Cheap Lobster Man From Mars (Video) (Stanley Sheff) Price

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Customer Reviews of Lobster Man From Mars

It's Lobsterific!
An incredible piece of cult silliness, "Lobster Man From Mars" is a treat for fans of classic Grade Z science fiction flicks. A modern shrine to the old drive-in masters, this movie will bring heavy snickers and pleasant memories for those who long for the bad old days of bad old movies. Odds are that if the title didn't scare you away from the get-go, you'll certainly enjoy yourself.

Lobster Man From Mars actually has quite the pedigree. The great Orson Welles himself came up with the title (no kidding!), and had agreed to appear in the picture before his untimely death. (He is remembered in the closing credits, and his role was played by the legendary Tony Curtis.) However, pedigree is probably the last thing on the minds of this film's target audience, save for the repressed giggles of recognition upon hearing the voice of legendary radio schlock jock Dr. Demento as the movie's narrator or discovering that the Martian astrologer is played by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, the man who gave the world "The Monster Mash."

The "picture within a picture" that is "Lobster Man From Mars" is a brilliant shrine to the classic days of bad movie making, from cheap alien movies to teenagers-save-the-world flicks to wiseguy private eye films. The great clichés are all lovingly reproduced in such a manner that it is obvious that great care was taken in their selection and placement, along with many of the bad filmmaking conventions that many modern directors might have forgotten to include.

The awful young English actor (Anthony Hickox, Hellraiser II) playing the hero, the oddly domestic yet independent blonde girlfriend (Deborah Foreman, Valley Girl) who's the true brains behind the outfit, The Brilliant Scientist (Patrick Macnee, The Avengers) and, of course, the Dreaded Lobster Man (S.D. Nemeth, RoboCop) and his helmet-wearing simian sidekick, Mombo (officially uncredited) are all composites of the best cliché characters that the Grade Z classics have to offer.

No detail is missed, and no silly effort spared. To those who don't appreciate the bad old days of genre drek, all of this art and attention to craft will pass right by and indeed seem like little more than cheap silliness, but for those who truly love the classics... this is reverential art done well.

Includes lots of extra features plus an onscreen running commentary with Star Trek's George Takei (Captain Sulu) with director Stanley Sheff.

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"The producers" and "Matinee" scrunched together!
This movie has the theme of "The Producers" (1968) in which they must make a flop movie or pay the IRS more than they have. The "Maine lobster" (oops) the Martian lobster is similar to the ant man in "Matinee" (1993) where the mant is always trying to put his claw where it doesn't belong. I do not believe that they left out any of the old monster and Mars clichés.
Tony Curtis pretty much plays himself. See him again in a serious film "Goodbye Charlie (1964) ASIN: B00000IBMF" and Deborah Foreman won the prestigious "Most Promising New Star" award from Show West 1986. Patrick Macnee is the Uncle Professor Plocostomos. You may remember him in "Creature Wasn't Nice, The" (1981) as Dr. Stark. There are many other major stars in this movie.
If you found this movie interesting, especially when they leave the air collector on "Auto Suck," then the next movie to watch should be "Out There (1995) ASIN: 6303965954" the investment may be pricey. But it is worth it.

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Nostaligia ain't what it used to be.
Obviously made by someone who knows his material and holds it in no small esteem, this good-natured but limp spoof is only OK. Its appropriately low-budget fault lies mainly in treading on well-worn, unsteady ground.

The films on which it takes its loose basis are found by many to be self-parody already in this postmodern era. So the central conceit of portraying them for laughs decades later engenders only smirks. It is more an 'aha!' than a 'ha-ha!' when in-jokes such as the name Ankrum appear. And lampooning the ineptitude of many of these movies may not even register with some, such as how the titular character's looks change visibly during the course of the movie, with no explanation; or how the credits of the movie-within-a-movie consist of one name over and over again.

The plot has to do with the ruler of a slowly-dying Mars sending a couple of fiends- a Lobster Man and a helmeted gorilla- to Earth to steal our air. Nonsensical, yes, but not entirely without precedent. Still, 50's films such as Robot Monster were played straight and possessed of an earnest, dreamlike logic all their own. This is just silly.

Among the flicks lampooned are the aforementioned Robot Monster, It Conquered The World, This Island Earth, and many more in small and not-so-small ways. (More even than I probably am really aware of.) There is a cameo or two, and Tony Curtis is funny, basically acting like I've always seen him act.

Bottom line: Entertaining but sometimes vacuous, with little of the momentum its source films were good at generating. At least it is pleasant in tone.

P.S. I think this is actually rated PG.