Sorry, this movie sucks

So much average

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

While there have been many strange musicals in film history ("The Great Gabbo", "Madam Satan"), this ranks as the strangest. The story is a predecessor to Woody Allen's "Sleeper" (without Allen's wit) where a man (El Brendel) is frozen in 1930 and wakes up in 1980. Just wait until you see what Manhattan was supposed to look like in 1980. This curio is surprisingly dull for all of the science fiction elements of the plot, which also includes a trip to a chorus girl inhabited Mars. The presence of the overly annoying El Brendel with his grating Swedish accent grinding your ears will be enough to make you want to overdose on aspirin. The songs include something between romantic heroine Maureen O'Sullivan and hero Charels Farrell called "Never Swat a Fly". Then, there is the Marsian chorus girl number where they dance all over a giant idol that is equally as outlandish as the growing giant bananas of 1929's "Sunnty Side Up" as one of the oddest numbers in movie musical history.

This is a very early Sci Fi feature that is a blend of Buck Rogers and Busby Berkeley with a Josephine Baker type dance revue thrown in for good measure. The beginning is a fascinating jump in time by 50 year increments. Considering how much the world had changed between 1880 and 1930 its no wonder they expected 1980 to be much more advanced than it really was. The Art Deco architectural sets are great, the costumes are outstanding, any one of the women's gowns could be fashionable today. The plot is pretty lame, Ed Brendel is annoying, and the acting leaves a lot to be desired, but I couldn't take my eyes off of the screen. And when the martian dance troupe started doing a dance routine that was very similar to a Josephine Baker dance - and foreshadows Martha Graham I gave up. It's so bad its good, so trippy it will leave you amazed, and you will laugh at all the wrong spots. Quite frankly - its better than Land of the Lost - so if it shows up in a theater near you - go with a very open and receptive mind. And keep an eye out for "modern inventions" that are now part of everyones life.

"Just Imagine" appears on Fox Movie Channel. Hopefully there is a better print than the one on Fox. "Just Imagine" is full of those paradoxes that happen when we "imagine" the future. The song "Never Swat A Fly", later recorded by the Jim Kweskin Jug Band is included. The choreography sucks, the camera work is definitely 1930's, which is to say, many scenes are shot as if we were in an audience, that is, the camera is "fixed" or stationery. If you're a fan of early sound comedies with (now) obscure performers, this is a pretty good example. I only got into this because of the presence of "El Brendel" (who I had never heard of), and the fact that there are many references to a street in my neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York. I watch "Just Imagine" when it comes up, but the Fox print isn't worth taping or securing on a DVD. It's the paradox of "imagining" 1980 from 1930's viewpoint that makes "Just Imagine" enjoyable. Imagine if alcohol prohibition were still around, for example....

I have to say, this movie was so bad that if Ed Wood saw it, it's no wonder that he thought he could make movies. Like 50 years later when Sylvester Stallone first put pen to paper, assuming he couldn't possibly write anything worse than "Easy Rider." I kept watching, since if Maureen O'Sullivan was in it, it couldn't be that dreadful.The hero was an offensive stereotypical Jewish man who spoke with a horrible dialect. The men and women on Mars were all born as twins, one good and one bad and one of the characters on Mars, a woman, spoke entirely in hyena-like laughter. It was.