Outer Touch

Haven't seen this movie in 20 years...but I have fond remembrances of the sex, adolescent humor, and boobies.

Basically, some humans get picked up by a female dominated spaceship (with a gay computer) and the sexual hijinx begin as a "lady's man" and teenage chronic masturbator find themselves in the middle.

Don't expect a "serious" comedy like Galaxy Quest...this is strictly for the Simpson's generation.

The comedy is juvenile, the jokes forgettable, the acting funny as hell because it's so bad.

I'd love to find the movie again. Help anyone???

One of the unexpected sci-fi sex comedies that came out after the success of STAR WARS, SPACED OUT is from British horror director Norman J. Warren and one of his less well known movies, crammed in between his bloodier fare. This one's a low budget odyssey in which a trio of female aliens kidnap four people and subject them to various experiments aboard their spaceship. It's very low fi and only moderately amusing, although the Robin Askwith wannabe is funny enough. Inevitably the emphasis is on attractive starlets stripping off, although as with a lot of these British sex comedies, it's quite tame really.

Spaced Out is a British sex comedy directed by Norman J. Warren, better known for his cult horror movies. As with most of Warren's films, the cast is very small and the film is shot primarily on one set, in this case a spaceship. This ship happens to be piloted by three sexy female aliens who are forced to make an emergency landing on Earth. They take three humans on board and, well, that's where the fun begins! The women are young, gorgeous, sexually curious and not afraid to experiment with human reproductive techniques (all in the name of scientific discovery, of course!). It's actually done pretty tastefully and makes a joke of the fact that the man they become crazy about is young Willy, a self-confessed virgin with mild acne whose only sexual experience is masturbating while reading porno magazines. Only in British sex comedies do you have young spotty boys like Willy managing to seduce voluptuous females who wouldn't be caught dead with them in reality! Of course, this is all part of the appeal of these movies, isn't it?

Overall the film is entertaining and well acted. The sub plot of a frustrated academic dealing with his frigid fiancé is amusing and well portrayed by Barry Stokes. Stokes seems to do a Clark Kent impersonation here, complete with pushing his glasses up his nose every few seconds. Ava Cadell, who plays the ship's engineer Partha, deserves the most praise of all the women in the film... she manages to be kooky and sexy at the same time and even helps drive the plot every so often. Interestingly enough, she's now Dr Cadell, founder of the Loveology university, and offers courses in all manner of sex-related subjects.

Spaced Out is definitely one of the better sex comedy offerings that are out there. It's amusing throughout, has a smattering of sex and nudity, and comes to a surprising conclusion. Well worth watching!

My review was written in December 1981 after a Times Square screening:

"Spaced Out" is a hybrid film, the result of taking a 1979 British sci-fi sex comedy, "Outer Touch", and increasing the laugh quotient with Americanized low-humor commentary emanating from computer voices. Pic is a diverting trifle suited to the youth trade weaned on Benny Hill and Cheech & Chong gags.

Nominal plot concerns a trio of beautiful women from the planet circling Betelgeuse who take four Earthlings prisoner. Never having encountered men before, they test the males, with predictable sex comedy ensuing. The fourth prisoner, a prim and proper London girl, gradually succumbs to the advances of her fiance who is spurred on by the advice coming from a stoned jukebox-computerized psychiatrist.

Much of the film's humor comes from the cultural clash of stock British characters with the drug-culture and gay-oriented jokes penned by comedian Bob Saget and voiced over by him and Jeff Dehart. Norman J. Warren-helmed live action is cheap and silly, with hokey spaceship models, campy set design and costumes plus lots of pastel lighting effects. Cast is quite effective at this vulgar form of sex tease, with the British starlets (particularly the busty pinup Ava Cadell) easy on the eyes.

Three gorgeous female aliens accidentally crash land their spaceship on earth, then try to hide their presence by kidnapping 3 men and a woman whom witnessed the crash, planning to hold them until they can make repairs and leave. But of course this being a comedy/borderline soft core porn the aliens come from a world where there are no men and find themselves totally fascinated by the strange anatomy of their male guests, whom are none too reluctant to demonstrate to them what its all about.

Yes it's cheap, juvenile and crude, but it has sort of an oddball charm and good nature making it enjoyable, well at least to undemanding numbskulls like myself. There was a lot of lost potential for big laughs but its not without its share of moments, in particular a scene where the aliens are arguing over exactly what the humans in the photos of a porn magazine are doing, and one character's HUGE mistake when choosing a place to sit.

The cast is likable, in particular Tony Maiden who's funny as the nerd suddenly turned space stud, and Bob Saget whom does the voice of a drugged out jukebox/advice machine, who's only words of advice are more drugs. The female cast is quite attractive and manage to play out their roles with straight faces, with cute but aggressive Kate Ferguson looking like her character should be a member of a British punk rock band. And yes you do eventually get see them all naked, but by today's standards this movie is actually pretty tame.

5 out of 10, it could have been a lot better but its good for some laughs if you're in the right mood.