El cieno verde

A team of astronauts are called upon to destroy a particularly large asteroid that is on a collision course with Earth. While they are planting charges on the big rock, an ooey, gooey green substance is discovered, and it ends up attaching itself to the suit of one of the crewmen. When the suit and the substance are back aboard their space station, it evolves, creating a bipedal, red eyed, tentacled monster. And its oozing green blood merely helps to make the creature multiply. Our intrepid heroes who must stop the infestation include Jack Rankin (Robert Horton of 'Wagon Train') and Vince Elliott (Richard Jaeckel, "Grizzly").

Whether or not the filmmakers actually had their tongues in their cheeks, the end result is that "The Green Slime" is magnificently cruddy sci-fi, a true camp classic. Some viewers may deride it for being overly silly and juvenile, but there's no denying its goofy charm, especially when the monsters are stomping around. The main problem is that it simply goes on too long, and interest level may wane for some in the audience. The special effects are hilariously awful, although the monsters are great fun, what with their tacky appearance. Overall, this American / Italian / Japanese production, directed by Japanese filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku ("Battle Royale"), provides pretty colorful entertainment, at least in a literal sense, and its widescreen photography also helps a great deal.

Viewers may feel embarrassed for co-stars Horton and Jaeckel, but they give admirably straight faced performances in the face of such inanity. Luscious Italian babe Luciana Paluzzi ("Thunderball") is mostly good for eye candy, as are assorted other female bit players. You do have to love the way that so many of these female space travellers wear miniskirts.

That priceless, rocking theme song ("The Greeeen Sliiime!!!") is over much too quickly; it's the kind of thing for which you want to rewind the movie.

Provided that prospective viewers know what to expect, they can have quite a good time with this one.

Five out of 10.

I remember as a kid sitting in an old run-down theater watching this movie on a Saturday afternoon and thinking "it doesn't get much better than this".

Rocket ships, laser gun battles with deadly aliens, risking your life for the "good of the planet".

Of course that was 1968 and this movie looks pretty unspectacular now compared to Star Wars etc. but it is a good example of the "space opera" of that period. A multi-national space station launches a ship toward an oncoming asteroid in the hope of preventing a collision with earth. Lives are risked but in the end disaster is averted and the asteroid is destroyed everyone is safe......but are they? What has been brought back to the station? Can it be stopped in time?

Good for those rainy afternoons with the kids, they may even enjoy it, you certainly will.

You have GOT to see this movie to believe it. The music is better (or cheesier) than Austin Powers (Whammy bar electric guitars twang along while a pretentious singer who sounds like Elvis on Ludes wails "Green SLIME! Green Slime!") Richard Jaeckal (of The Dirty Dozen fame) is unintentionally hilarious as the space station Rambo. He grits his teeth every time the camera is on him (no exaggeration!) But the stars of this movie have to be the one-piece, rubber suited, one-eyed monsters with the electric touch. I saw this when I was 15, and I still remember laughing at them, and at the space station hanging on its wires, burning in space (The flames and smoke RISE UP...in space, get it?) All in all, a spectacularly bad movie...so bad its great.

With a title like "The Green Slime", your expectations for this film are certainly not going to be great. However, despite many knocks against the film other than the title, the overall effort is surprisingly watchable.

The film stars mostly American actors, though it was filmed in Japan and it shows. The sets and rockets are very reminiscent of those you might see in Japanese sci-fi films and Godzilla-type films. This isn't necessarily bad, as for this style of film it is one of the better ones. However, considering that in the US, 2001 was being released as well, then THE GREEN SLIME's special efforts really look shabby in comparison. I am sure that the folks that made this film felt much the same way and cursed 2001's brilliant special effects!

As for the plot, this is generally the best thing about this sci-fi film. The idea of a small and seemingly insignificant organism growing rapidly and taking over a space station is interesting and is reminiscent of movies such as THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN. I am sure that the folks at NASA were also seriously worried about such possibilities. I liked this idea, but unfortunately making this growing green menace look menacing and credible was tough--and the folks who made this film didn't even come close! The green glop morphed into silly looking creatures that looked a lot like the sea monster from "Sigmund and the Sea Monster"! I think if they'd just kept the green slime in the form of a rapidly spreading slime instead of silly electricity-spouting semi-humanoids it would have played out better.

So the overall effort has a lot of cheese as well as a few dumb performances (such as the doctor who needlessly gets himself killed and Richard Jaekel's very inconsistent character) but there is also a bit of charm about it, as this was kind of the last gasp for the 1950s style sci-fi yarn. Now, thanks to better special effects and audiences that expected more, films like THE GREEN SLIME were a dying breed.

By the way, you may recognize the female lead, Luciana Paluzzi. She was one of the Bond villains from THUNDERBALL and she was never lovelier.

Robert Horton was on the downslide and poor Richard Jaeckel was stuck in one more film unworthy of his talents. Luciana Paluzzi....well, with neither talent nor anywhere to slide, I guess she belongs in this movie.

It's bright, loud and brassy and everything in the space station screams of the 1960's, including the theme song which has to be the most unusual ever tacked on to a sci-fi film. The color process they used (is it Technicolor?) is so unreal that the whole thing reminds me of a comic book. Watch "Danger,Diabolik" and you'll get that same feeling. Bile greens and mucous yellows.....ugh.

The story line is not much but the special effects, frankly, may be better than some of that period. This was made before fx came into their own, so be a little forgiving. The monsters are not very well conceived and they are soooo slow moving.

Just watch this one for the fun of it and try to forget how embarrassed the actors must have been mouthing those lines, wearing those outfits and running around in cardboard sets while being pursued (very slowly) by a bunch of green Jello. What a hoot!!