tim@unc.UUCP (Tim Maroney) (09/27/83)
I thought the bad films discussion was for unintentional humor.
Dark Star was meant to be funny, and in my opinion succeeded quite
well. It is sort of a Catch-22 in outer space, although not on the
same intellectual level.
Damnation Alley (not "Ally", dimbulb) was based on the book of the
same name by Roger Zelazny. I haven't seen the movie, but I have
heard that one of the reasons it was so terrible was that more than
half the budget went for the car. The plot synopses I have heard
sound nothing at all like Zelazny's book, which was not bad (but not
one of his best by any means). In the book, the hero has to run a
load of vaccine to Boston from California, a drive that has not
successfully been completed since the war destroyed most of the
central part of America. (Not just nuclear war, either -- tons
nastier.) In the movie, I understand there is a love interest -- in
the book, the drive is made alone.
Finally, The Crater Lake Monster is indeed about the worst movie I
have ever seen. Not only did it have the beatnik-eating blancmange in
tennis shoes, but it had the worst imaginable narration -- there was
about twice as much narration as dialogue, all of it preposterous.
Remember when the beatnik couple waves bye-bye to their friends at the
picnic and goes off into the woods, only to discover that the wages of
sin are death at the hands of a sheet draped across two people and
swaying dumbly?
___________
Tim Maroney
duke!unc!tim (USENET)
tim.unc@udel-relay (ARPA)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill