GreenSlime

The Green Slime (1968)

When the Earth’s space agency detects a large asteroid on a collision course with the Earth they send the best man they have for the job, Commander Rankin. He heads to a space station to catch the rocket ship to the asteroid and finds out that he has taken command from his former friend and rival Commander Elliot (played by the late great Richard Jaeckel). They successfully destroy the asteroid, but accidentally bring back the green slime with them. The slime is an alien life form that soon grows, multiplies, and attacks the crew. Their only hope is to destroy the station before the green slime makes it to Earth.

If you looked cheesy ‘60s science fiction movie up in the dictionary then they should have the poster for The Green Slime. The story is goofy and in the tradition of the best sci-fi movies ignores a lot of science. But then again this is a creature feature about giant one eyed green monsters from outer space, so lets not be too picky. What I appreciate is that the movie gets right to the action and doesn’t waste too much time on character development. The standard characters are all here, the hero that makes all the right decisions, the scientist type that keeps wanting to save the monster and comes to a bad end because of it, the love interest that cowers and screams whenever the monsters are around, and finally the man with a flawed past that steps up to save the day. Sure there is nothing new here, but it is packaged well and is a fun 90 minutes. Not every movie has to reinvent the wheel to be entertaining. This is a standard bit of goofy fun and I appreciate that.

Speaking of goofy we need to talk about the special effects. I was pretty impressed with the model work that they used to create the space station and various space ships. Sure they look like miniatures, but this work is done really well and isn’t distracting. I did notice that Toei studios (of Godzilla fame I believe) helped make this movie, so the nice model effects shouldn’t really be surprising. The sets are also impressive and it looks like they spent some money on them. But of course the most memorable bit of effects work has to be on the creatures themselves. They are very cool looking men in rubber suits with one-eye and flailing green arms. I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff and it really doesn’t get much better then The Green Slime for this kind of creature. I had a blast with it.

I’ve always liked this movie, which has a strange feel to it. It is a Japanese production with an American and European cast that is trying to feel like a drive-in creature feature. It all mixed together to make a movie that isn’t like anything else that I’ve ever seen, and I’ve lost many hours to movies… Plus you have one of the best songs that has ever been written for a sci-fi flick over the opening and ending credits. If you haven’t ever taken the time to check out The Green Slime you really must. It is a blast.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer