Pleasure Planet

Given what I would imagine was a limited budget with access to a limited talent pool, the movie has its moments. Albeit some of them are so bad it hurts to watch, there are a lot of really odd and entertaining scenes based on an interesting premise of galactic rock bands touring the universe. The acting is subpar verging on bloody awful and its funny bad. Yet, somehow the quirky 80's sound track and dubious music are a character of their own and help support the open failure at the thespian art. It's pretty telling when a movie isn't released in any form for 25 years after it was made. Man it's bad but worth a view especially if you're an affionado of B movies.

This is really a film in a weird genre - punk music combined with science fiction. Yet, taking into account the almost total lack of subject and action and the low-cost budget preventing any spectacular effects specific to science-fiction movies the film is not as bad as it could be. First the music is quite could, catches the attention and somehow justifies the events that trigger the story. Then the characters in the future world are quite carefully sketched and even if they remind somehow the intergalactic bar in 'Star Wars' they are quite funny by their own. The film not being too long is quite a quality here, and at the end of the 75 or so minutes of screening the remaining feeling is of a not so complete loss of time.

Albert Pyun gives us here the most disjoncted movie he ever did, a gigantic sing-along-schlock-o-rama that goes all the way. This story of 4 babes in a pseudo punk-rock band Vicous Lips that go to a in club 'The "Radioactive Dreams" as in Mr Pyun's second flick) is simply hilarious.

Near-zero budget allows to create the impossible :from so-so FX of spaceship to the great venusian beast created by master Greg Cannom to monsters & make up extradordinaire by John Carl Buechler and the Chiodo Bros, this is quite unbelievable. it is sometimes beyond criticism and that's why it has to become a cult movie. Almost invisible now, grab it if u can (it sometimes appears under the title "Pleasure Planet"). This is a wild ride, a mix of sci-fi; comedy; musical with some T&A and some half naked bodybuilders + outrageous make up.Something for everyone indeed.

Some fast editing, good photography and bad acting surrounds the whole movie. And as usual, the fabulous & Pyun regular Linda Kerridge erupts with beauty & flair , her eyes saying "what am I doing here?" . A surreal & nightmarish vision.

Vicous Lips is a masterpiece from outer space and deserves to be nominated for the best worst movies ever. An 8, definitely.

In a neon drenched future, a struggling all girl band, The Vicious Lips, recruits teenage Judy Jetson to replace their missing lead and escape Earth for the biggest gig in the galaxy only to crash on a hostile desert planet crawling with danger.

This is possibly the greatest "future band" film never to leave the 1980s. It radiates lazy '80s charm, big hair, smoke machines, synth punk attitude, and a day glo palette that practically screams from every frame. The music, largely led by Dru Anne Perry, is surprisingly strong and drives the film's momentum with genuine energy. Credit to Michael McCarty and his music team for delivering some genuinely good '80s tracks.

Vicious Lips clearly laid the groundwork for Paul Verhoeven's three breasted woman bar scene in Total Recall. There's other makeup prosthetic effects that would show up in Empire Pictures and Fullmoon films like Arena (1989), and Oblivion (1994) to name a few.

Lead actresses Perry (as Judy), stunning Gina Calabrese, Linda Kerridge, and Shayne Farris all commit to their roles, bringing sass and swagger even when the script leaves them with little. The charisma and look are there it's just the narrative that stutters. Radioactive Dream Nightclub owner Maxine Mortogo (Mary Anne Graves) is a memorable screen presence, a Sean Young, Lady Gaga type before either Gaga was a fixture, along with her creepy, pointy tooth aide Milo, played by Christian Andrews. The wacky manager Matty Asher (Anthony Kentz) brings the over the top, sleazy energy to the cheap scifi sets and low rent Star Wars ships, exactly what you'd expect from this kind of intergalactic yarn.

Shot in under a week on a low budget, the film is severely limited by its resources. Albert Pyun's direction has moments of visual flair, but questionable editing choices and erratic framing often undermine the momentum. It does have some interesting makeup effects, and the film works best when neon drenched. The desert sequence, which takes up much of the second half, is atmospheric but padded, dragging out the already thin storyline.

As an Empire Pictures' movie, with Charles Band lightly involved, it's not as cohesive as Prison Ship: Star Slammer released the same year. Don't expect the likes of Albert Pyun's Cyborg, The Sword and the Sorcerer, or even Nemesis either, it's more zero budget Howard the Duck mixed with the oddity The Apple (1980) at times.

Still, what Vicious Lips lacks in polish, it makes up for in B-movie atmosphere. The glowing sets, overexposed neon, and synthetic score create a weirdly hypnotic tone. It may not be great cinema, but it's cult material through and through.

Overall, Vicious Lips is a flawed relic limited in scope and cinematography but drenched in sci fi pop energy. A neon artifact from an era when drive and luna madness tried to triumph over budget.

I was in my 20's in the 1980's and there just wasn't too much to worry about during most of the decade, so films often drifted into sci-fi fantasy territory, just like they did during the 1950's, an also relatively carefree decade.

This is a sci-fi musical about an all-girl group named the Vicious Lips that lands a gig at an interstellar concert event. On their way to the venue, their spaceship crashes on a desert planet, and they bicker and fight with each other in the dark ship wreckage. There's also a monster of some sort lurking around, and the girl's sleazy manager is wandering around the desert looking for help with two mostly-naked blondes.

The girls look like a live-action Jem and the Holograms, and their New Wave rock music is awful. They're shown on stage using fictional musical instruments, kind of partially disassembled guitars with blue bug zappers on the end. Starring no one you've ever heard of, and they are uniformly terrible actors. Written and directed by Z-movie auteur Albert Pyun. Empire Pictures produced it, but from what I read, this wasn't released in the U.S. until the DVD in 2011. Some people seem to have elevated it to cult status, and it is actually on a "Cult Movie Marathon" DVD set, which seems to get pretty good reviews on the world's largest website, probably owing to the viewers' collective nostalgia, not the quality of the film.

I give it 3/10 for originality.