| Amazon Women on the Moon | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | |
| Written by | |
| Produced by |
|
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Daniel Pearl |
| Edited by | Malcolm Campbell |
| Music by | Ira Newborn |
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 85 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $5 million |
| Box office | $548,696[1] |
Amazon Women on the Moon is a 1987 American satirical science-fiction sketch comedy film that parodies the experience of watching low-budget films on late-night television. The film, featuring a large ensemble cast with cameo appearances by film and television stars as well as some non-actors, was written by Michael Barrie and Jim Mulholland and takes the form of a compilation of 21 comedy sketches directed by five different directors: Joe Dante, Carl Gottlieb, Peter Horton, John Landis and Robert K. Weiss.
The title Amazon Women on the Moon refers to the central film-within-a-film, a spoof of science-fiction films from the 1950s that borrows heavily from Queen of Outer Space (1958) starring Zsa Zsa Gabor, itself a film that recycles elements of earlier science-fiction works such as Cat-Women of the Moon (1953), Fire Maidens from Outer Space (1955) and Forbidden Planet (1956).[2]
Landis had previously directed The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), which employed a similar sketch anthology format.
Plot
[edit]Fictional television station WIDB-TV (Channel 8) experiences problems with its late-night airing of science-fiction classic Amazon Women on the Moon, a 1950s B movie in which Queen Lara (Sybil Danning) and Captain Nelson (Steve Forrest) battle exploding volcanoes and man-eating spiders on the Moon. Waiting for the film to resume, an unseen viewer begins channel surfing—simulated by bursts of white noise—through late-night cable TV, with the various sketches representing the programming found on different channels. The viewer intermittently returns to Channel 8, where Amazon Women on the Moon continues airing before faltering once more.
The segments feature:
- Arsenio Hall as a man who experiences a series of mishaps around his apartment before falling through a window.
- Monique Gabrielle as a model who goes about her daily routine in Laguna Beach, California completely naked without attracting any attention.
- Lou Jacobi as a man named Murray who is zapped into the television and wanders through films such as King Kong and appears in other sketches, including the Huey Lewis and the News music video for "If This Is It", screaming for his wife to help him.
- Michelle Pfeiffer and Peter Horton as a couple dealing with an eccentric doctor (Griffin Dunne) who has lost their baby and tries to fool them with a Mr. Potato Head and a hand puppet.
- Joe Pantoliano as Sy Swerdlow, who presents an ad for his service that involves stapling carpet to men's heads to replace lost hair, a parody of Hair Club for Men ads hosted by Sy Sperling.
- David Alan Grier as "Don 'No Soul' Simmons" and B.B. King as himself in a public-service appeal for "blacks without soul". Simmons later appears in a commercial for a compilation CD of bland love songs sung, turning "a personal affliction into a recording career".
- Rosanna Arquette as a woman who asks her blind date (Steve Guttenberg) for identification and runs a report that reveals intimate details about his love life.
- Henry Silva as the host of Bullshit or Not?, a spoof of Ripley's Believe It or Not! with Jack Palance and In Search of.... Silva proposes that Jack the Ripper was actually the Loch Ness Monster.
- Archie Hahn as a man who dies from a heart attack after watching a scathing review of his life by two film critics (Roger Barkley and Al Lohman, parodying Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert) and is then roasted at his funeral by Steve Allen, Henny Youngman, Slappy White, Charlie Callas, Jackie Vernon, Rip Taylor and even his own wife. The funeral is held over for weeks.
- William Marshall as the leader of the "Video Pirates", who raid an MCA Home Video ship, uncover many videotapes and laserdiscs and begin illegally bootlegging them.
- Ed Begley Jr. as the son of the Invisible Man who believes that he has replicated his father's formula but is in fact fully visible. When he visits the pub naked, he is arrested for indecent exposure.
- John Ingle as the director of an art museum that has lost its lease and must sell its complete collection at closeout prices, including the Mona Lisa and the United States Declaration of Independence.
- Angel Tompkins in a trailer for a film based on a sleazy romance novel in which the president's first lady is a former hooker.
- Matt Adler as an embarrassed teenager trying to purchase condoms for his date at a neighborhood pharmacy but finds himself at the center of a celebration because he is the condom company's billionth customer.
- Marc McClure as a man renting a personalized date video in which his date (Corrine Wahl) romances him by his name and is then shot by boyfriend (Andrew Dice Clay), who turns the gun on himself. The police arrive at the man's house and arrest him.
- "Reckless Youth", an epilogue at the end of the credits, with Carrie Fisher and Paul Bartel in a black-and-white film warning of the dangers of social diseases in the style of Reefer Madness.
