Voyage of the Rock Aliens

Plot synopsis:
A guitar-shaped spaceship and Robot 1359 (voiced by Peter Cullen), search the universe for the source of rock and roll music. He finds it on Earth. 1359 wakes the crew to visit the planet. A rocket telephone booth lands in the town of Speelburgh and ABCD (pronounced "Absid") (Tom Nolan) with his group of aliens exit. The humanoid aliens force robot 1359 to take the form of a fire hydrant. Only the Sheriff (Ruth Gordon) witnesses their landing, and she becomes obsessed with alien invaders.
Dee Dee (Pia Zadora) is a singer in high school who is in love with Frankie (Craig Sheffer), the leader of Speelburgh's local high school rock band, The Pack (Jimmy and the Mustangs). She sings of her heart's desire to best friend Diane (Alison La Placa). Dee Dee's dream is to sing with the band; Frankie loves her but does not want her to sing with them. Meanwhile, a giant creature with tentacles lives in nearby Lake Erie, a product of environmental pollution, and it periodically extends its arms throughout the town.
As the aliens, played by the rock band Rhema, search the area, they encounter Dee Dee, Frankie and The Pack at the local maltshop. Absid literally loses his head over Dee Dee (i.e. he explodes and needs to be put back together by his crew) and decides to win her heart. Meanwhile, his cohorts search for specimens such as flowers, leaves and cow chips. STUVWXYZ (pronounced "Stovitz") (Patrick Byrnes) stumbles across the path of two crazed mass murderers, Chainsaw (Michael Berryman) and The Breather (Wallace Merck), who recently escaped from The Speelburgh Asylum for the Criminally Insane.
Feeling dejected by Frankie's refusal to let her sing, Dee Dee succumbs to the charms of Absid, who asks her to be the singer of his band at the Heidi High Cotillion Dance and Battle of the Bands. Frankie and The Pack arrive at the school to keep the aliens out... but they cannot stop them because of the aliens' powers: they teleport into the bathroom through the toilets. Dee Dee finally gets her chance to sing at a battle of the bands between the aliens and The Pack, with the very jealous Frankie furious that Dee Dee has switched sides.
Absid and Dee Dee sneak off to the lake. While the tentacled creature searches the banks, Absid tries to convince Dee Dee to fly back to his planet. Hesitating, she agrees to visit the ship, but discovers once there that she'll have to give up all human emotion to live on the alien's planet.
Meanwhile, Diane encounters Chainsaw at the high school. The crazed killer intends to make her his next victim, but his rusty chainsaw breaks down. Love blooms as Diane helps Chainsaw fix his chainsaw.
Bolting back to her true love, Frankie, Dee Dee finds him cornered in a school hallway by the Breather. Frankie manages to fend off his rival, only to be attacked by the monster from the lake, which has gotten loose and surrounded the school with its tentacles. With his chainsaw now repaired, Chainsaw rescues everyone.
In the end the aliens board their ship and Absid decides to leave the humans "a little alien persuasion." He fiddles with the buttons in the booth and clears away all of the town's pollution. He also turns the brutal Pack into a group of boy scouts. The creature leaves town, the skies clear, flowers bloom and Frankie and Dee Dee sing and dance into a smogless sunset.

Tags: absurd, murder

Review:
To watch this movie is akin to reliving the eighties only through MTV news updates.
There are so many things "right" about this movie.
Baby.Rock 'n' Roll is misleading, but it's more like New Wave vs.
Name another film that that happens in please because I would love to watch it.If you do not like this movie you obviously hate the eighties and everything associated with it.
Just know that I care about you.Voyage of the Rock and Roll Aliens changed my life.
And not just in regards to my fantasy wife becoming Pia Zadora.
In many other equally profound ways.If you have the chance, snatch this movie up and give it a viewing..
If anyone has questions about this movie please let me know, I was in it.
I also co-wrote several songs for it.And yes, this movie is about as cheesy as you can get.
The bands featured in the movie are Rhema and Jimmy and the Mustangs, I was in Rhema.
Pia was a delight to work with as was the whole crew and cast..
Pia Rocks!.
Even though the special effects rarely rise above amateurish, even though the acting, at places, can best be described as 'cardboard', and even though the final production lacks the polish of a comparable film, say 'Grease', this film is definitely worth the time.This film has several things going for it, definitely.
First of all, there are some pretty decent actors in the film and some talented singers as well.There are few who are both decent actors and talented singers, but this in itself doesn't ruin the movie.Musically, watch for the sequence 'nature of the beast'.
It is a bit overplayed, and stylistically overdone, yet still quite entertaining.Much of the comedy in the movie falls rather flat, but there a few shining moments mixed in.
