1988 Color 87min
Starring: Reb Brown, John Philip Law, James Ryan, Cameron Mitchell, and Cisse Cameron.
Directed By: David Winters
Every few years a movie comes along that is able to excel in every facet of film making. Films like Citizen Kane, Ben-Hur, and The Seven Samurai, to name a few. These films blend outstanding scripts, wonderful direction, and stellar acting to form unforgettable cinematic experiences. These are the best of the best, the cream of the crop and have rightfully taken their place in cinema history as some of the best ever made.
Then you have a film like Space Mutiny. Bad acting, poor direction, meandering plot, laughable tinfoil costumes, atrocious (when not borrowed from the old Battlestar Galactica series) special effects, and mind-boggling continuity errors, Space Mutiny has it all. It fails at almost everything it tries, and does so quite exquisitely, I might add.
Hydroponic weed gardens...OF THE FUTURE!!!In fact, this film manages to fail on every conceivable level, save one. Space Mutiny just happens to be entertaining as hell. I mean, how can anyone fail to enjoy a film that features not one, but two floor-buffer chase scenes? Who wouldn't get a kick out of seeing veteran actor Cameron Mitchell (Commander Jansen) with what appears to be a large gopher pelt taped to his chin? And who doesn't delight in seeing a 250lb man scream like a little schoolgirl? Who, I ask you?
"Not…one…word."
Space Mutiny's plot is, like its special effects, mostly lifted from Battlestar Galactica. A large group of pioneers have left an overpopulated Earth to seek out a new home world. After several generations aboard their ship, The Southern Sun, some have grown restless. Now the leader of the Enforcers, Kalgan, with the help of the space pirates (Space pirates...cool), is organizing a mutiny to force the Southern Sun to land in pirate territory. Only one man, David Ryder, stands in their way.
Fortunately for the citizens of the Southern Sun, Mr. Ryder is a big hulk of a man. He does have a tendency to scream like a girl sometimes, but you get used to it. His nemesis, Kalgan, is a different story. He roams the Southern Sun in his tricked-out floor buffer, laughing maniacally and glaring at people. John Phillip Law plays him as a cross between Snidely Whiplash and John Trovolta in Battlefield Earth. I can just hear director David Winters going over to him and saying, “Good job, John, but do you think that you lean a little more towards Dick Dastardly in this take? And for God's sake, would you please emote!!!”
“I'm ready for my closeup, Mr. Demille.”Dave's love interest, Lea, is played by Cisse Cameron. She does a decent enough job, except for the fact that her character is supposed to be in her early twenties and she, well, obviously isn't. She also has a scene that resulted in my now being physically repulsed by the sight of hula hoops. I don't want to talk about it, to be honest.
Commander Jansen's *ahem* young daughter, Lea.Of course, I can't forget the Bellerians; a group of scantily-clad, psychic aliens who seem to worship plasma balls, interpretive dance, and Stevie Nicks. They don't seem to have any other purpose other than to take up screen time and provide a little sex appeal, I guess. They weren't really doing it for me. I feel that most of them needed to stop dancing for five minutes and eat a damn sandwich. Maybe it's just me.
“You will give me a sammich.”Another character that feel I should mention is Lt. Lemont, who is played by Billy Second. Her character isn't all that important to the plot (None of the characters are, come to think of it), but she is remarkable in one respect. Her character happens to be the focal point of one of the most egregious continuity errors in film history. Early in the film, Lt. Lemont is killed by Kalgan. However, just moments later her character is seen in the background—not once, but twice—typing away at her console like nothing had ever happened to her. It must be seen to be believed, and even then you'll probably have to rewind a few times just to make sure you saw what you saw.
You're probably asking yourself by now, how could any movie have failed so completely at every aspect of film-making? Well, I have a theory. No movie can be this perfectly bad merely by accident. I submit to you that Space Mutiny was not meant to be taken seriously, instead it was an intentional comedy—a parody of sorts. If my theory is correct, this is not only a great movie, but one of the best-executed comedies of all time. An overlooked gem, if you will. So, to make up for this huge oversight by the critical community, I hereby retroactively name Space Mutiny to be the “Feel-good comedy of 1988!” Now go grab some friends, some beers, a copy of Space Mutiny and enjoy. In fact, you don't really even need the friends or the beer. It's that good.
Here we see Kalgan gearing up for the Wacky Races time trials.
Reviewed by Derek Miller
Posted 4/6/08
Space Mutiny Drinking Game
So you're sitting around with your friends, you've got a copy of Space Mutiny, 3 cases of beer, and you just don't know what to do. Well, allow me to help. Just pop that copy of Space Mutiny in your DVD player and whenever any of the following events occur, simply follow these instructions.
Railing kills – People die while falling over a railing. I counted well over 20 occurrences of this. It literally happens every 10 seconds during fight scenes. If you have a keen eye, you'll even spot a railing kill that occurs in the background on a monitor.
Action: Marvel at the spectacle of people simultaneously dying and falling over a rail, then take a drink.
Someone uses the phrase, “Let's go/move” – This happens at least twenty times, as well. Don't drink for every single “move” or you'll kill yourself.
Action: Take a drink
Groin shots – Self explanatory. At least half a dozen of these.
Action: Down half a beer
Dave Ryder yells, screams, or squeals like a little girl – Again, there are a bunch of these. However, the following two are among the best...
Action: Stop laughing, then chug a whole beer...or two. Your call.
Last man consious wins. If more than one person remains concious at the end of the film, the winner shall be decided by either a David Ryder scream-like-a-girl-off or a game of South Park Rules Roshambo.
Have fun everybody.
“If you knew what I was smiling about right now, you'd be horrified.”
