Jan 13

Movie Reviews: Beer Drinkers in Space

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I’ve decided that now that I have easy access to lots of movies via Netflix Instant Watch and my new Roku box, I might take a bit of time to review some of the lesser known but ‘recommended for you’ movies out there.

I’ll start with a movie called ‘Beer Drinkers in Space‘ (better info here).  Netflix recommended this movie to me because I apparently enjoy B-grade movies about outer space.  I started the playback of the movie, which alerted me right away that the last 45 minutes of the movie had been cut because the actors were just too drunk and it didn’t make any sense.  Well, this should be good…

Amanda gave up watching it 5 minutes in.  I decided to stick it out.  The movie was originally shot on VHS in 1983, and let me tell you, they didn’t pick the high grade VHS tapes.  Fuzzy, out of focus shots, visible distortion of the screen when bright lights come on, all the goodness that we have thankfully put firmly behind us since about 1995 or so.  The sets are pretty well done, but we only get to see about 3 or 4 sets all told, and the camera certainly fails to pan around much.  Basically, most of the actors, except for ‘Captain Slosh’, sit at cramped terminals and yell out interesting things.

The actors for the most part are pretty much making it up as they go.  I think there is a script, and they read from it from time to time, but you can tell that the actors are mostly having fun making things up.  This is probably the sole redeeming quality of the whole film.  The actual acting is pretty stiff and kind of hard to watch.

They made a halfway decent attempt at some puppets to portray some aliens encountered along the way, but not all the actors really react to their presence.  I suppose it was all the beer.

I’m not even going to go into the plot, as I can’t really recall what it was.  Something along the line of a beer shipment, possibly getting hijacked, random help, and… the exciting conclusion?

Overall, this is not a movie I would recommend watching unless you plan on consuming a lot of beer.  It would seem a remake is in the works.  I can only hope that the magic of CGI could transform the stiff acting into something vaguely watchable.