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The Phantom PlanetRating:
Release Date: 19 November, 2002 Retail Price: $7.98 OUR Price: $7.98 You SAVE: $0.00! Cast: Complete Cast (6 total) |
The Phantom Planet Reviews
It's not the size that matters.....
Dan Fredericks stars as Capt. Frank Chapman is launched away into space when Earth discovers an undiscovered planet which appears in the solar system. Chapman crash lands his ship on the surface of the planet, gets out and falls unconsious. A race of tiny people who find Chapman lying there on the ground. He wakes up sees them and eventually shrinks to tiny form. He is taken into the place where they all live. He's giving tests of strength and so forth. They tiny people possess the technology to move their planet from galaxy to galaxy to evade their enemies. Soon their enemies the Solarites, Chapman helps them in their aid to help them save the day. 'Twas an interesting watch. The Solarite was hilarious and hey Richard Kiel (Eegah!, The Longest Yard) plays the part...whooo! Fredericks wasnt that bad actually in his role and ze women were lovely to look at. A terribly silly hokey pokey adventure. Also starring Coleen Gary, Anthony Dexter, Francis X. Bushman, Richard Weber and Al Jarvis
Somewhere Under the Rainbow
This movie is has its moments. Some aspects are interesting to watch. Others are not. The movie falls just short of the mark to be classic. The movie is also just good enough to keep it out of the garbage category. Viewers who enjoy classic science fiction movies of the 40s and 50s may appreciate the better qualities of this movie.
Space ships keep disappearing. A viewer gets to learn that the reason for the disappearances is an asteroid populated by people who have the technology to keep the asteroid invisible. At the beginning of the movie we see a space ship which is being accelerated at 11 g's. Though the ship is accelerating at 11 g's, the men on board have little problem moving and are awake and alert. The technology of the future is amazing. Today, pilots pass out somewhere around 8 or 9 g's, and movement is very difficult.
On the other hand, the cockpit of the space ship was outstanding. Some of the instruments made little sense, but the controls were nicely arranged, and a number of features made this cockpit above average for science fiction movies of the late 50s and early 60s.
A short time later the two crewmen on the space ship are walking about on the exterior of the ship without restraints. It appears that the men are pulled toward this ship as though there was gravity toward the ship. The men's shoes looked a lot like street shoes.
Captain Frank Chapman (Dean Fredericks) survives the crash of his ship on the mysterious asteroid. Chapman stumbles from his ship and swears he sees little people about the size of those in Lilliput. After opening his helmet, Chapman too shrinks to the size of the little people, which has something to do with the atmosphere of the asteroid and the fields surrounding the asteroid. We later discover that the name of the asteroid is Rayton.
The little people speak English because all languages on Rayton are translated through voice tone waves, or something like that. I love scientific gobbledygook double-speak. We need the English because Chapman is suddenly part of some kind of love quadrangle. Liara (Coleen Gray) is the hot blonde babe who is a social climber. Zetha (Delores Faith) is a beautiful mute babe who is shy and has a major crush on Chapman. Exposure to an enemy Solarite warrior caused Zetha to become mute. The other guy in this is Herron (Anthony Dexter), who loves Liara, though she is fickle.
After some fighting and the usual male bonding, Chapman and Herron become great friends. The people of Rayton realize that Chapman is an all right guy, so they decide, after a huge fight with the Solarites involving lots of hand movements over lighted plastic (which controlled their fields and weapons) that it is time for Chapman to go home. But wait, a critical fight scene with a captured Solarite has to happen. I actually felt sorry for the Solarite, who was played by Richard Kiel. The costume apparently had poor visibility because Kiel had a hard time walking down stairs or moving in general. By coincidence, I also just reviewed "Eegah," yet another Kiel movie that Kiel would probably like to forget. At least in this movie you could not see his face.
Eventually Chapman is repatriated and the movie ends, but not before the most awful audio effects I have ever heard in a movie. Many movies use an echo effect or reverberation effect for the narrator. In this case, the narrator literally repeated the same lines over and over, with the volume reduced each time. The ending was like an Ed Wood moment for this film.
This movie has too much hokum to qualify as a classic. However, it still has its moments and I recommend it to people who like science fiction movies of the 50s. Just be sure to keep your expectations low. If you believe there were only six good science fiction movies made in the entire 1950s, I can guarantee you that this movie was not one of them. Good luck!
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