Pleasure Planet

"Vicious Lips" is set in the far future, where a band finally gets the opportunity for That Breakthrough Gig -- if they can make it to an "in" club on another planet in time...

Given that the plot features no major twists, turns or surprises, given that the set is extremely trashy, the number of locations limited and the choice of them not overly inspired, Vicious Lips seems like a longish episode of the original Star Trek sans the familiarity with the characters we all know and love -- so whatever persuaded me to rate it "excellent"?

I'm a sucker for Big Hair, and The Music of the Eighties, both of which the movie has plenty of, since the all-girl band's guitar-and-synth sound is vaguely reminiscent of the early Kim Wilde's, if both "rockier" and catchier (and a lot like that of "Radioactive Dreams", another Albert Pyun-movie of that era with a more coherent plot, but no big hair). Last but not least, the general air of ultra-trash somehow utterly fails to be annoying, lending a certain charm to the movie instead, soon turning the initial impression ("Hey, I could do that!") into a burning desire to phone up all your friends:

"Let's make a movie!"

Vicious Lips is like a wild but bad trip - without doubt the movie is one of a few but the reasons why you should watch this movie are not the story nor the acting or that wild mix of a story (a little Rocky Horror Picture Show shining through): watch this wonder if you want 80s hairstyle galore, listening to 80s rock music a la Heart (the band who got some fame in the 80s) and 80s fashion with all its unique but terrible taste. Last but not least, director Albert Pyun is responsible for this "gem" - I know and like mostly his post-apocalyptic trash gems like Cyborg (van Damme!), Omega Doom (Rutger Hauer) and Radioactive Dreams (Michael Dudikoff). My exact rate for Vicious Lips is 3 + 1 for all those happy memories of the 80s evoked by this work of trash and the few moments of horror added.

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.

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.

A bit like if Pitch Black were filmed in the 80s, made no sense, was about a female rock band and rubbish.

Some of the songs are good but the background music playing on a loop is deeply annoying and the cast just keep on repeating the same lines over and over. There is about two sentences of plot in the entire thing.

Overall this collection of clips and songs is barely a movie, it is stylised for sure, but that is really all it has. It's an extended 80s music video and nothing else. If you like that type of thing then great, for everyone else it's a pass.