Don't Ask Don't Tell

DON'T ASK DON'T TELL is essentially a funny idea: take one long-forgotten old sci-fi potboiler and overdub the soundtrack with a lot of silly dialog that takes the film in a whole new (fabulous) direction. Something about gays and space aliens. There's some new footage, too. Mostly camp inserts like a bug-eyed alien line dance that's one of the film's best chuckles. But the whole thing is decidedly silly, and even at 75 minutes, it runs out of gas long before the credits roll. It's the sort of thing the guys from MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000 perfected without cannibalizing the film. While MST3K's witty commentary was of the collegiate sort, this film is strictly grade school stuff. If you crack up at fart jokes, this film's for you. The DVD is packed with extras, which is sort of like doing a documentary on a kindergarten pageant. I'll stick to MST3K - even if I don't get every reference, I don't feel like a grade schooler.

After a group of crazy-eyed aliens kidnaps and brainwashes scientist Doug Martin (Peter Graves), he steals some classified plans to help them take over the Earth. But when Martin manages to free his mind, no one believes his story. Now it's up to the intrepid man of science to save the planet himself -- or die trying. Oh, sorry, that's Killers From Space, the the notorious public domain stinker starring Peter Graves.

This is that same film, but the soundtrack has been replaced turning it into a film about a threat from gay aliens to turn every earthling gay.

Yes, Peter Graves is there, but his dialog has changed. All the dialog from the original has been changed ala Woody Allen in What's Up, Tiger Lily? Graves returns from space saying "fabulous" frequently, and holding a picture of Ted Kennedy in order to have sex with his wife.

If you find just half the lines and gaga in this film funny, it will be worth your time.

Take one old, tired, sci-fi flick from the 50's add a silly new gay storyline by changing the dialogue, and you get this film. While its funny for a while, it didn't hold my interest for the full length of the film. Course it could have been that it was shown at the end of a long day of films and after a while those alien, ping-pong ball eyes started to make eyes get very sleepy.

I agree with Havan. We considered showing this at our film festival, but declined. This film has an original concept and starts out really funny, but it drags on and just gets too silly. The dancing aliens number has got to go, among other things. They could have had a tighter edit and made this a very good spoof.

The lame 1950s B-Movie "Killers From Space" starring the hunky Peter Graves gets re-dubbed as a plot by aliens to turn Earthlings gay. What's interesting is that the guys who directed this are straight, so there are shots taken at everybody with equal derision. There's something in this for everybody! The visual and verbal gags come at breakneck speed so even if you find that 60% of the jokes are funny, you'll still be laughing several times a minute. It's zaniness at its most extreme (my favorite scene was a hilarious modern alien dance that included great reaction shots by the cast of the 1950s film), so be prepared to put yourself in "silly" mode. Those who hate the slickness of Hollywood films today will especially love this.

The DVD also has some nice features including some very funny commentary.