Audience Member
Obvious "Alien" ripoff has a meteor crashing near Los Angeles and a small crab-like creature emerging, which later in the film turns into a much larger Alien creature. Director Fred Olen Ray (a talented director of schlock) brings a more style than you get in most rip-off films, even if he's simply aping better directors, even going so far as to try to copy the strobe light effect when showing the larger alien creature. However, the film's main asset is that you do get character actor Charles Napier in the lead as an LA police detective hot on the trail of the alien, along with help from his sexy partner Ann Turkel (you may remember her from 1980s poster racks as a bikini pin-up model). Besides the charms of Napier, which really do go a long way, this film doesn't actually offer anything worth going out of your way to see here. This one is for Napier fans only (which I count myself among).
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/31/23
Full Review
Audience Member
The title is misleading, but that's okay. It's a cheap movie, with poor acting and low effects- but it's so much fun. The characters are goofy, the monster is actually pretty cool, and there's plenty of gore and chainsaws. Rips off of Alien, in more-than-noticeable ways. It's monster b-movie trash at it's finest.
Rated 2.5/5 Stars •
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
02/02/23
Full Review
Audience Member
You know you're in trouble from the opening scene of "Deep Space". The obvious similarities between the alien crashing to Earth in this and the opening scenes of both versions of "The Blob" do not give the viewer a lot of hope that this has anything new to offer them.
In that respect, the film does not disappoint as it freely borrows from many other films as well, most notably and obviously from the "Alien" franchise. Director Fred Olen Ray was obviously working from a shoestring budget here as always, but it's the lack of imagination that kills this faster than the lack of money,
The origins of the creature is never fully developed as it's just mentioned as being yet another government experiment gone awry. It's hardly the incredible danger those government eggheads warn us it is anyway as it only kills about a half dozen people here, and it's hard to be scared by a creature that's not much taller than its human adversaries. This could have been a fun homage to similar films from the 1950's because it does contain all the rich cliches like the control room with a panel filled with random blinking lights and military cover-ups. But Rey has never been a very creative filmmaker and his movies never stray far from what's expected of them.
Most of the laughs here are unintentional and yet the frequent attempts at actual humor fall flat every time. The special effects are particularly shoddy, and disappointingly enough, almost all of the murders happen off-screen. It's pretty easy to tell from the bland title that "Deep Space" will not be anything special, but it is kind of sad that it never even tries to be.
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A surprisingly awful flick is more like it. The creature is a total rip off of alien, a shot gun doesn't work but a chain saw does? There was no saving this movie, no even Anne Turkel half naked could save it. There was no tie in for Julie Newmar's character knowing the detective. The bagpipes were even fake.
Possibly the only worst sci-fi film than this was Cherry 2000.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
01/27/23
Full Review
Audience Member
72%
Suprise, suprise, the creature bares a striking resemblance to H.R. Giger's alien design. Charles Napeir is the man, as a man's man hero and you got to love those chainsaw endings.
"You have the right to remain silent."- Captain Robertson (Bo Svenson)
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/17/23
Full Review
Audience Member
This was just on US independent affiliates TV Thursday or Friday. It's Fred Olin Ray...But wait! It's not like that! Keep reading!
Deep Space is different!
It's much better than Ray's typical low, low budget stuff. Not to say that Deep Space is high budget and slick, but it's well done with decent production values (for a los budget as opposed to an ultra-low budget.) Imagine Night Of The Creeps (extended version) crossed with Alien. On a budget.
A gov't genetic engineering experiment (yes, those sinister, Fed Gov't Lab eggheads "Frankenstein" their own alien, DNA synthesis style) falls to earth from out of space (<B>Deep Space</B> -Mmmmrrrrrrrhhhahahahahaaha!) The slimy one arrives initially in the form of a big pod, and some extra little pods for good measure (to make for an ambiguous ending and leave room for a sequel, which never came.)
The gist?: Maverick detectives try to save the world by hunting the alien on their own -with their service revolvers. Yup. I was hoping for at least a couple of stolen Area 51 ray gun, but at least they continuously and grossly violate plenty of other police procedures.
All in all, Deep Space was actually a pretty entertaining watch for a silly Alien flick. It's derivative of a dozen other alien movies, to be sure, and it's low budget, but the story is decently written, keeps your attention, and it's decently plotted -for a low budget alien movie.
Ok, so it's no XTRO, but Deep Space has some good creepy moments and lots of gross alien slime and (sometimes slightly humorous) bloody gore. The two rogue detectives, McLemore (Charles Napier) and Merris (Ron Glass) are likable and well written / well cast (for being stereotypes) and watching them adds to the fun.
Honestly, I think this movie is a better, more absorbing watch than the overly stylized X-Men, which I found Disney-esque and a bit patronizing, as if written for 12 year olds -which it was. Not that Deep Space is the bastion of intellectual cinema, but somehow I found it less innovative, yet more interesting, and less tediously predictable and gimmicky than X-Men.
Be forewarned though, with it's profuse abundance of heaps and heaps of mucousy Alien Ooze, gruesome body ripping, head chomping, and gallons of er, ah, other, less identifiable bodily fluids, Deep Space is not a movie to view while you're eating. I don't recommend you rush to buy it (though I don't recommend you NOT rent it if you like quality grade B horror) but it's worth a watch on TV if you're in the mood for an Alien "Ewwwww!"-factor-fest.
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Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/20/23
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