Lobster Man from Mars

Plot synopsis:
Young filmmaker Stevie Horowitz (Dean Jacobson) eagerly awaits a meeting with big shot Hollywood film producer J.P. Shelldrake (Tony Curtis). Shelldrake has been desperately searching for a way to avoid problems with the IRS and unpaid millions owed them in back taxes. His brilliant yet overpaid accountant (Phil Proctor) devises a scheme to allow the producer to write off the expenses of his next movie release, but only if the film is a box office flop. Armed with his foolproof plan, Shelldrake agrees to meet with Stevie and screen his film "Lobster Man From Mars" (financed by Stevie's jailed con man Uncle Joey). The plot resembles the premise of The Producers by Mel Brooks.
Inside Shelldrake's private screening room the "film within the film" begins. They watch the weird plot unfold: Mars suffers from a severe air leakage. The King of Mars (Bobby Pickett of "Monster Mash" fame) commands the dreaded Lobster Man and his assistant Mombo (a gorilla wearing a space helmet, in a nod to Robot Monster) to pilot his flying saucer to Earth then steal its air. Once landed, the Lobster Man wastes no time transforming hapless victims into smoking skeletons.
On a lonely road, John and Mary, a young and innocent couple (Deborah Foreman and Anthony Hickox) discovers the hiding place of the flying saucer in a dark and mysterious cave. They attempt to warn the authorities but are ignored. Successfully contacting Professor Plocostomos (Patrick Macnee), a plan is created to lure the Lobster Man to Mr. Throckmorton's (Billy Barty) Haunted House that just happens to be surrounded by boiling hot springs.
Once lured, it's simply a matter of pushing the Lobster Man into the hot water where he will be boiled to death. The plan is interrupted by Colonel Ankrum (Fred Holliday) and his troops. The house is shelled and destroyed, the Lobster Man flees to his cave, taking Mary with him.
She manages to escape, but the Lobster Man follows. A wild chase ensues, but Professor Plocostomos uses the hot engine coolant from his overheated vehicle to drench Mombo causing his foamy demise. The chase concludes in Yellowstone Park where the dreaded Lobster Man is tricked into walking into the Old Faithful Geyser and a steamy end.
The screening is over. Shelldrake cannot believe his good fortune to witness such a bad movie with potential to lose every cent invested in its distribution and promotion. He buys the production on the spot, but once in release it becomes a big hit and makes a huge profit sending Shelldrake straight to tax prison, with Stevie taking his place as the studio's new boy wonder.

Tags: absurd, cult

Review:
Dircector's Statement about the DVD.
It took two weeks to write and ten years to finish.
In 1977 writer Bob Greenberg and I were offered $50,000 to make a science fiction movie.
We thought that instead of trying to hide the low budget, we would make it a central theme using the gimmick of a film-within-a-film.Such was the genesis of Lobster Man From Mars.
We wrote the screenplay in two weeks, but the money to shoot the movie never appeared.
The project was set aside until the tragic demise of Bob Greenberg in an auto accident.
I was determined to get Bob's name on the screen as a writer, and thanks to the efforts of producer Steven Greene, this became a reality.
Production began during the summer of 1988 --- a mere 10 years after writing the screenplay --- and culminated with the world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival six months later.
The version shown at the festival was a 95 minute "first cut", later revised to 81 minutes, then released to theaters, television and home video in the shorter format.The special director's edition DVD is one that has never been seen by the public, having only existed on a computer editing program!
I've taken some of the better moments from the long version and have integrated them with the shorter version.
And now, thanks to the modern miracle of computer editing, I've added new low-tech, even cheaper looking special effects, never before possible.
Once again, the Lobster Man lives!.
So bad it was hilarious....
Well, I wasn't really expecting to be wowed by this movie, but it turned out to be the funniest movie I've seen in a long time.
I rented it mainly because of the title.
After all, who doesn't want to see a movie named "Lobster Man from Mars"?