At the point the female victim helps the homicidal maniac repair his chainsaw is really where the movie begins to hit its stride and the various elements come together.Throughout the film, Pia Zadora is a joy to watch.
In this film, she comes across as a wonderful singer, as well as a passable actress who seems completely to buy into her character.
This is definitely not a trivial task, as the plot as a whole is rather hokey and the monster in the film looks really cheap and rubbery.
Don't expect 'Grease' going in, and you won't be disappointed coming out.
And BTW, look for Pia's duet with Jermaine Jackson on 'When the rain begins to fall' at the beginning of the movie.
I don't think it has anything to do with the rest of the movie, but it is a cute little rock video..
After a few years I took the videocassette "Voyage of the Rock Aliens" out of the shelf.
Blow the dust away and start watching the movie!
Pia Zadora!
O.k. the movie is awful, but the music is great.
You must see the film as a lot of music-clips put together in one movie.
If you like the music of the 80's and enjoy songs like "When the rain begins to fall", "Little bit of heaven" or "Let's dance tonight" it's your movie!.
Maybe not a good choice to watch when sober but when your smashed....
Craig Sheiffers preformance in the film is fantastic.
Look out for the music video  starring Jermaine Jackson at the begining of the film that has absolutley no refrence to the movie whatsoever.
Plotless, goofy, lighthearted, audacious, uplifting, spirited - in short, the most fun movie I've watched in months!
I don't even like musicals, but this one had me constantly tapping my feet on the floor.
Pia Zadora's acting won't win any awards, but she's appropriately bright and perky here, plus a terrific singer.
This may be the most cheesy movie ever.But it always makes me happy.
It shows the 80s in fun and light hearted style.if this movie had came out in 83 or 84 it would have been a hit..
When Pia Zadora was rising to fame in the early 1980s she was always sold as a coquettish sexpot, from posing nude for Oui magazine to starring as Stacy Keach's teen temptress daughter in "Butterfly." Even her first album, "Pia," had the former Broadway performer heavy-breathing her way through soft pop songs, as if whispering into a lover's ear (until a chorus of back-up singers barges in, drowning her out).
As a result, Pia Zadora was a Hollywood joke before the '80s hit their midway point, with 1983's release of "The Lonely Lady" the punchline.Things started to turn around by 1985, but before they did there was 1984's barely released musical comedy "Voyage of the Rock Aliens," a last ditch effort to establish Pia as a movie star.
It's a step in the right direction for Pia, playing to her strengths — singing and light comedy — rather than trying to present her as a barely-legal seductress.
Unfortunately, even though she's stepping in the right direction, the movie she's in stumbles."Voyage" is the story of a rock n' roll obsessed aliens (portrayed by the band Rhema) who, after a screening of the video for Pia's duet with Jermaine Jackson, "When the Rain Begins to Fall," beam down from their guitar-shaped spaceship to the town of Speelburgh (insert eye roll here).
Pia plays Dee Dee, a cherubic high school hottie dating Frankie (Craig Sheffer).
The aliens, dressed like they hail from the planet Chess King, have a hard time fitting in until they introduce the teens of Speelburgh to their synth-heavy, New Wave-ish sound and before you know it they're being invited to play at the Heidi High cotillion.
Then the aliens' blond commander ABCD (pronounced "Absid") gets one look at Dee Dee and literally explodes with desire.
Once re- assembled, he decides the quickest way to win Dee Dee's heart is to allow her to perform with the aliens.Also: Michael Berryman escapes from the local Hospital for the Criminally Insane, going on a chainsaw murdering rampage while the late Ruth Gordon pops up from time to time as a clueless sheriff, because why not?
Though "Voyage" is a comedy, it's seldom funny in the way its makers intended (only Alison La Placa, as Dee Dee's best friend, gets any genuine laughs), and not nearly as funny as the drama "The Lonely Lady." There is some fun to be had at Craig Sheffer's expense as he lip-syncs "Nature of the Beast" while slinking around the woods and jabbing his cheekbones at the camera, and Pia's otherworldly fashions (complete with an unflattering side ponytail held in place with a spool) will inspire some embarrassed titters.
Still, "Voyage" will produce more groans than guffaws.And then there's the music.
I liked Rhema's song "21st Century" well enough, and Pia does all right with "When the Rain Begins to Fall" and "Little Bit of Heaven" (both songs hits in Europe), but otherwise the music ranges from forgettable to out-and-out terrible.
Not helping is "Let's Dance Tonight," a retread of one of Zadora's cheesiest efforts, "Rock it Out," down to pushing the star aside so back-up singers can shout the chorus over and over again (which amounts to shouting the song's title, over and over again).
