Cinderella 2000

Set in an Orwellian vision of the future were sex is banned, a couple try to escape from the "Big Brother" society to be together.

This film is another take on the 1984 theme with sex added to the mix. There's been UK TV Movie "The Year of the Sex Olympics" - a much better albeit much more serious film and "Barbarella" exploring some of themes and a much better film. Cinderella 2000 is very kitschy in the style of Barbarella, but can also be viewed as (largely intentionally) camp in the same way "Buck Rogers", 70s "Dr. Who" or "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (TV Series)" can. Beyond that it's got some OK songs, some above average acting and some of the setpieces like the robot are quite fun, but that's it.

Al Adamson is a decent director who manages to craft interesting films from ultra low budgets. Cinderella 2000 doesn't have much to offer modern audiences, it didn't in 1977. Those looking for sex would be able to see hardcore pornography like Deep Throat around the time this film came out and there are much better sexploitation films of the 70s like Emmanuelle. As mentioned for camp, kitschy films: Barbarella and the like do it better. It's a tough sell these days, beyond a weird B-movie curiosity piece.

Blu-Ray from Severin is quite nice, but sadly has some damage and soft colours, but it's more than acceptable. Audio is HD upscaled 2.0 mono.

Cinderella 2000 (1977)

1/2 (out of 4)

Al Adamson's tale takes place in 2047 (why is the title 2000?) where all sexual activities are banned. One young couple feels this isn't right and that love should be free so they set out to do their own thing.

Look, I love Al Adamson as a filmmaker but at the same time there's no question that the majority of his movies are really awful and that's certainly true with CINDERELLA 2000. THis movie tries to be a comedy as well as a musical but it fails on both levels. It also tries to be a sexploitation film and fails at that too.

Adamson and producer Sam Sherman were always willing to copy whatever was popular at the time in order to try and earn money. ALICE IN WONDERLAND had just been a hit and then you had the Cheryl Smith version that was also released in 1977. That film there is the perfect way to do an adult version of this story but this Adamson film is about as awful as you can get.

As you'd expect, the performances are quite bad and even worse are the musical numbers, which are just rather embarrassing. The dialogue is extremely poor and there's just nothing fun about anything in this picture. Even worse is that it drags very poorly making it really difficult to get through.

CINDERELLA 2000 at least offers up a few cute naked ladies and that's about the only good thing here.

Life in some future fascist or near fascist state which severely restricts personal freedoms is a recurrent theme both in modern literature and for film makers. Such works post us warnings about undesirable trends in our society to watch out for; but to be effective they must also be entertaining. Unfortunately most of the books are probably more effective in posting the warnings than in entertaining us enough to become really widely read; whilst with the films the problem is usually the other way round. The first such work to become really widely known was probably George Orwell's "1984" (first published in 1948), and this is still readily available both in the form of a book and as a film.

Watch or read it: and then, when you are feeling a little depressed by man's inhumanity to man, reach for Cinderella 2000. This is a feather light low budget film comedy based on the same theme which provides effortless but unrewarding viewing; and as with 1984 the calendar has now passed beyond its erstwhile period. Most of the comedy is laid on with a trowel although there are just a few genuinely funny moments. To exercise your mind in the long intervals between these you can focus it on the question of whether this film will gain a new extension of life by being released as a DVD or whether it will finally disappear into oblivion as existing tape copies deteriorate past redemption. There are many worse films appearing as DVD's these days, and frankly I do not care much what happens either way.

So far the best of the films of this genre has probably been "The Handmaiden's Tale", but I would very happily swap them all for a well made film of Jack London's towering novel "The Iron Heel". Ambitious as this would be, it still seems incredible that no modern film maker has yet dared to attempt it (IMDb only lists a B/W silent version made in Russia in 1919).

This film is roughly what it sounds like: a futuristic version of the Cinderella legend but with songs and (fairly tame) sex scenes! The film is not sure what it wants to be and pretty much ends up a mess. It's more expensive looking than most of director Al Adamson's films but it's not at the same budget level that viewers have come to expect from sci-fi films. The actors are pretty bad and unlike most Adamson films, there are no former big namers or B actors. Some of the music is OK but it's easy to see why Cinderella 2000 has been forgotten for so many years.

"Love on the Spaceship Venus (Cinderella 2000) begins with a couple making love. But sex is strictly forbidden, as we learn: Absolutely no banging! Only with permission! But, of course: everyone does it. We already see the next couple making out illegally. Only 5 minutes of the movie have passed, by the way.

Everyone is overly horny, there's a big brother watching everyone in the bedroom and a jittery robot is annoying everyone - this is how people imagined the year 2047 in 1977. The garish costumes and bright wall colors are meant to disguise the fact that there isn't actually much futuristic to see.

But there is constant humping, orgies and pornography. And every now and then a very indignant robot storms in to stop it all. Because big brother is against smut. Of course, that doesn't apply to his own porn collection.

Then a flying saucer arrives with the ambassador of love, and the musical part begins.

Let's put it this way: we still have 22 good years ahead of us.