I settled down with some friends and chocolate, and had the most laugh out loud night.This movie is filled with ridiculous moments, akin to the old fifties Scifi movies, complete with a badly costumed lobster who's face keeps changing between scenes.
The acting isn't that good, but then again, it really isn't meant to be.
This is the perfect movie to watch when you want to have a good time, and if you're full of too much energy..
Mars is running out of air....
Voracious flesh eaters from Mars invade the Earth!
A very funny bad movie made for the cost of coffee and donuts on any of today's blockbuster epics.
The film's star Tony Curtis puts this picture right up there with "Some Like It Hot" and "Spartacus" - he says so right there on the DVD edition this movie.If you are a fan of trashy science fiction, you will most certainly enjoy this humorous spoof of such classics as "Invaders from Mars", "Night of the Ghouls" and "Teenagers from Outer Space".It can all be summed up in this typical line of dialogue spoken by Professor Plocostomos (Patrick Macnee)...
"If you were a Lobster Man, would you enter a haunted house surrounded by artillery?"Well, would you?.
Enjoyable spoof..
A film within a film; a producer needing a tax write-off agrees to screen and buy the rights to a student film called LOBSTER MAN FROM MARS.
Most the of the film spent viewing the film which about an alien lobster man wrecking havoc on Earth.
The producer finds the film so shoddy that he agrees to buy it in order to lose money so he doesn't owe the IRS so much money.
The film is obviously inspired by the producers.
The film is loaded with many jokes that only buffs of horror and science fiction films would get.
For example: the colonel is named "Ankrum", after Morris Ankrum who played military men and other authority figures in dozens of 1950's science fiction and horror films.
The film is loaded with gags like these that most viewers probably would not get.
I would mention any more as I would not want to spoil it for people who are in the know..
A great, great, great parody.
This movie is an excellent parody of the American horror movies from the 60s.
I don't know how people who watched this movie can make a negative comment on the camera, the lightning and the play.
They just didn't get it I guess.
The special effects, the play and the camera were all meant to be badly done so they can resemble the 'drive in' movies from the 60s.
This is one of those movies which you can't and must not take serious.
The quality of such productions lays by my opinion in the way that the story is served to the viewer.
A thing that Stanley Sheff and Bob Greenberg have done in a very good way.
Overall a great parody - 10/10!.
brilliantly bad.
i just bought this movie for 2bucks thinking that it will surely be worth it's cost...
and i was so right!!
i saw it with a friend of mine and we just loved it's (mostly intended) badness.
There are movies that are just bad and then there are these flicks that are so freaking' bad that they are really entertaining.
the movie made me really laugh hard a couple of times and Tony Curtis just rocked being this bad producer.
the day after i watched it i immediately wanted to watch it again..
and if that's not positive about a film..
for a movie as "b" as one movie could be, the cast isn't that bad: Tony Curtis and Patrick McNee are two stars of the 80ies, starring here and they do a good job (being bad).
the story is really strange: i mean a lobster man and his adjutant, an ape with a spacehelmet, stealing earth's air for the mars is not a common thing in Hollywood.
the characters are all very funny and the story is except for some lengths in the middle very amusing..
so silly, so very silly.
i saw this film some years ago now, and i can still remember it.
at the time, and on subsequent viewings, it made me laugh myself quite silly, not quite as silly as this film however.
it is somewhat like a cheaper, tackier, Z grade, sci-fi version of gremlins two, just taking the piss out of as many things as it can.
somtimes it misses, but mostly it hits.
a bizarre indie classic.
go find it now, you won't regret it..
A harmless, somewhat amusing parody of 1950s scifi movies..
First of all, I understand what parody is, and I realize that this movie is supposed to be bad, as it's poking fun of bad 1950s science fiction movies.
My rating is not based on the acting, special effects, or dialogue, which, as I said, are meant to be bad.
Unfortunately, I just didn't think this was particularly funny!
