Destination Inner Space

Commander Wayne (Scott Brady) travels to a research facility on the ocean floor to study an unidentified object. Wayne spends most of his free time being overly aggressive with the two beautiful, female scientists. He also does a lot of yelling.

The real fun begins once the crew -finally- enter the alien craft. They discover a container resembling a greyish watermelon. Once this container is taken back to the sea lab, it grows and hatches! In no time, a hideous creature is on a murderous rampage! Actually, the monster isn't bad at all. Far from drab, it has psychedelic red fins. The crew must fight for their lives, accompanied by the soundtrack from ANGRY RED PLANET.

DESTINATION INNER SPACE is quirky, 1960's sci-fi at its best...

I rate this movie to be like..."The creature from the black lagoon" meets a bad episode of "Sea Hunt", meets "Mars needs women". But....you have to remember the 60's didn't have computer graphics special effects. And you must remember this was a low budget movie. It is ok to watch for a laugh if you watch it in the spirit of the times in which it was made. I like this movie particularly because I have acquired and own the twelve foot long, red, torpedo shaped, twin open cockpits, wet submarine that was used in this movie. It's neat to own a piece of the original equipment from this movie.

If you are a fan of fast paced monster films that are filled with kills and insane encounters then I would probably check elsewhere. If you want to see people put on wet suits and take them off and put them back on, well this is the film for you! I have never see a film where the act of putting on a suit to explore the ocean was more prolific in a movie than the monster in said film. One scene the poor guy was struggling to buckle up and you can tell it was painful! On the plus side, it had a very interesting premise which one wishes they could have explored more rather than seeing the characters change into wet suits and change back out of them...

The story, some big naval guy comes to a sea lab due to the scientists discovering a strange object. This dude immediately takes charge, but he and an engineer on the underwater station have a history and are bitter towards one another. The engineer is trying to woo a woman, who apparently likes and is attracted to a man who leaves people to die. Well, the strange object seems to be extraterrestrial in nature and when they go on board a strange object is found. The military man wishes to leave it, but his rival wants to take it and by golly, it is some sort of egg of a fish monster!

Lots of padding in a film that really had a premise that did not really need any. You could have done much more with the monster and the ship, but in lieu of that, we get diving prep and tragic backstories. At one point, we even get the same scene repeated! The actors and actresses are standard fare for this type of film not really adding anything, but not detracting either.

So, we get a monster that looks kind of like the Zora from Legend of Zelda and we get a ship of unknown origin. However, we get a lot more time watching people switch out clothes! I don't know, maybe watching this process was more exciting in the 60's or something? If they could have just added more monster and actual action this thing could have been good, but as it is, I am just not that interested in diving prep...

This isn't a B-flick. It's worse, it's a C-flick. Sea-flick? See?

Now that my really bad joke is out of the way, I can say this movie is one really bad joke on the audience. To say that the science is flawed is an understatement. (The specimens in the biology lab will die without air?!? They're a sealab; their purpose is to study water-breathing life!) The bombast-filled score is nothing more than stale leftovers from the 1950s, straining at almost every moment to add suspense where none exists. The sets are among the least convincing I've ever seen and the special effects are laughable. The "giant" spaceship and the sealab look like the 12-inch miniatures they probably were. The rubber-suited monster is not scary at all even when poor bluescreen matting makes it look several times larger that life. Worst of all, it commits the cardinal sin that distinguishes truly bad movies from the classics like "Plan 9 from Outer Space," it's no fun. It makes Irwin Allen's "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" series look like "Star Wars." Even the eminently forgettable "DeepStar Six" and "Leviathan" were an order of magnitude better than this. It's almost enough to make me rent "Sphere" and finally see the second half. Almost, but nothing's quite that bad.

A group of scientists working in an undersea station discover an alien spacecraft. They, quite naturally, investigate. They discover a cylinder shaped object and bring it to their station for further testing. Before you can say "guy in a rubber suit", the thing hatches an amphibious type creature who immediately goes on a rampage. The good guys must try to stay alive and destroy the alien craft before any more of these things show up.

Admittedly, there are a lot of problems with Destination Inner Space. It's goofy, features from ridiculous acting, and has obvious budgetary limitations. But despite all that, there is a good deal of fun to be had. Fans of monster romps should find something to enjoy. I found the monster suit surprisingly effective. It's a unique design quite a bit different form what I've seen before. I especially enjoyed the use of color. Makes it look a bit like the sunfish I used to catch as a child when I went fishing with my grandfather. A decent amount of action, some scientific mumbo-jumbo, and some cheap, but fun miniatures are other highlights. Overall, a decent amount of entertainment despite the weaknesses.

Two other things worth mentioning:

1. I got a real unintended laugh out of star Scott Brady. First, he's a complete fish out of water. He has no business being in this movie. Second, just watching him try to buckle his diving vest over his pooch is a hoot.

2. I'm not sure I've ever actually seen Mike Road in a movie, but I knew that voice as soon as I heard it - Race Bannon. Too cool!