 Tempe Video // Buy from Amazon.comIn 1983, a group of friends who worked at Disney made a movie. It took nine long months to complete and consumed their lives as they constructed spaceship sets in their homes and garages. Elaborate models and pyrotechnics were shot. The intrepid moviemakers popped open a few beers and got in front of the camera to shoot this camp comedy feature about Captain Slosh and his bumbling crew of beer drinkers...in space! Now, more than two decades later, writer/director Frank Delle has unearthed this lost cult classic and paired it together with a delightful, insightful documentary which reunites the cast and crew of this sci-fi/comedy epic. Crack open some brews, sit back and enjoy the complete saga of BEER DRINKERS IN SPACE! "Beer Drinkers in Space" sounds like the holy grail of independent filmmaking to me - while a rookie director named Sam Raimi was getting his buddies together to make a little film called "Evil Dead" (oh, and managed to scrounge up a quarter million dollars to fund the adventure), another group of do-it-yourselfers picked up their VHS camcorders and decided to shoot their OWN opus. Nearly 25 years later, thanks to the contined benevolence of Mr. J.R. Bookwalter, their film is being released onto DVD for legions of fans around the world to soak up and shotgun (that's a beer reference, not a gun one, fyi.) This movie is fantastic: it's a sci-fi spoof shot on VHS camcorders in 1983. Read that again: it's a sci-fi spoof shot on VHS camcorders in 1983. If that sentence alone does not indicate that this might be the greatest film ever made, then there's something wrong with you, or you're definitely at the wrong DVD review web site. Add to the equation that some of the filmmakers and special effects folks/puppeteers also worked at Disney at the time, and you're going to get an interesting mix of decent production values balanced out by 1983-grade camcorder technology. I really enjoyed this film, as it struck me to be one of the truly original do-it-yourself, shot-on-vide b-movies - many more would follow in the mid & late 80s, but in 1983, there weren't a whole lot of people banding together to realize their own cinematic vision. These guys did, and now you can revel in their glory! Video Originally shot on VHS and then dubbed back to VHS for effects, this film will not be entering the THX Hall of Fame anytime soon. However, the 4:3 image, despite it looking like the VHS dub it is, only adds to the overall charm of this film, so no points against it here. Audio Dolby stereo mix - decent, workable, a-okay. Extras Closing Thoughts Fantastically cheesy 80s do-it-yourselfer + tons o' equally-entertaining extras = highly recommended sci-fi campfest! |