For one thing, the whole film-in-a-film conceit seemed to be weakly developed.
I wasn't quite sure why they even bothered doing this, except to highlight that the movie isn't meant to be taken seriously.
However, if you have to explicitly tell people that your movie is a parody, maybe you're not doing it right.
Or you're underestimating your audience (and thus insulting their intelligence).Anyway, I thought it was somewhat amusing, and I dutifully recognized each of the pop culture references, but, really, it just wasn't all that funny.
Something like Killer Klowns From Outer Space makes me laugh hysterically every time I watch it, but this....
Chalk it up to personal taste, I guess.Again, I've been rather let down by Anthony Hickox, after really liking Waxwork and Waxwork II.
I just don't think I've ever really liked anything else he's done since then..
Unfortunately It Is Not Bad Enough to be Good.
So what have we got here with this "Lobster Man From Mars" (1989) movie?
Think "The Producers" (1968) meets "Plan 9 From Outer Space" (1959).
If you don't get parody you should give this one a wide berth.
If you want really "clever" parody you should probably skip it as well.
If you thought Buster Crabbe's Flash Gordon stuff was fun because it was so "unintentionally" hokey you might want to go into avoidance mode along with the others.
The hokey elements in "Lobster Man From Mars" are anything but unintentional, it wants your attention like a one-trick pony mad for a carrot.
This lack of subtlety would pretty much doom the thing had it not already expired from a case of terminally lame screen writing.
The root of the problem is that they were given too much money to make this thing.
Much like the fake disaster movie playing in the background of "Drive-In", it utilizes a film within a film device; only this time a Hollywood executive is screening what is supposed to be a bad "student" film.
The saving grace of bad student films is their unity of weak writing, poor production values, and unpolished acting.
But the student film being viewed in "Lobster Man From Mars" has some recognizable cast members and enough money for semi- authentic production design; which does not work to its benefit.
Here's the premise: a Hollywood studio needs a really bad film to use as a tax write-off.
They screen a high school kid's science fiction film, which while really bad would be another "Citizen Kane" compared to any bad student film.
In the film within the film, Mars is running out of air and sends the "dreaded" Lobster Man to earth where he and a hairy sidekick begin randomly zapping people with a ray gun.
The too competent cast includes Patrick Macnee (playing a British scientist) and Deborah Foreman looking (as the film moves along) like she is gradually deciding in favor of retiring from acting (which she actually did-was it coincidence or was her decision made midway through the production of this turkey?).
The problem is that there is very little in the movie that is particularly funny, intentional or unintentional.
The only bit that works repeatedly involves the zany space bats who fly around cackling manically.
And there is one good line by Tommy Sledge, as a film noir parody private detective who inspects the giant lobster tracks leading away from the site of an explosion and then says: "It means that either he escaped, or he walked backwards from the horizon to commit suicide in this bonfire".
If you want to see this stuff done right, cleverly written and with a student film level of production design, check out Larry Blamire's "The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra" (2001).
90 minutes of inspired spoofing.
Then again, what do I know?
I'm only a child..
Lobster Man from Mars.
Oh boy!
With a title like that you can probably already guess.
Is it cheap, super cheesy and have complete sub-par effects?
Yes. But, is it also funny and slightly inspirational?
Yes. This is not trying to be a B-movie, this is trying and quite successful at aiming at being a Z-grade movie.
Everything in this movie is intentional and sucked right out of those cheesy 50s horror/sci-fi flicks that everyone gets a good chuckle at when viewing.Tony Curtis plays mega-millionaire film producer J.P. Shelldrake who has just found out he owes more than 4 million to the government.
He needs a total flop at the box office to act as a tax write-off.
In steps Stevie Horowitz a young filmmaker who has tried his best to get Shelldrake to see one of his movies.
Let me tell you a young Orson Welles he ain't.
Shelldrake thinks there might be a stinker present so he watches the film.
It is the story of Lobster Man being sent to Earth to get air for Mars.
