UFO: Target Earth

I kind of enjoyed the leisurely pace of the movie; it was sort of a nostalgic flashback to a time when movies moved slowly enough for me to absorb all elements in a scene, instead of flashing through at such a breakneck speed that much information is lost. It was a dopey movie with mostly inept acting and a dopey premise (the aliens' speeches at the end sounded like any given night on George Noory), but it wasn't totally a waste of time. The music was pleasant; the whole movie had a kind of amateurish charm to it. I wouldn't ever watch it again, but I don't regret the time I spent on it. I have sat through far worse. And it is a little time capsule of 1974.

2001 A Space Odyssey had the same effect on sci fi movies as Velvet Underground & Nico had on rock music. Seems like alot of movies in the early 70s were inspired to go the philosophical route with Sci Fi movies after 2001. Solaris is the best example. Star Trek the Motion Picture was probably written in the early 70s years before it debuted in 1979, you can tell by its plot. The first season of Space 1999 and many low Low LOW budget movies like this were like 2001 sans the budget and Strauss

This movie tries too hard to be a no budget 2001 type sci fi movie. If you can make it to the ending, you will see exactly what I mean. The impact of the ending is on par with the tacked on ending to Doomsday Machine. Its all set in Georgia and its about alien vistors seeking some kind of chosen prophet or whatever. They conveniently land their ship underwater so the filmmakers never have to make a cheap little ship to film with forced perspective. You also never see a single actor in a rubbery alien costume. Actors fool around with equipment and act all goofy to establish the aliens are already here making contact. In alot of ways, it is an ultra low budget (and boring) precursor to Close Encounters of a Third Kind. Basically its the same story but with 2001 influences showing all over the ending. It is really close to Close Encounters now that I think of it but without subplots like family squabbles and government interference.

I have this movie on a double DVD with Unknown World which was an early 50s movie about fruitcake scientists burrowing to the center of the earth thinking atomic war will inevitably destroy everything on the surface and they'll be perfectly safe thousands of miles underground and discover beaches and waterfalls there. If I can't sleep, I put that dvd on. There is not much going on to get too interested in but just enough to have on, same effect as slightly interesting new age music. No campy fun like the Milpitas Monster, Giant Spider Invasion or Night of the Lepus. Good thing the TV has a timer.....

This is surely some college assignment. First movie for all of them, writer, director and actors. Even the boom mic holder. I gave them 3 stars for not being ashamed of making this thing. One of my favs is the horrible white wig the "old relic" guy wears. It moves a bit and does not cover his own gray hair. It looks like a plastic helmet in the front. Funny. The entire premise is so silly but they do stay true to it. Watch and enjoy something so bad it is OK. Cheap effects. Poorly lit. Everything is wrong but you should see it. It won't make you cry.

Aside from a really cool title and a neato disco UFO trip movie opening titles sequence, this movie sucks. Ever hear of a movie called BOG about a swamp monster that goes on the rampage and starts tearing apart ply-board movie sets? BOG is a better movie that UFO: TARGET EARTH. Ever seen Larry Buchanan's ZONTAR, THING FROM VENUS? ZONTAR: THING FROM VENUS is a better movie than UFO: TARGET EARTH.

I very fondly remember the UFO craze that gripped Amercia around the time of CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, and while a bit early (1974) this film is surely a part of that craze. There were a bunch of faux documentary films on UFOs & other worldly phenomenon at about the same time -- my favorite will always be IN SEARCH OF NOAH'S ARK -- and I was kind of hoping this would be one of them. It isn't, and the last 20 minutes of TV blending feedback color head trip space junk might be great free-form visual expression, but please.

I wish I could be kinder on this film: The only UFOs you see are still photos used for the opening credits, which I come back to again as the high point of the film. I suppose if you were zonked out of your mind on blotter acid this might be somewhat engaging, it has a sort of naive earnestness about itself that is charming in a slack-jawed kind of way. I also dig the cheapo 70s interiors, editing room (literally) production design, and the idea of trying to make a movie about UFOs that essentially consists of people sitting around talking about them, followed by endless sequences of pre CAD or Apple Mac computer renderings instead of showing us space aliens. Kind of like the end of 2001 (complete with an ambiguous close-up of a star person's eye) but without all the fuss & bother involved with getting us there.

Something tells me also that the three 8/10 votes dragging this movie's user ratings curve up to 4/10 are in on the plot to deprive target audience viewers of a film with a name like UFO: TARGET EARTH of 83 minutes of their life that could be spent doing constructive things like playing golf, masturbating, or strangling small animals.

3/10; I did just raise it a point after reconsidering the movie. It's awful but then again like eating snails, awful movies can be an acquired taste. Try lemon butter sauce, or better yet a case of beer.

This was an incredible sleeper that was hyped as some type of spooky, mysterious story regarding a UFO encounter. Instead it was a boring, painfully slow yarn lacking any special effects or visual excitement. The script called for the characters to talk about something in a lab; then go to a wilderness location, sit down and talk about something; then go to another location, sit down and talk about something; then go to another location, sit down and talk some more; then maybe decide to sit down in a forest location and rehash what they just talked about. Had the dialogue been any good or even slightly stimulating, then perhaps this would have been OK; but this dull script felt as though it had been written in haste or just ad-libbed by the actors in order to get it released quickly to take advantage of the UFO craze of the seventies.

By the time of the "climactic" final scene, the audience expected to maybe finally have a glimpse of some spectacular space craft relic or alien body part, but instead all that was presented was one character shouting "for god's sake" numerous times at another who decides to follow some "imaginative call" to go into a lake believed to be a UFO crash site. The ultimate fates of these two characters are not discussed here so as to avoid "spoiling" this for anyone desperate enough to sit through the whole thing; but suffice it to say, those still awake in the audience by this point yet again were not treated to anything interesting.

For a very good reason, this is a film probably never to be found on video.