good film but with many flaws

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Somewhere in space, a deranged scientist is attempting to bioengineer a race of perfect humans while back on Earth, his beautiful minions and their creepy mutant helpers are harvesting people for his evil manipulations. Can heroic space-cop Mike Halstead (Tony Russell) and crew can stop him before he completes his diabolical transformation? This is the first of the four "Gamma One" movies, a series of cheap-looking but colourful and imaginative Italian science fiction adventures loosely tied together by the eponymous space station. The films have a novel aesthetic, differing from contemporary Japanese and American space-operas, and very much reflect the popular view of the future in the mod 1960's (i.e. the future will look like the '60's but with cool gadgetry). Unfortunately, most of the special effects and miniature shots are reused in the series (which were shot concurrently) and the novelty quickly fades. The vibrant but dated groovy-ness of the film has elevated it to cult status and, as most people will watch the film for its visuals, the fact that the story makes little sense, the pace leaden at times (especially the villain's expository 'tour' of his secret base), and the acting/script atrocious is of little concern.

Jack-of-all-trades director Antonio Margheriti is primarily known for his horror output, but he also took time out in the '60s to direct a handful of low-budget yet colourful science fiction epics termed "space operas". WILD, WILD PLANET is probably the most entertaining of his sci-fi movies, a fast-paced and action-packed tale involving all manner of weird and wonderful creations and colourful, tacky set designs. If one film could exemplify the swinging '60s then this retro-gem would be the one. Where else would you find caped dancers with huge butterflies painted on their capes dancing before a rapt audience? Surprisingly this film lacks an American lead this time around but there are many familiar Italian faces in the cast list. Tony Russel takes the lead as Mike Halstead and is great as the no-nonsense commander who finds himself embroiled in an extremely weird mystery. Lisa Gastoni is his pretty but cold girlfriend who finds herself in the clutches of the typical mad scientist chap, played by Massimo Serato. Serato has a ball with his good-natured but corrupted evil scientist and makes for a superb choice as a villain. A very young-looking Franco Nero also appears in the film as Jake, one of Halstead's men who will do anything to protect his boss.I find it difficult to do a linear review for a film like this so instead, I'll just create a list of all the cool stuff it has in it. Firstly, Margheriti was obviously really into his model-making phase here, as each and every shot of space vehicles or futuristic city has been created in miniature. It may not make for the most realistic science fiction film ever but it's certainly one of the most unintentionally amusing - check out the spaceship that flies back and forth on a wobbly wire! There's also a car accident which involves a model car flying off a mound of earth and is damn hilarious to watch. Elsewhere we have supposed astronauts rocking to and fro on barely-hidden wires while their fellow actors look on in surprise. We have brightly-coloured futuristic cars which somehow look very sixties in their design and unconvincing. There's a plethora of weird and wonderfully colourful costumes on display and lots of fake scientific equipment which nonetheless looks cool. The film contains a pack of female fighters who certainly have the upper hand on their male counterparts during a hotel room battle where martial arts moves are all the rage, and the women disappear into nothing when beaten. We have bald villains in black macs and sunglasses (inconspicuous see) going around and shrinking people. The miniature people are later discovered hidden inside suitcases in a state of suspended animation much to the horror of minor cast members. One such character shrinks a doctor but only half completes the process, turning the man into an unhappy dwarf! Later on we discover the bald men are in fact clones and have four arms for some reason. I don't really know why but it looks cool anyway.The film gets even better towards the end as Halstead and his men invade the enemy planet and infiltrate the base. A battle with guards takes place and lots of guys die by having blowtorches - sorry, flame-spewing guns - shot at their chests and being burnt. The good guys are later captured when a huge steel box is simply dropped on them out of the sky. The baddie takes time out to explain all of his evil schemes and we even get to see a room of genetic failures, or more realistically overacting Italians in bad makeup. It turns out that the evil scientist desires (more than anything else in the world) to merge himself with a woman! The excellent finale sees the enemy base destroyed (again mostly in miniature) by a flood of red water - I guess that's the risk you take when you build your base UNDERNEATH a huge lake! Lots of things explode and people scream as they drown, including the lead villain Massimo Serato. Luckily the good guys escape in conveniently-placed capsules and simply pop to the surface. The epilogue shows them relaxing and womanising by the poolside in a typically sexist '60s Italian way familiar to anyone who's seen a Euro-spy flick. On top of all this we have some cheesy dubbing and hilarious dialogue ("you helium-headed idiot" was a particular favourite of mine). WILD, WILD PLANET is hugely entertaining and far-out movie which is why I recommend it wholeheartedly to sci-fi fans looking for something other than the more mundane and boring fare.

