Wonderful Movie

Such a frustrating disappointment

Simply A Masterpiece

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

Wow. This movie gives all new meaning to the word 'bad'. This is an absolutely stupid and nearly worthless film, yet I also know that when it debuted the 'with it' people loved it for its brilliance--the same types who fawned over everything Andy Worhol produced at the time as well. This group of devoted fans make up .01% of the population (give or take .01%) and the rest of us (the normals) look at this film with disbelief--disbelief that a film manages to be much worse than Ed Wood's famed PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE. Just watch the insane birth scene at the end of the film or the Grecian sets and you'll know what I mean.Now this does not mean that the film is 100% bad. The basic story idea of robots becoming more human over time isn't bad (though you really see none of this on film--just in the narration) and some of the color home movie shots are a bit sexy, but otherwise what's the point?! This is like a home movie of total strangers and weirdos that you are forced to watch! The film has no dialog (other than cartoon bubbles that are scrawled sloppily onto the film) and the acting is, to put it charitably, amateurish.So why did I see this film? Well, recently John Waters talked about various films that influenced him--including SINS OF THE FLESHAPOIDS. Well, I can see how this film encouraged Waters to show his rough home movies about Baltimore and the cheapness of his early films (like MONDO TRASHO and THE DIANE LINKLETTER STORY) clearly was inspired by this Kuchar Brothers film. However, unlike the early rough Waters films, FLESHAPOIDS isn't the least bit funny or entertaining. Waters' early movies, though crudely made and cheap and garish, were oddly fun. SINS OF THE FLESHAPOIDS is fun--in pretty much the same way a root canal is fun! Overall, a complete waste of time. Instead, ask grandpa to show you his old super 8mm films from the 1960s--they can't be any worse than this.

In order to judge a campy film, you have to use an entirely different rubric than to judge something more... high-budget. It is obvious which genre this film falls into, and if you're using the right rubric, it's hilarity all around! This movie has everything: CHEAP sets, props, and costumes; garish colors; weird music; hilarious actors; a ridiculous plot, and finally, dialog that is only enhanced in campiness by actually being WRITTEN onto the film itself, rather than spoken.My only complaint really concerns just one scene, near the end of the movie, that seems to go on forever, along with really repetitive noises. But, I have a "thing" about repetitive noises, and it probably bothered me more than most. So if I can get past it, I bet you could, too! Anyway... this is possibly the most low-budget film I've ever seen. I am even taking into account Pink Flamingos (John Waters is my favorite director, if that gives you some insight as to how I judge movies), the budget of which was a mere $300.The bottom line is, if you aren't already a big fan of campy movies, then you're going to think this is just a bad movie- a really, really bad movie. But if you ARE such fan, I think you'll appreciate it- very, very much.

The theme that recurs throughout "Fleshapoids" is Howard Hanson's Second Symphony ("Romantic"). And yes, it's the same music used in "Alien." This film is a brilliant amalgamation of cinema rhetoric, fairy tale, pop art and cartoon. The typical Hollywood "love" scene, for example, is distorted way beyond familiarity. I can't think of any film that has such wonderful art direction on such a modest budget (Kuchar used his own crayon drawings, plastic fruit from Woolworth's, murals made with interior paint, etc.). As with many films from the Kuchar brothers, it's the original blend of music, voice-over and image that stuns you, leaving you either in tears of laughter.

It would appear the only point of this movie is to show a large breasted woman handling Christmas ornaments supposed to be jewels while a space pilot wears a football uniform in a palace which looks like a run-down house. The climactic birth scene has to be seen to be believed. Lots of wafting breezes.