detail after the movie ends) and “lots of pointless sneaking.” And that makes it the perfect target for the Film Crew guys’ banter.
Mostly, the commentary consists of pop culture references, poop jokes, and—when they run out of parts of the movie to mock—allusions to the Peter Graves-hosted TV show, Biography. It’s all rather random—and it’s often more than just a little bit sophomoric. But hey—it’s funny anyway. Or at least it is if you share the guys’ silly, Mystery Science Theater 3000 sense of humor. And, fortunately, I do.
The Film Crew’s version includes the guys’ pre- and post-movie commentary, as well as the usual lunch break—during which the guys eat their lunch while Kevin shares what he claims to be the original sketches from the movie’s costume designers. There’s also a feature that offers more “insight” into the movie, as well as a few (totally made-up) outtakes.
Killers from Space is even more entertaining than Hollywood After Dark—and, fortunately, it’s not nearly as disturbing. While there are a few jokes that fall flat, The Film Crew’s commentary is still much more enjoyable than anything the filmmakers could have written themselves. So if you can appreciate the humor in terrible old movies, The Film Crew’s version of Killers from Space is sure to provide plenty of laughs—especially if it’s after midnight and you’ve already had a few drinks.
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