No wonder people were so astonished when she belted out pop standards on the 1985 album "Pia & Phil".
"Voyage" isn't the worst movie in Pia's filmography.
It is, however, the worst in many of her co-stars': La Placa, Berryman, Gordon, the band Rhema.
Even Sheffer, whose credits include such gems as "Killer Virus" and "Merlin: The Return," probably winces when reminded of his lead role as Pia's bubble-butted boyfriend.
Pia in a Campy Cult Musical!.
This movie is an obscurity but I was lucky enough to find it at my local independent video store and I am a big fan of Pia Zadora so I rented it.
It is actually a musical, though very campy and goofy and by no means polished or well-done.
However, the atrocity of the film-making is what makes it so much fun to watch.
Pia Zadora does her best as Dee Dee, the love interest who wants to be a rock star and she has many hilarious musical sequences, perhaps the best being "Real Love" and the hit duet "When the Rain Begins to Fall" with Jermaine Jackson.
If you like a good flop and some strange 80's new wave music, then rent this and you will be laughing and scratching your head for days..
But I like the song!.
Voyage of the Rock Aliens is perhaps the goofiest of Pia's movie ventures.
It features the arrival of some extraterrestrials who look an awful lot like a 1980's pop music group.
Pia is the rockin' teenaged diva who becomes the center of conflict between the aliens and the town's local band of rock and roll rebels.Tacked on to the beginning of the movie in a rather strange framing sequence is the video for the song "When the Rain Begins to Fall," a duet between Pia and Jermaine Jackson.
Jackson doesn't appear in any of the rest of the movie..
There are a few things wrong with this film,but that I won't detract from the score.
The music in this film is a spectacular array of AOR and New wave,something you won't hear in a film's soundtrack nowadays.
The fashion was very new wave,that's just fabulous,they dress better than people nowadays.
However,the movie lacks a plot,storyline and is really spontaneous.Let's just put it this way,it's just one giant music video.
I don't really know much of the people that were in this movie,but as far as Pia Zadora and Jermaine Jackson,I can say they have spectacular voices and,from this film and these two came one of my most favorite songs of the year,"When the rain begins to fall".
A must see if you want to appreciate new wave fashion,and music,or if you're just a die-hard Jermaine Jackson fan,or Pia Zadora fan..
"Voyage of the Rock Aliens" is certainly an oddity.
Conceived as a spoof of various genres of b-movies, Curb Records got involved and turned it into a vehicle for many of their musicians.
A production team was assembled that included people who'd worked on films such as "Dr. Strangelove," "A Hard Days Night," "Star Wars," "Deadly Blessing," "Staying Alive," and "Swamp Thing," amongst others.
The result is a completely off-the-wall low budget movie populated with actors who weren't really actors and featuring beautiful visuals, an offbeat production design, catchy songs...
and a completely random music video with Jermaine Jackson that was synthetically (and confusingly) inserted into the film as an afterthought.The story concerns a group of aliens who come to Earth and find themselves strangers in the even stranger land of Speelburgh, which is filled with greasers, kooky cops, psycho serial killers, and a slimy sea monster.
It's there that one of the aliens (Tom Nolan) falls in love with an aspiring singer (Pia Zadora).
Or will her jealous greaser boyfriend (Craig Sheffer) stand in their way?!There's something so endearingly tacky about the whole thing that it's downright charming in the way so many similar cult movies are ("Rocky Horror," "Beach Party," "Xanadu," "The Apple," "Earth Girls Are Easy," etc).
The characters are quirky and unique (Spyder Mittleman and Patrick Byrnes are both particularly noteworthy for their campy performances), the songs and dances are as '80s as it gets, there's more seemingly random WTF moments than you can shake a stick at, and it seemed like everyone was having a lot of fun screwing around and devouring the scenery.The problem is the film is not very well known.
In Europe it had a slightly more substantial release since Pia Zadora's music was popular.If any American DVD distributors are reading, this one's crying out for a widescreen special edition release.
Pia Zadora is my new favourite 80's leading lady.
The acting is bad, every joke falls flat, and the aliens are annoying beyond belief!
I like the songs a lot.
Bizzarely many of them are badly re-recorded versions of Pia's own songs.
This is most obvious in 'A Little Bit Of Heaven' which she sings here with the alien commander Absid.
Fans of trashy 80's movies will love it!
Pia's outfits rock too!
I'd give the plot 1/10, the acting 1/10, the feel-good factor is at least a 7/10, and the soundtrack is a 10/10 or 1/10 depending on your taste in music.
Watch out for Pia's all singing, all dancing performance in the ladies room!
Breasts in a PG Movie.
Aliens come in a space ship shaped like a V shaped guitar, in search of goof rock.