Soon human beings are attacked by gorillas in space helmets, possessed hand puppets and of course Lobster Man.It keeps going back to Curtis' reaction to the movie and he does an amazing job of showing his dissatisfaction of the film before going back to the wonderful trashy film.
I do give Tony Curtis credit for being in this movie.
I mean being in great classics like SOME LIKE IT HOT, SPARTACUS or THE DEFIANT ONES this is quite a step in the opposite direction.
Main thing to remember about this movie is don't take it seriously and just try and enjoy yourself.Also has some great music done by Sasha Matson and has a great title song 'Rock Lobster' from the B-52's.Certainly gets a thumbs up from me and quite a clever and enjoyable spoof.
Also starring Deborah Foreman (from Waxwork), Patrick Macnee (also from Waxwork), Anthony Hickox (who directed Waxwork) and Billy Barty (who sadly was not in Waxwork)..
Enjoyable Camp.
In addition to parodying lovably bad Sci-Fi movies this movie is also,in essence, a remake of The Producers.
The difference is that instead of a movie designed to fail in order to make money, the failure of the movie is to lose money for a tax write off.
The improbability of the IRS allowing such a loophole to work can be easily dismissed by the viewer as you're already on board for the ride by the insane title of the film.I'm partial to everything I've seen Deborah Foreman in, and this is no exception.
It is a shame that she moved away from acting with only one film appearance past the year 2000.
While hardly a classic film role here, her presence alone makes it worthwhile..
What Can I say about this movie that hasn't been said other then it's one of the best movies ever.
Then I would be lying to you all.
The Camera angles and the lighting were well.....you already know.
The acting was down right humor.
Who thought of this idea anyway?.
Funniest SF film since Dark Star?
(or: Earthman beware, He's after your air).
"He came from the Stars, Lobster Man from Mars...Earthman beware, he's after your air!!!No place to hide, Lobster's right outside!!!"The theme song suggests we are about to see a bad, bad movie.
Not so.This is a hilarious and great movie about a bad, bad movie (which turns out to be better than expected), and is probably the funniest science fiction movie since Dark Star.
(It's a bit like a small-scale version of Mars Attacks with a smaller budget and more(!) jokes.)I was quite surprised to see such a low score here for it.
I suspect a few people who rated it poorly are just unfamiliar with the style of films it is parodying (think "Robot Monster"), or see only the surface "badness" of the movie in the movie without realising it is deliberately "awful" and does not take itself seriously.In other words, the low quality of this film is only a translucent veneer; one sufficient to fool a surprising number of people, apparently.Mild, small-scale, incidental spoilers:There's a lot to like about this movie.
The earnest over-the-top melodrama, the in-film narrator, the deliberately wonky effects, the range of stereotype characters from multiple genres added to the mix (how many sf movies have a hardboiled gumshoe as a supporting character?) all contribute.
The music is especially perfect: the theme song, the spooky warbling electronic chase music, and the use of Siegfried's Funeral March could not be bettered.But these are all touches of finesse to a great parody.
The quality and caricatured accuracy of the parody is what makes this film so entertainingly amusing.
This affectionate and good-humoured homage to low-budget science-fiction monster flicks is probably the funniest such since at least The Rocky Horror Picture Show (while being considerably different in tone!), and possibly since Dark Star.The sheer ludicrous excess and exaggeration of the evil of the Lobster Man, the goodness of the heroes and the stakes of peril are all almost operatic, and would not seem out of place on the stage of Victorian melodrama (science-fictional trappings aside).Many, many images, plot points and lines are delicious: the Lobster Man's entire character design, the way we see that most of the characters are sexist but the movie makers (at both levels) aren't, phrases like "smoking bales of Big Monk"...If you've a passing familiarity with drive-in science fiction, and a sense of the ludicrous, I think you'll enjoy this little film; if your idea of visual science fiction starts with Star Wars and finishes with the X-Files, or you think humour and sf shouldn't mix, you may not.