UFO: Target Earth

1974 "UFO's...The Truth About Them Might Just Blow Your Mind for the Last Time"
2.7| 1h20m| G| en
Details

An electronics expert searching for evidence of aliens picks up signals that he believes are from an alien spacecraft--and they are coming from a lake near town.

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Jed Productions

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Reviews

Ensofter Overrated and overhyped
InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.
Janae Milner Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.
Jesse Magee WARNING: This review does not contain spoilers, as there is no discernible plot to spoil. I'm pleased to say that, as something of a connoisseur of bad films, this one goes straight into my top ten worst I've ever seen. Generally these films appear as one-offs. The crew manage to cobble together a script, borrow some equipment, find a local businessman with deep pockets to give them some cash and they make a movie. In this case, writer/director/producer Michael DeGaetano somehow managed to make three films! I sincerely hope (and seriously doubt) the others are better. As for "UFO:Target Earth", where does one start? -Characters constantly appearing out of nowhere with no description of who they are or why they are there.-A character begins to deliver a line and just...stops. Later,the same character blows a line but the take was kept.-Boom mics, camera tracks, out of sync audio, strange zooms and pans, jarring edits, time-shifts, .-A horrible prequel to the orgasm scene from "When Harry Met Sally".-Characters standing half obscured by trees.-Constant rumbling crackle and pop in the soundtrack which I assume must have been real aliens desperately trying to stop the production for the sake of mankind.-Bad '70s music of every stripe, creepy electronic music for no reason whatsoever and I swear during the final scene, music stolen from much better films.-A General having a serious conversation while seated at his desk, twiddling a letter opener. No, wait...(pause)...THAT'S A BUTTER KNIFE! But the question that will bug me forever is this: Where did they get the power to run the equipment at the lake, and why choose to bring several televisions but Coleman lanterns instead of electric lights? The dialogue is trying desperately to be deep and meaningful, but the total lack of characterization and story line makes it laugh out loud funny.Some of my favorite lines: "I feel as though you are trying to bind my soul with your technology." "It's that light. No, it was like a big star.It was coming all...It was making me all naked". "That was just your waking star, son. Everyone has a waking star". (No, that's actually a desperate plea for help from an abused child.)"Somehow, I feel like I'm teetering on the edge of an enormous chasm of time, and space. It's a swaying sensation as if I was about to fall in." Hard to sum up the movie any better than that. The idea for the film isn't the worst I've ever seen, but this is one of the two or three most inept attempts at movie-making I've seen. And, yes, I've seen "Manos:The Hands Of Fate". If you like bad film, or just want to see what happens when a filmmaker leaves out every element necessary for a watchable movie, you should see this. Two stars, because it's too entertainingly bad to call "awful".
Joe Robinson The abysmal rating this film has is completely undeserved, if you view it in the context of other UFO films of that period and in the context of SF films generally. You cannot tell me that Spielberg and those guys didn't watch this film before they did the big extravaganza, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, three years later. This film has a low budget, and the characters and the plot are poorly developed. It also contains a closing scene that is a pathetic attempt to emulate Kubrick's masterful SF film -- I know, I know. But, it's not in the IMDb 2 range. It deserves more -- not a whole lot more, but a little more. It's a fun film to watch on a Saturday afternoon, if you have nothing else to do and you can manage to keep your expectations suitably low.
wes-connors "Under the depths of a lake located near a small town, lies a strange alien spacecraft that is unknown to the town's residents. An electronics expert picks up signals emitted by the spacecraft and begins to investigate the source of these mysterious transmissions. The electronics expert hopes to recruit a group of scientists to aid him in investigating the signals, hoping to discover the secrets contained within the alien ship," according to the DVD sleeve's synopsis.Young teaching fellow Nick Plakias (as Alan Grimes) has a startling change-of-life UFO experience. Extra sensory perceptive Cynthia Cline (as Vivian) unfortunately gets swept up in his investigation. "UFO Target Earth" plays like a stretched-out "Outer Limits" episode, with one-tenth of the old show's budget. But, in this case, there IS something wrong with your television set. Brooks Clift (as General Gallagher) appears in a brief, uninteresting role; he was Montgomery Clift's brother. * UFO Target Earth (1974) Michael A. de Gaetano ~ Nick Plakias, Cynthia Cline, Brooks Clift
vigilante407-1 ... and I've seen everything Phil Tucker and Ed Wood directed.UFO Target Earth is, quite simply, the single most boring movie I've ever seen. It tries to be artsy, but falls flat on its face. It tries to be a mini-2001 A Space Odyssey, but fails again. It tries to be slow and tedious and tries to go nowhere, which is succeeds in spectacularly.The story is somewhat indecipherable (becoming more so at the end) and the acting is leaden - particularly the star.The special effects are limited to some lame colors and shapes appearing on a video monitor, a 2001-esque ride to the "beyond" ala a planetarium laser light show, one cartoony spaceship at the end.I can almost always find something to recommend about a movie, particularly a sci-fi movie, but this one just left me sleepy. Don't waste your time with UFO Target Earth ... and if you had the misfortune to purchase a copy, do your best to get your money back.