Gremlords

Super cool, super funny and super uh...? Well anyway, really good spoof movie. The whole story is like taken from Star Wars IV only that it´s all wrong....Lord Buckethead is very cool. The little aliens are really funny. Special effects were surprisingly good. One of the coolest scenes ever made must be when the little aliens chase the good guys in a supermarket with flying food carts !!! Yeah I know, pretty wacky. All actors are kinda unknown except for Chris Elliot that we have seen in movies like "There´s something about mary".

I just love this one...I give it a good 9 out of 10 !!

Some films become part of your life, they provide a vocabulary, inform your life, prevent you from going into business. This is one of the greats. It doesn't have to be defended, No excuses need to be offered. This is a superlative film.

The father of those kids is one of the greatest fathers. He's an every man. Someone we can all relate to.

The pest control hero who wants to get into management. That is a hero indeed, reluctant, but eventually pulls his weight.

The girl at the garage. She is lovely, a little hoarse, but quick-witted and spirited.

The UFO expert is enthused and informed. He is up against it with the local radio audience, but he has right on his side.

The couple that runs the bakery. They don't panic easily. I could taste one of those fritters now.

The car chase. One of the ten best in films.

The villain. Another great. Much better than john Travolta in the Punisher.

The funeral for the cow is a touching surprise in an all-action film.

The evocation of the simple pleasures of country life such as night fishing will always be with me.

The reference to King Lear as a man who takes crazy risks.

This film is bar far the best Star Wars spoof.

Why? Because it's played completely straight through-out. It is very low budget (which adds to the appeal) but the actors are all spot on.

It's vital to have a knowledge of Star Wars, generic 50s/60s Sci-Fi B movies and Monty Python.

The plot is basically that Lord Buckethead, through a slight error whilst chasing the Princess who's stolen some secret transmissions, ends up on Earth convinced that the Princess is somewhere in small town USA. Strangely the locals are none the wiser.

The film reaches its climax with Lord Buckethead chasing the two heroes and a large scale battle between the Army and Lord Buckhead's spaceship with it's Death Ray.

Best line - "Seize the fritters!"

So, I've already mentioned that this is possibly the greatest film ever made, so I really ought to do my best to justify exactly why I think a low budget 'Star Wars' parody is so good. Even though I know deep down that it's terrible.

First of all, I was seven when this film came out only a year after George Lucas had released Return of the Jedi. Therefore me (and every other boy of the eighties) was heavily into our 'holiest of trilogies.' And, I believe this was before 'Spaceballs' came out, so 'Gremloids' (or 'Hyperspace' if you're not from the UK) was just about the first time I'd ever seen Star Wars sent up (in anything other than brief TV sketches).

It's about a Darth Vader wannabe 'Lord Buckethead' (who you'll have to see to understand exactly why that name is so fitting!) who is in pursuit of the leader of the rebels (who just so happens to be a beautiful space princess) because she's gone and nicked a bunch of top secret plans from him. Now, I'm sure you'll probably agree that this all sounds very familiar. However, from then on it does veer off from what you might expect a Star Wars parody to be like. For a start, our evil villain is not exactly hot on her trail. Instead, he's ended up on Earth in some small American town. Therefore, the rest of the film is a case of mistaken (planetary) identity with Bucketbrains chasing around a hapless receptionist, rent-a-kill guy and their vacuum cleaner (Bucketbonse thinks the Hoover is a 'droid!').

Now, the best thing about 'Gremloids' is that it's bad. No, make that EXTREMELY bad. The special effects are so bad that they're actually referenced as such more than once during the movie. Then there's the acting. I don't think they hired any professional actors for the lead roles (I think I saw one guy in 'Groundhog Day' but that was about it!). In fact, I think most student film-makers could make a more believable alien invasion movie than this. And yet I still say it's brilliant. There's just something weirdly amazing about the whole thing. I almost can't place why it's so great. I guess it's because the film-makers knew that they weren't exactly making a 'real' sci-fi epic, such as the source material that it's based on and just played to the film's strength, which is a script that is truly funny and a situation that is so daft it just works.

There are times when you see a film with great actors, a massive budget, a well-known writer and director behind the scenes... and the film turns out to be rubbish. Everything SHOULD work and yet it doesn't. Here nothing should work and yet it does. I would even go as far as to say that the speederbike... sorry SHOPPING TROLLEY chase could well be the worst special effects ever committed to film... and yet I still laugh every time I see it. I've watched this movie so many times now I practically know the script off by heart. I'd like nothing more than to recommend it, yet I know deep down that it has a very 'limited' appeal. If, like me, you enjoy 'so-bad-they're-good' films, plus love 'Star Wars' and cheesy eighties B-movies, then you may just get something out of this. Otherwise, I can see many people watching the first ten minutes and claiming that this is the 'worst film ever made' (and I can see where they're coming from in a strange sort of way!).

Also known as Gremloids.

Isn't very clever and certainly not a riot of laughter, but have a funny premise (a Darth Vader-esque looking for the rebel leaders in Shelby, North Carolina) and some moments.

That guy as the protagonist and Paula Poundstone as the mistaken 'princess' are so miscast here.

The best is Chris Elliott taking the preposterous script and getting the best of his scenes as an 'alien expert', all snark in front of the camera.