The Green Slime -- You Ooze You Lose!

The Green Slime is a movie that entertains me. It's hokey and stupid and filled with cardboard men and women who shuffle through their noble lives as if they were in a movie -- perfect. The Green Slime (an outstanding title by the way) is a Japanese-American production based on an Italian series of TV movies, populated with notable American actors like Robert Horton and Richard Jaeckel (I'm big fan of his). There's also the bombasticly beautiful Luciana Paluzzi who serves up the mote of romance this movie carves out a few seconds for. The movie was written by Bill Finger, the co-creator of Batman and that alone gets my attention. 

The movie takes place in space station Gamma 3 when suddenly a planet is hurtling to destroy the Earth. With hours to go a rugged hero (Horton) is dispatched to take control and lead a mission to blow up the offending planet. He teams with his former partner and rival (Jaeckel) to save the planet but not before Gamma 3 is infested with a green slime. The slime feeds on electricity and grows becoming somewhat ridiculous monsters which are a cross between the Giant Leeches and Dr. Who's Daleks. Much death and mayhem erupts and I'll let you wonder how it all ends. 

I find this one a terrifically entertaining movie, and I'm not quite certain why. Horton and Jaeckel chew scenery relentlessly, Paluzzi looks great but seems dazed much of the time, and the monsters are more laughable than scary -- but somehow the whole brew triggers my pleasure centers in a most satisfying way. I don't suggest your experience will be the same so tread lightly, but I'd recommend it.  

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