Director Antonio Margheriti's Italian sci-fi / mystery would be the first chapter of the Gamma One quadtrilogy. I have already seen the second addition, which was rather dull.A doctor practicing biomedicine under the protection of a private own employer uses his henchman / women to go about kidnapping perfect specimens of the human race for his experiments of engineering the ideal race. But his methods are inhumanely twisted, and Commander Mike Halstead of Gamma One goes out of his way to stop it when his Lt. is taken.However "Wild, Wild Planet" is better paced (though still a little long winded), little more expansive in an economical sense and wrapped around an intriguingly hysterical, if vague (mad doctor theme) plot than its successor. It's crazier! Although it couldn't escape its risible dialogues and kitsch effects, by being bounded by it's low-rent, but richly etched set designs. It doesn't hold back on the vibrant colour schemes to mask its one-dimensional layout. There's an overuse of miniatures, break out the toys and dolls (you'll see when). Some (well the majority) are poorly conceived it becomes laughable, especially during some continuity shifts. The performances are decent for such a show-in. Tony Russel builds a presence and Massimo Serato elicits his devious character's obvious intentions. Lisa Gastoni is headstrong, but annoying. Franco Nero and Carlo Giustini do the job. Margheriti really does camp it up, but that's its charm and there's a rather bold moment or two that surprised me. The combat sequences though do feel like they're on a loop and you got to love there blow torches --- ah I mean lasers. The howling score is quite a psychedelic arrangement, but holding and ominous sting.It isn't too bad entertainment.

Somehow the Medved brothers missed this little puppy when they were giving out the Golden Turkey Awards. Shame, because it lives down to the worst of the Ed Wood oeuvre. MGM released this movie as "The Wild, Wild Planet" here in the USA, instead of translating the original Italian title (literally "The Criminals of the Galaxy"). This little jewel opens with a neat diorama of a space base, complete with V-10 Nazi surplus rockets and CH-47 helicopter models traveling around on monorails instead of rotors, all shot in a dark enclosed studio - the sort of thing we know and love from Toho, Ltd.'s long line of monster films. It's a neat little set.We see a fair attempt at portraying an orbital rendezvous between a space transport and a spare tire-like space station (no one explained to the producer that you slow a spacecraft down by firing the rocket engine in the direction you're heading to), then some outer space ballet in Halloween costume space suits.The production values aren't so bad - the props are well done, the cinematography is rock-steady, but the acting and dialogue is wooden and amateurish. A lot of that could be due to dubbing for the English- language release of the film, but that doesn't explain the acting. The costumes... well, they could have used off-the-rack clothing from designer stores in Italy in the 1960s for the science fiction-y uniforms (not unlike the Griswolds' shopping spree in "National Lampoon's European Vacation) and "futuristic" civilian clothes. That doesn't account for the fact that the cops all wear foot-wide leather kidney belts over their chi-chi uniforms. Maybe space cops have to finish off every shift in the weight room in the future in Italy.I'm not going to spoil the plot for you. That would be a shame.Just know that there are prodigies of bad acting and lame dialogue galore in this film. For those of you who groove on le cine mal - more like "le cine puante" in this case - this is an hour and a half very well spent. Name a failing of a spaghetti western or a Japanese monster flick and it's here. That's either a warning or an endorsement, depending on what you're in the mood for. That's what they make those lightweight beer cans for - chucking at your TV set when the real clankers appear.Massimo Serato has revealed a hitherto unknown side here - he shows us he could have been the Italian Boris Karloff, while Tony Russel shows that other people can actually learn to act like William Shatner with a straight face if they try hard enough. None of the cast really distinguish themselves here. Franco Nero, the only member of the cast who's known outside Italian cinema for good work, is wasted as a suck-up lieutenant to the dashing spaceship commander. His character winds up being called "Helium head!" a lot more than he deserves.There are bits and pieces of a good movie here. The prop master really earned his money at times, but then there are the "space ships" with weak-ass butane lighters simulating rocket engines, the kit-bashed helicopter models serving as monorail cabs and the "future cars" with "beeg fins" and bubble canopies.It's a fun thing - so bad that it parodies itself. Watch it if you really need some chuckles.