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Space
Daze
DVD reviewed by Ian Dawe
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June
26, 2005
| Space Daze is a ridiculously micro-budget exercise
in fun. There's no other way to describe the film, because it's
certainly lacking in everything else you'd expect from a movie (strong
acting, high production value, artistry, originality, compelling
characters, etc.). Given all that, it's still fun, and perhaps that's
the point.
The movie's plot is the flimsiest of clotheslines on which to rest
the jokes. A reporter for a popular tabloid TV show about extraterrestrials,
Al Manac (James Vallo, also one of the film's producers) is depressed
about the quality of the show to which he's sold his talents. He
wanders into a bar and proceeds to describe to the overly gregarious
bartender (Byron Thames, the film's "star", since he had a bit part
on Enterprise once) some of his more outlandish experiences
on the show. From then on, the film is a series of skits and repeating
jokes, some funny (one involving an exasperated astronaut is a side-splitter)
and some not (such as the man who continues having heart attacks
at the bar). Along the way there are skits about alien abduction,
a lowbrow sketch concerning two hypnotists, a journey deep into
the bowels of top-secret military based to view "classified" alien
videos (with hilarious commentary by a German "film expert") and
repeated appearances by the show's pompous host, Max Harmon (Michael
Wexler). The "featured" appearance by onetime star Corey Feldman
is mildly amusing, but no more. The movie finally simply runs out
of steam and ends rather suddenly, which is probably in keeping
with the whole B-movie spirit of things.
This material is obviously not meant to make film history. Written
and Directed by John Wesley Norton, the movie was shot on video
with little to no budget, clearly used amateur actors and at the
end of the day it amounts to little more than a few amusing sketches
- a strong episode of Saturday Night Live, if you will. That is
not to say that it doesn't remain amusing on its own terms, but
there's little evidence of that spark of off-kilter creativity one
so often finds in independent B-cinema.
The executive producer (and owner of the distribution company Troma,
who released this film) is Lloyd Kaufman, who directed the B-movie
classic The Toxic Avenger. He even makes an appearance at
the beginning of the movie, introducing it (and in the process setting
the campy, shlocky tone) for this "special edition" DVD. The DVD
extras include a "behind the scenes featurette", which is actually
as humourous as parts of the final film, and a slew of trailers
for such classics as A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell
and Class of Nuke 'em High Part II. The big extra is a second
full-length feature film, Invasion of the Space Preachers, which
has the benefit of a plot, some action and some characters, but
is otherwise as bad as it sounds.
For fans of B-movies (and I am one, to a certain degree), the movie
that's trying to be bad is always less interesting than one that's
trying to be good. It is possible to shoot a good movie on a low
budget, even one as low as this (look at last year's Primer). Even
if the film has low aspirations, a discerning audience will still
demand some kind of inspired originality. The Toxic Avenger
is a classic for that reason, but Space Daze commits the
worst of B-movie sins: it's forgettable.
A
freelance writer and longtime film enthusiast, Ian
Dawe is now completing a Master's Degree in Film History. He
currently teaches at Selkirk College in Castlegar, British Columbia.
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