That rock is actually gay Pia Zadora 80s pop, but hey.
The come in a high school in a little city named Speelburgh, and there the main alien is in love with the main pussy (Pia Zadora).
However, he has the coolest rockabilly boyfriend (Craig Sheffer, also a gang leader in The Road Killers) which is the best high school gang leader I ever saw on film.
Perfect musical almost plot less.
High school gangs, choreography with lowered panties, tits in a PG movie, robot alien who turns into a fire hydrant, aliens who don't fit in, rockabilly vs.
gay rock battle of the bands Run DMC vs.
Aerosmith style, Craig Sheffer too cool too be true, monster from the local radioactive lake, Michael Berryman (Pluto from The Hills Have Eyes) as a lunatic escaped from the local asylum rampaging around school with a chainsaw, but he's actually nice and hooks up with the school's sexy female greasemonkey, silly and lovable songs and choreography, perfect clothes, especially female, crew members being turned into people from toys via a machine, everything and all.
Great movie..
This is the worst musical in the history of time..
It really doesn't matter, this movie sucks on every level, so by all means, watch it!
Frantic 80's Rockabilly/psychobilly (well, somewhat frantic) is just a lot cooler than toecurling 80's electronic awful 'rock'.Also, 'When the Rain begins to fall' has been a long time favourite of mine.
It's used twice, the first time in a totally unrelated videoclip featering Jermaine Jackson Himself, the second in a tagged-on unrelated musical number with the bad-boy-turned-good lipsynching Jermaines part.In short, watch it, you'll be amazed..
My niece's favorite movie!.
If I were to assemble the ingredients necessary to make a really bad movie - I mean so bad it lowers your IQ to watch - I would list (1) made in the '80s, (2) bad science fiction, (3) failed comedy, (4) lame rock musical, and, uh, oh yeah, (5) stars Pia Zadora.
you have "Voyage of the Rock Aliens".
That's not "rock" like rocks on the ground; that might've been worth watching.
No, this is "rock" like rock 'n' roll.
And I mean BAD rock 'n' roll.
(From what I hear, it's not Pia's worst, either.*)  Except for a few moments of unintentional humor this is certainly one of the hardest films to watch that I've come across.
It appears to be little more than a Pia Zadora vehicle, and that vehicle is on a collision course with a tree.
A rock alien, that is.There's a music video sequence that Pia does with Jermaine Jackson near the start of the film that has nothing to do with the plot.
Unrelated music video sequence with the least-popular Jackson.
The events in the video are never referred to again, nor do we see Jermaine Jackson again.
(There's an "up" side to it after all!)I guess the Devo-like aliens' scenes are the easiest to watch.
Can you guess how the other aliens' names are spelled?I think the producers were going for a "Grease"-in-space feel, or maybe a "West Side Story"-in-space feel.
The turf war between Frankie & the Pack and the aliens is decided by a battle of the bands in the little town of (ugh) Speelburgh.
You'll have to watch to find out who wins!-----* Those who know say "Lonely Lady" is her worst.
Am I the only person to have seen this film?
Cheesy as you like, the music's not very good, the jokes are lame and the acting just isn't.
Then I saw Pia Zadora and Jermaine Jackson in a popular video, then some 80's new wave freaks in a starship with a robot, singing melodies from earlier years (now that i know that the movie is from '88 and i thought i was from 84).
Then there's this beach, with other group singing and Pia Zadora dancing...
really the only place i ever enjoyed Pia Zadora was in Naked Gun 1/3.
DON'T EVER LOOSE YOUR TIME WATCHING THIS VIDEO !.
Sci-Fi Musical Comedy with Pia Zadora.
The title of this review does let you know pretty much exactly what you're in for.This is, despite many flaws, quite a lot of fun if you're in the right mood.
Yes, the SFX are clunky, the jokes and visual gags misfire most of the time and the music is pretty weak.
The music video with Pia and Jermaine Jackson has precisely no place in the movie's plot, so that's sort of a plus point in this reality.However, the sense of energy and fun, especially from Pia Zadora, keeps the nonsense ticking along and Michael Berryman's chainsaw maniac subplot is amusing.
And you could cut yourself on Craig Sheffer's cheekbones.As Eighties sci-fi musicals go, 'The Apple' is easily far worse than this..
The Jermain Jackson/Pia Zadora opening music number is a spectacle of retardation.
Two other equally bad musical numbers worth seeing are the walking on the moon love song and the nature of the beast song.
The rest are not good enough and not bad enough to endure.
If you like this type of 80's musical trash I recommend you see much more entertaining movies like Get Crazy with Malcom McDowell (sp?) singing rock music (whew boy!) and Club Life with Dee Wallace singing 80's pop (ouch!).