Alternative versions
[edit]An alternate version of the "Pethouse Video" sketch was filmed for the television broadcast of the film, with Monique Gabrielle in lingerie rather than appearing naked throughout the segment. However, most European television broadcasts of the film retained the original theatrical version. Bullshit or Not? was retitled Baloney or Not? for the television version.
The American television edit also features an additional bridging sequence between the death of Harvey Pitnik and his subsequent celebrity roast in which the mortician convinces Pitnik's widow to have the celebrity roast as part of the funeral. Her performance receives such strong feedback that it becomes a series lasting for weeks.
The DVD release features an unreleased sketch titled "The Unknown Soldier", starring Robert Loggia with Ronny Cox, Bernie Casey and Wallace Langham. Some television broadcasts of the film featured the sketches "Peter Pan Theater" and "The French Ventriloquist's Dummy", which were not present in the theatrical version.
Cast
[edit]"Mondo Condo" (directed by John Landis):
- Arsenio Hall as Apartment Victim
"Pethouse Video" (directed by Carl Gottlieb):
- Donald F. Muhich as Easterbrook
- Monique Gabrielle as Taryn Steele
"Murray in Videoland" (directed by Robert K. Weiss):
- Lou Jacobi as Murray
- Erica Yohn as Selma
- Debby Davison as Weatherperson
- Rob Krausz as Floor Manager
- Phil Hartman as Baseball Announcer
- Corey Burton as Anchorman
"Hospital" (directed by Landis):
- Michelle Pfeiffer as Brenda Landers
- Peter Horton as Harry Landers
- Griffin Dunne as Dr. Raymond
- Brian Ann Zoccola as Nurse
"Hairlooming" (directed by Joe Dante):
- Joe Pantoliano as Sy Swerdlow
- Stanley Brock as Customer
"Amazon Women on the Moon" (directed by Weiss):
- Corey Burton as TV Announcer
- Steve Forrest as Captain Steve Nelson
- Robert Colbert as "Blackie"
- Joey Travolta as Butch
- Forrest J Ackerman as US President
- Sybil Danning as Queen Lara
- Lana Clarkson as Alpha Beta
- Lyle Talbot as Prescott Townsend
"Blacks Without Soul" (directed by Landis):
- David Alan Grier as Don "No Soul" Simmons
- B.B. King as Himself
- William Bryant (credited as Bill Bryant) as Male Republican
- Roxie Roker as Female Republican
- Le Tari as Pimp
- Christopher Broughton as Fan Club President
"Two I.D.s" (directed by Peter Horton):
- Rosanna Arquette as Karen
- Steve Guttenberg as Jerry
"Bullshit or Not" (directed by Dante):
- Henry Silva as Himself
- Sarah Lilly as Prostitute
"Critics' Corner" (directed by Dante):
- Roger Barkley (credited as Barkley) as Herbert
- Al Lohman (credited as Lohman) as Frankel
- Archie Hahn as Harvey Pitnik
- Belinda Balaski as Bernice Pitnik
- Justin Benham as Pitnik Boy
- Erica Gayle as Pitnik Girl
"Silly Pâté" (directed by Weiss):
- Corey Burton as Announcer
- T. K. Carter as Host
- Phil Proctor as Mike
- Ira Newborn as Fred
- Karen Montgomery as Karen
"Roast Your Loved One" (directed by Dante):
- Archie Hahn as Harvey Pitnik
- Belinda Balaski as Bernice Pitnik
- Justin Benham as Pitnik Boy
- Erica Gayle as Pitnik Girl
- Bryan Cranston as Paramedic #1
- Robert Picardo as Rick Raddnitz
- Rip Taylor as Himself
- Slappy White as Himself
- Jackie Vernon as Himself
- Henny Youngman as Himself
- Charlie Callas as Himself
- Steve Allen as Himself
"Video Pirates" (directed by Weiss):
- William Marshall as Pirate Captain
- Tino Insana as Mr. Sylvio
- Donald Gibb as Graceless Pirate
- Frank Collison as Grizzled Pirate
- Bill Taylor as Gruesome Pirate
"Son of the Invisible Man" (directed by Gottlieb):
- Ed Begley Jr. as Griffin
- Chuck Lafont as Trent
- Pamla Vale as Woman In Pub
- Larry Hankin as Man In Pub
- Garry Goodrow as Checker Player
- Roger La Page as London Bobby
"French Ventriloquist's Dummy" (directed by Dante):
- Dick Miller as Danny Clayton, The Ventriloquist
- Phil Bruns as Danny's Manager
- Martin Goslins as The French Ventriloquist
"Art Sale" (directed by Gottlieb):
- John Ingle as Felix Van Dam
"First Lady of the Evening" (directed by Weiss):
- Angel Tompkins as First Lady
- Terry McGovern as Salesman
- Michael Hanks as Announcer
"Titan Man" (directed by Weiss):
- Matt Adler as George
- Kelly Preston as Violet
- Ralph Bellamy as Mr. Gower
- Howard Hesseman as Rupert King
