The Stranger

I HATE this movie.

It is the WORST of everything: acting, writing, made-for-TV-movies, sci-fi, and the 70's.

The actors are completely WRONG and they all appear to need more fiber in their diet. The CARS in this movie make me want to shoot myself in the mouth- gas-guzzling dinosaurs that just happen to look like cars here on Earth. (Good thing Terra's auto industry is precisely the same as ours.)

And a word here on the "planet": there was not a single visual to differentiate Terra from Earth. Nothing. If it wasn't for Joel & the bots I would have made a list of everyone involved with this disaster and hunted them for sport.

No budget, no energy, no effort.

No wonder.

GRADE: F

This movie takes the plot behind the sci-fi flick "Doppelganger" (an astronaut from our Earth crashing on a 'counter-Earth' on the opposite side of the Sun, and the Cold War totalitarian vibes on that world) and tries to turn it into a pilot for a TV series. However, the whole thing sank without a trace, and TV is probably better off for it.

Everyone here is perfectly adequate in a 'made for TV' way. Cameron Mitchell turns in his usual solid performance. So does Glenn Corbett (who seems to be a kind of poor man's John Saxon) who plays the rugged individualist whose very existence poses a threat to the foundation of the 'World Order' on counter Earth.

But the low budget and low energy and inconsistent script and the lack of any real imagination in the set designs and cinematography keep this Sci-Fi adventure firmly tethered on the launch pad.

I'll give one example: in the original template for this pilot, ("Doppleganger"), the astronauts lose control of their landing vehicle in a thunderstorm, and crash their ship in a truly appalling sequence (it was obvious that their ship was never going to fly again). Then the two astronauts stagger helplessly from the smoking remains of their vehicle in the middle of howling rains and winds, only to be smacked down and overcome by faceless men yelling through loudspeakers.

In "Stranded in Space", the astronauts are sitting in their seats when buzzers sound, things start shaking, and the camera blurs into a blackout (and as a friend pointed out, it was pretty obvious that the actors were simply shaking themselves on their seats, the director wasn't even shaking the camera or the set). I've seen episodes of "The Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits" that took more effort to establish mood and setting than this made-for-TV mediocrity.

And that, in essence, is what's wrong with "Stranded In Space". No budget, no time, no imagination...just making the token gestures and hoping the sci-fi Fan Boys' imagination and enthusiasm will fill in the rest. Sorry, guys, it didn't work.

I'm sure that everyone here just finished their work on this one and walked away, and never thought of it again, except as a listing on their C.V. And that's what you, the viewer will do. You'll remember, if pressed, that you once watched a TV movie called "Stranded In Space", but it made no lasting impression on you, and you can't recall too much about it.

Way better than 3.5 stars. It's a pity that it was not made into a series. There are some parallels to 'Journey to the Far Side of the Sun', but a different story.

Remake of the much better produced theatrical film JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN from 1969 (available on DVD) about an astronaut who lands on a twin Earth on the other side of the sun. This TV film has a good B-film cast including such sci-fi buff favorites as Cameron Mitchell (FLIGHT TO MARS available on DVD), Lew Ayres (1971 TV film EARTH II as well as Dr. Kildare in a series of films from the forties), Dean Jagger (X THE UNKNOWN available on DVD), and Sally Field's mom, Margaret Field (MAN FROM PLANET X available on DVD) to name just a few. Credits go out to the casting but isn't as fun as any of the other films mentioned and tries to start a TV series in the vein of 60's TV show THE INVADERS. By the way if you liked THE INVADERS, star Roy Thinnes is the star of JOURNEY TO THE FAR SIDE OF THE SUN. THE STRANGER is more for sci-fi buffs than sci-fi fans.

HERE WE GO... Featuring several actors from an amazing array of b-movies and made-for-tv flics, this turkey might appeal to the die-hard fan of velveeta cheese, spam and/or atari 2600, but not to the masses (except perhaps those watching a uhf channel at 3 in the morning after a binge at the local pub). Seemingly a failed pilot for a pre-doomed series, the only thing going for this movie is the sheer ability to crack jokes about the plot. Come on...

An astronaut, adrift in space, wakes up to find himself in a hospital bed surrounded by slightly-paranoid medical staff. Later he finds out (through the silliest of methods) that he's actually on a twin planet to earth (on the other side of the sun where we can never see). He wanders off (actually, it's supposed to be an escape, but my grandmother's escape from the nursing home would be more exciting to watch, not to mention more challenging), and the government wants him back (of course), to pry from him certain details (I won't spoil it). Later we find out that their space technology is slightly better than ours, as he manages to steal a shuttle for the trip back home (anyone doped up on sleeping pills could have been more sneaky, and why would they have to pry in the first place. Didn't they get his ship too?). And to top it all off, he crashes into the ocean, only to find himself....

(sorry, not allowed to spoil it. Too bad, because the truly pathetic

"twist, climax," whatever you'd prefer to call it, proves just how much of a groaner this film is). the end.

And thank heaven they didn't make the series! Great flick for drunken

bouts, cheese-fests and late-night viewing, but nothing I'd want to suffer through again.

I can't even believe I went on about this turkey for more than a few sentences.

Watch it on one of those mondo, make it funny shows late at night, but please don't watch it alone. 'Tis not proper to be a closet cheese-aholic!