Christopher Lambert Movie:

		List Price: $6.99		Label: Echo Bridge Home Entertainment Salesrank: 22983 Released: January 3, 2002
		Our Price: $1.96
		Used Price: $1.40
		MPAA Rating: Unrated Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
They Came From Beyond Space is the thrilling film adaptation of Joseph Millard's, The Gods Hate Kansas, which revolves around an alien spacecraft that has mechanical problems and crashes into the Moon. The alien beings aboard cannot complete the repairs themselves, so they use their abilities to control and use a number of Earth's scientists as slaves to help with the repairs.

They Came From Beyond Space Reviews:
Awful DVD transfer
2008-08-20 - This is a real fun movie but this Platinum Disc release looks and sounds like a bad VHS tape. I've seen a good, clean version of this on TV so it's a shame to have to watch it this way

Put that colander on your head and follow me!
2008-07-29 - Hey, if it has shots of giant radar telescopes tuning in to the celestial symphony of outer space, the movie has to be good, right? Even if it features a dude wearing a colander on his head? Uh, I think not. Despite its great title, They Came From Beyond Space doesn't exactly impress. It starts OK, but once you spend what seems like an hour watching a guy try to sneak his way onto a farm, a lot of the magic is lost. I did like the main character, though. First of all, having a metal plate in your head is just plain cool - that's a well-established fact (driving around in a convertible roadster, sans seatbelt, is even cooler-- especially when that plate in your head came courtesy of an earlier automobile accident). Second of all, Dr. Curtis Temple isn't your average namby-pamby scientist; he's no Captain Kirk (although he does do a mean Kirk imitation whenever he's told to pretend that he just got zapped by some kind of subsonic gun) , but he can hold his own in a fight, even when his opponent keeps smashing him plate-in-head-first into posts. He does need some serious work on his spying and stealth skills, however. Fortunately for him, most of the bad guys are just plain dumb most of the time.

Let me take you back to the glory days of yester-year, back before weightlessness in space was even invented, when all you needed for a spaceship control room was some dials, a machine that goes ping, and miscellaneous whatsits, and where proto-MacGyvers could reverse engineer super-advanced alien technology in a matter of hours. Into this halcyon world a meteorite falls - actually several meteorites. No big deal, right? Well, what if I told you that they all fell close together in an obvious formation? Interested now? Well, somebody in the British government is, and he puts together a crew of brilliant scientists to go and investigate the thing. Naturally, Dr. Temple (Robert Hutton) is the obvious choice to lead the group. Sadly, though, his doctor won't write him a permission slip to go (darn that metal plate in his head), so his assistant Lee (Jennifer Jayne) goes in his place. Fine and dandy - until, that is, Dr. Temple loses contact with Lee and everyone at the site, even as pork barrel Democrat-sized requisitions start flooding his research lab. At that point, he tells his doctor to go sit on a tongue dispenser (OK - he doesn't actually do that) and off he goes.

To his surprise, he finds himself persona non grata (him, the great Dr. Temple) when he arrives at the heavily secured site of the meteorite crash. He doesn't know what's going on, but he knows that the folks working there so secretively are not behaving normally - especially his beloved Lee. That's where all the sneaking around the farm stuff comes in. The doc's determined to find out what is going on, despite repeated warnings and murderous attacks. Realistically speaking, Temple should have died early on. The guy may be a scientific genius, but he knows nothing about breaking and entering, not to mention alien technology sabotage. He actually throws very effective weapons down a couple of times and forges ahead empty-handed.

I won't tell you what the aliens are up to, but I will warn you that their leader can't do anything without giving a long, drawn-out speech first. What was it with these aliens in the 1960s? You would think they were all running for Congress given all the boring speeches they made. And that music? Each fight scene score was apparently performed by The Little Drummer Boy on acid.

They Came From Beyond Space isn't your typical 1960s science fiction film, but that shouldn't be a selling point in and of itself. This movie is average at best, with its most memorable moments coming in the form of unintentionally humorous scenes.

solid b hard scifi
2008-06-07 - It is hard to believe that this is the kind of thing I watched every afternoon as a kid. Back then, this was pretty cutting edge, impossible as it may seem. But beyond the crude effects, the story is really quite good: there is a mysterious landing of some space crafts. The hero is a man who recently had a steel plate grafted to his skull, a sure tip off that some kind of mind control will not effect him.

He heroically attempts to discover what is happening to his colleagues, which gets him into lots of trouble and danger. He then figures out, with a colleague he equips with a kind of collander helmet to protect him against the untraviolet mind rays from the aliens. Then they discover what the real mission of the creatures is, which is quite a surprise, and it changes the adversarial dynamic between Earthlings and aliens in a wonderful twist that is also interesting.

Recommended for fans of good b-grade scifi. It is for the peculiar connoisseur, like me, who loved these as a kid.

So why exactly must the Gods hate Kansas?
2006-07-11 - Don't understand the signifigance of the title of the book this film was based on, as it takes place in England. Nonetheless, it was surprisingly decent find on the Mill Creek Sci-Fi Classics package. Formless aliens trapped on the moon hitch a ride to Earth aboard some meteors (very Zontar, guys ;), and begin to possess the bodies of scientists investigating the crash. One of the scientists has a silver plate implanted in his skull from a car wreck that makes him immune to alien control, and he sets about to find out exactly what the creatures are doing and stop them...but should he? Definitely has a late sixties feel with the colorful sets and groovy music. The same chap who portrays the alien leader co-starred as Alfred in the Keaton/Kilmer/Clooney Batman films. Nothing to go out of your way to see, but good enough to waste an hour on.

"Have You Ever Known Meteors To Land In Formation?"
2006-05-18 - This little known gem was made in England in 1967, and is a surprisingly effective and captivating sci-fi film. The movie opens with a very mod lava lamp credit sequence and the whole movie features period music that makes it clear what decade it was made in.

The hero, Dr. Curtis Temple (Robert Hutton) is a brilliant scientist involved with space exploration. Early on there is a formation of nine meteors that crash in a nearby farm field. Upon examination the meteors emit a powerful beam of some sort, which allows aliens to take possession of the humans in the vicinity. The good news is that Temple is immune because of a metal plate in his head. Eventually he notes the farm being transformed into an industrial facility and is quite interested when rockets begin taking off from below the surface of a lake. Much drama ensues before the good Doctor and friends end up on a rocket to the moon where they meet the "Master of the Moon," who has more than a passing resemblance to a Vulcan. It turns out that all these moon people want is for the humans to help repair their ship so they can go to their home planet to die in dignity. In a moment of composure Temple persuades them to eschew violence so they can work together. It all sounds quite hokey, but it actually works quite well.

The acting is generally good (far better than most 1960s-era sci-fi films), the futuristic sets are excellent (although I don't understand the presence in an elaborate paisley upholstered sofa in the rocket launching area), and the pacing is great. The film does have a few quirks. I noted that the film had a feel reminiscent of the great television show "The Prisoner" down to the same style music and the fixation on wacky automobiles. It also struck me that in many ways this film is a very sophisticated update of "Zontar, the Thing From Venus," albeit with considerably more finesse. A couple of the special effects were laughable by today's standards, but the "Crimson Plague" pox and palsy effects were excellent and actually somewhat frightening.

This is a great sci-fi film. It is understated and refined, yet powerful, well paced, and action packed. I recommend "They Came From Beyond Outer Space" to any audience.