- Steve Cropper as Customer
- Chris Wolf as Mascot Bip
"Video Date" (directed by Landis):
- Marc McClure as Ray
- Russ Meyer as Video Salesman
- Corrine Wahl as Sharri
- Andrew Dice Clay as Frankie
- Willard E. Pugh as Speaking Cop
"Reckless Youth" (directed by Dante):
- Carrie Fisher as Mary Brown
- Paul Bartel as Doctor
- Herb Vigran as Agent
- Tracy Hutchinson as Floozie
- Mike Mazurki as "Dutch"
- Frank Beddor as Ken
"The Unknown Soldier" (directed by Horton)
- Robert Loggia as General McCormick
- Bernie Casey as Major General Hadley
- Ronny Cox as General Balentine
- Wallace Langham as Private Anson W. Pucket
"Peter Pan Theatre" (directed by Gottlieb)
- Jenny Agutter as Cleopatra
- Raye Birk as Vanya
- Mark Bringelson as Theater Customer #1
- Victoria Ann Lewis as Theater Customer #2
- Vivian Bonnell as Theater Customer #3
- Kellye Nakahara as Theater Customer #4
Production
[edit]Amazon Women on the Moon was filmed in 1985 with plans for an August 1986 release, but as a result of the ongoing legal fallout from director John Landis's involvement in the Twilight Zone accident, Universal repeatedly pushed the release date and issued a gag order on publicity for the film while the trial was ongoing.[3]
Reception
[edit]The majority of critics agreed that the quality was inconsistent throughout the film. Variety called it "irreverent, vulgar and silly... [with] some hilarious moments and some real groaners too."[4] Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times felt that the exercise was somewhat unnecessary: "Satirists are in trouble when their subjects are funnier than they are."[5]
Janet Maslin of The New York Times, in a largely positive review, described the film as "an anarchic, often hilarious adventure in dial-spinning, a collection of brief skits and wacko parodies that are sometimes quite clever, though they're just as often happily sophomoric, too."[6]
In a retrospective article for Entertainment Weekly, Chris Nashawaty called the film "the beginning of the end of Landis' career". He cited the episodes featuring Monique Gabrielle, Archie Hahn, Ed Begley Jr. and David Alan Grier as "inspired", but criticized others for their failure: "You'll never see Michelle Pfeiffer look as trapped as she does in her skit with Thirtysomething's Peter Horton, or Joe Pantoliano and Arsenio Hall as unfunny as they are in their skits."[7]
Amazon Women on the Moon has a rating of 65% on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 5.7/10.[8] On Metacritic it has a 42% score based on reviews from 11 critics.[9]
See also
[edit]- The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), a similarly formatted anthology comedy also directed by John Landis
- Disco Beaver from Outer Space (1978)
- UHF (1989)
References
[edit]- ^ Amazon Women on the Moon at Box Office Mojo
- ^ Scott, Casey. "Amazon Women on the Moon". DVD Drive-In. Archived from the original on November 12, 2019. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
- ^ Clarke, Frederick S. (June 1987). "Amazon Women on the Moon". Cinefantastique. Fourth Castle Micromedia. Retrieved February 23, 2023.
- ^ "Amazon Women on the Moon". Variety. Penske Business Media. January 1, 1987. Archived from the original on April 5, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (1987-09-18). "Amazon Women on the Moon". RogerEbert.com. Ebert Digital LLC. Archived from the original on April 5, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
- ^ Maslin, Janet (1987-09-18). "Amazon Women on the Moon". The New York Times. p. C12. Archived from the original on April 5, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
- ^ Nashawaty, Chris (September 7, 2006). "Chris Nashawaty mourns for John Landis' career". Entertainment Weekly. Time. Archived from the original on April 5, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
- ^ "Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Archived from the original on September 22, 2022. Retrieved May 18, 2022.
- ^ "Amazon Women on the Moon". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 2022-02-19. Retrieved 2022-02-19.
External links
[edit]- Amazon Women on the Moon at IMDb
- Amazon Women on the Moon at Rotten Tomatoes
- Amazon Women on the Moon at the TCM Movie Database
