StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Ketrivie It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

zardoz-13 "Tora, Tora, Tora" director Kinji Fukasaku's "The Green Slime" isn't as atrocious a sci-fi-horror chiller as I had been led to believe. Of course, my chief complaints are the campy special effects, particularly the inflatable-looking space station held aloft by two wires, its rickety doors, and ultimately the worst, the monsters that strut around the station with a pair of twirling tentacles spewing electrical sparks. Predictably, these half-pint monsters are green, scale-ridden, and equipped with one large eye like a cyclops. Now that I think about it, they resemble Minions with tentacles swirling above their heads, and those sputtering, live-wire electric cables can whip a man to death and electrocute them. These goofy critters reproduce with licentiousness of rabbits, and they feed ravenously on power. As villainous creatures, they look hilarious. Reportedly, Japanese school children wore these costumes. On the other hand, their arsenal of electric energy makes them impressive as does their excessive numbers. Unlike most idiotic monsters that try to kill the heroes, these monsters can kill, do kill, and come close to taking out the star. Before the humans outsmart these creatures, they exercise an irrefutable advantage over mankind. Boiled down to basics, the first third of "The Green Slime" concerns an "Armageddon" encounter with an enormous asteroid on a collision course with Earth. Commander Jack Rankin (Robert Horton of "Apache War Smoke") is dispatched to take command of a team to destroy the asteroid. They land on the asteroid and set explosive charges, and then leave. One of their landing party has picked up a wad of green slime on his uniform. They blast the asteroid to smithereens and eliminate it as a threat to Earth. Once they are back aboard space station Gamma III, the landing party shed their uniforms to have them decontaminated. During the routine decontamination process, the green slime swells to life. When the system overloads, the technician checks on it and fear sets in when he sees the monster. A general quarters alarm sounds, and Rankin and Space Station Commander Vince Elliott (Richard Jaeckel of "The Dirty Dozen") rush to the spot. Chief science officer Dr. Hans Halvorsen (Ted Gunther of "The Cop Hater"), briefs Rankin and Elliot about the abilities of these green things. First, they feed on energy and gravitate toward power sources. Second, they reproduce in great numbers. Third, shooting a laser at them will kill them, but it will also result in spores flying forth to grow. Fourth, these critters scorch their victims, covering them with burn wounds, if they don't kill them. Fifth, they constitute a veritable army that is extremely lethal. Commander Rankin, Space Station Commander Elliot, and chief medical supervisor Dr. Lisa Benson (Luciana Paluzzi of "Thunderball") must contend with their formidable but funny monsters. During the second third of "The Green Slime," they reduce power as much as they can and try to lure the monsters into a storage room and away from the injured personnel so they can be evacuated to safety. Eventually, by the last third of "The Green Slime," Rankin realizes that there is no escape from these creatures. They are reproduced to the extent that they cover the exterior of the space station. Rankin informs his superiors that based on the alien's lethal attributes that have no alternative than to abandon the space station and blow it up. Naturally, Space Station Commander Elliot refuses to believe that they must sacrifice the station.Fukasaku sets up the story well enough and then the action wanes during the second thirty minutes before it generates momentum in the last half-hour. The cinematography changes drastically for the better during the last thirty minutes with Fukasaku adopting Dutch Tilt angle to heighten the suspense. Robert Hort0n acts like he took the shenanigans of these creatures seriously, and the rivalry between Rankin and Commander Elliot offers a breath of soap opera reality. As it turns out, Dr. Benson and Rankin have had a history, and Benson has been romantically engaged with Elliot. What Benson fails to admit to herself is that she still loves Rankin despite having announced her impending marriage to Elliot. Unfortunately, the valiant Elliot doesn't survive, while Rankin and Benson do. Despite the phony special effects, "The Green Slime" isn't the dreck that you've heard it was.

Leofwine_draca THE GREEN SLIME is an unwieldy space opera-cum-monster flick, a Japanese-American-Italian co-production filmed in Japan with a mainly American cast. The director is none other than Kinji Fukasaku, better known to today's audiences as the man behind BATTLE ROYALE, and this must be one of his worst films. The problem with it is that it's incredibly dated, full of shoddy special effects, '60s dancing, fashions, and hairdos, and with an uneven pacing even this fan of B-movies found it hard to watch. The storyline is nothing new, and throws in all of the usual ingredients including a love triangle between the heroes, a mad scientist who can only think of the greater good, ray guns, tentacle-waving one-eyed aliens and much, much more.Robert Horton is the stiff hero battling the creatures, although I preferred Richard Jaeckel as the tough commander who screws up time and time again. Lending some glamour is '60s Italian babe Luciana Paluzzi, whose turn in THUNDERBALL catapulted her to world stardom. There are a ton of special effects in this film which are all Japanese-made, so the emphasis is on quantity over quality. The rubber-suited aliens take some beating, but shoddy scenery, ray gun effects, and awful-looking space miniatures are also thrown into the brew. This is undoubtedly one of the cheesiest films I've ever watched, which may be a recommendation for some bad film lovers. It's a lot of fun if you can get over all of the factors stacked against it.

chasm_b2001 Okay, I get the "It's so awful it's good" reviews. Personally I think it's just so awful that it is truly awful. I paid $0.25 to see it on the Bainbridge, Maryland Naval Base in 1970. I wanted my money back - but I didn't ask. The only scene I remember is the space ship going through 'space' right to left. The flame shooting out of the rocket's exhaust has so little pressure that it is going straight up out and flickering! Must have been a Bunsen burner being used as the rocket motor. Except the flame smoked and the smoke rose and hit the top of the box the rocket was mounted in and then curled down the sides of the box. The whole thing was such a waste - except that spaceship in the box has stayed with me for over 40 years.

Ted Bailey Green Slime is one of the most ambitious and most fully realized futuristic sci-fi films lensed prior to 1968 and has the further virtue of wrapping the sci-fi suspense and action set-pieces around a well-conceived set of dynamic conflicts and shifting alliances among its central three protagonists. With the exception of Forbidden Planet, I can think of no other film prior to 1968 that attempts to put on screen the range of futuristic devices, sets, and special effects in the service of such varied and well-paced action and non-action sequences. Flash Gordon serials come to mind but are frankly inferior. Aliens are admirably inhuman with interesting powers. Successive attempts at containment and their failure are well-conceived. Tensions are reconciliations among characters are realistic. Weak link is the canonical scientist figure. Judged against all future-based SiFi films from 1968 or earlier, it is hard to think of any other film besides Forbidden Planet that actually put more visual and narrative imagination and spectacle on the screen. Along with FP, it must be regarded as an apotheosis of futuristic SiFi films from 1968+earlier. It is important to remember that 2001, released in April 1968, actually was REVOLUTIONARY in terms of visual effects - GS as well as ALL preceding (and no little amount of subsequent) SiFi films fall short of the 2001 effects standard for which Kubrick won his only Oscar but 2001 is an irrelevant standard by which to judge GS or any other film from 1968+earlier. GS holds up exceptionally well and is near the top of the class against all other futuristic SiFi from 1968 and earlier.