Laserblast

Teenagers just want to have a little innocent fun, so when one of them comes across and alien weapon, he tries it out on a few people who aren't cool. This excites The Man, who want kids to be miserable.

There's some nice stop-motion animation by Harry Walton, who seems to have come up with E.T. before Steven Spielberg thought of it. The other effects are a bit cheesier. Keenan Wynn does no favor to his long career of more than 140 features by appearing in this one.

I was expecting Laserblast to be awful, judging by its position in the "Mystery Science Theater 3000: 10 Worst Movies They Riffed" list and its reputation. It is a bad movie- though I can see why people would find it entertaining to watch- but it is much better than the likes of Monster A-Go Go, Manos the Hands of Fate, The Wild World of Batwoman, Merlin's Shop of Mystical Wonders and Hobgoblins, and in general there are far worse as well. The best asset of Laserblast is the music score, which pulsates through the movie with great energy and atmosphere that is not matched with the rest of the movie. Cheryl Smith is sweet and sympathetic and Keenan Wynn is appropriately gruff. And I personally though the stop-motion and the aliens were quite good, of any of the movies on the "10 Movies they Riffed" list it is Laserblast that has the best special effects. Everything else comes up painfully short though, Roddy MacDowell is wasted to the point that you question why was he even in it, and Eddie Deezen has to be the most annoying bully ever seen in film. The story is a real drag as well, it makes very little sense if at all, has so much overlong filler that adds nothing to the storytelling and is one of those instances where the plot summary pretty much sums up the whole movie. It also doesn't know what to do with itself and takes forever to get going, it is half-an-hour until anything of the sort happens and then when the gun is found the rest of the movie is just stuff getting shot at. At best, the camera work and editing are haphazard, the dialogue is hysterically bad and the characters are not developed anywhere near enough or characterised very effectively to be believable or likewise. In conclusion, Laserblast is a bad movie that is rather dull and senseless and wastes McDowell but a great score, better-than-average stop-motion and effects and two decent performances make it not as bad as all that. 3/10 Bethany Cox

Unless they're given by Leonard Maltin. What was he thinking? This terrible movie has everything against it: Unlikeable characters, bad acting, laughable special effects, and virtually no plot. Only Roddy McDowall's presence and the stop-motion aliens save the movie from a big fat bomb. This was a 1 star movie at best. Shame on you, Mr. Maltin.

I swear every time I see that Star Wars billboard get blown up I almost wet myself. What more can you ask of cheap Sci-Fi than Laserblast? Granted it doesn't have that 50's kitch like Angry Red Planet, but it WAS the 70's. Personally I love and own this film. If you can see the true beauty in astoundingly bad film making, then you should see Laserblast. I mean one character gets mutated into a green laser-blasting monster by a salt shaker he wears around his neck!! and there's bad stop-action aliens!! YES! it took 2 guys to write it!!! 2!!! and they called it LASERBLAST!

I think if you consider the general aesthetic of the seventies, you will see that this is the ULTIMATE 70's movie. I regret never seeing it at a drive in.

As I saw that, I was stunned. Leonard Maltin rates movies on a scale of one to four. I'll give it 2 1/2 stars out of ten, maybe. The plot is stupid and full of holes. Aliens fight on earth for some reason and kill this guy with green skin, who drops his laser gun. A loser that everyone picks on (for good reason) finds this gun and starts blasting everyone and everything that did him wrong. Especially hilarious are when he blows up a pinball machine (did it take his quarter?) and when he blows up a billboard that says simply "Star Wars" (Huh?). It's every bit as bad as it sounds. Roddy McDowell actually appeared in this movie - he must have been hurting bad for a movie role. Just remember, according to Leonard Maltin, this is better than "Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom" (which only got two stars). Worth watching once on its own for camp, but recommended especially for MST3K. The episode doesn't run on TV anymore and can't be found on Rhino, though, so it's tough to find. Pretty bad. This movie marked the point I stopped trusting Leonard Maltin altogether.