Surprisingly incoherent and boring

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Aliens come to Earth, supposedly with good intentions at first. But, incensed at humanity's inclination towards violence and hostility, come up with methods to conquer them. They think that they've hit gold with their ninth plan: resurrection of the dead. Among the recently dead who become their puppets are an old man (Bela Lugosi, in his final film appearance), his wife (Maila "Vampira" Nurmi), and a police inspector (Tor Johnson). And among the intrepid humans who intend to foil them are airline pilot Jeff Trent (Gregory Walcott), police lieutenant Harper (Duke Moore), and military colonel Edwards (Tom Keene).Edward D. Wood Jr.'s infamous schlock picture has the distinction of often being voted "worst movie of all time". While it's far from being a "good" movie or a particularly slick one, this is a little unfair. There are lots of crummy pictures out there that could also easily vie for that title. At least "Plan 9 from Outer Space" is not boring. Viewers do readily admit that it's endlessly amusing, especially when one considers its priceless dialogue, dopey performances, and ultra cheap sets. (One's gotta love those wobbling crosses and tombstones.) Use of stock footage mingles with writer / editor / producer / director Woods' own footage to fill an agreeable 79 minute run time. For this viewer, some of the biggest laughs arise from the fact that Lugosi had unfortunately passed on after only about two days worth of shooting, and his role had to be recast with Woods' wifes' chiropractor, an obviously taller and younger man who is obliged to hold a cape over his lower face.In a cast also including Mona McKinnon, Paul Marco, Conrad Brooks, Joanna Lee, and Lyle Talbot, a special shout out has to go to the hilarious "Dudley Manlove", who's actually quite the scene stealer as pompous alien bad guy Eros. He looks like he's enjoying himself reeling off Woods' lines. Ridiculous "psychic" Criswell opens and closes the picture with his proclamations.This may not be "high art", but it does have a definite charm going for it.Five out of 10.

You either love "Plan 9 From Outer Space" or you hate it, there is no middle ground. It is a film that is almost impossible to criticize today, since it is so famous for its flaws. You have bad actors delivering bad dialogue, bad science ("Solarite bombs!"), bad special effects, Edward D. Wood's wife's chiropractor running around for no reason and doing nothing that has any connection to the plot (due to Bela Lugosi dying before Wood could figure out how to work Lugosi's last footage into a story)...Despite that, it is absurdly entertaining. Edward D. Wood was an accidental genius, someone whose films were entertaining seemingly BECAUSE everything went wrong. It's like the saying, "A friend is someone who knows you but likes you anyway." Forget all the naysayers, turn it on, sit back and enjoy.

For a film that has a reputation as being possibly the worst ever, it's weird to see that the score isn't that low here and a lot of critics like it because of how stupid it is. Having finally managed to download the Rifftrax Live version of this, it was great to see the cast of MST3K finally take this movie on. They thought of using it for the actual show, but thought it was too talky. Now they've riffed on it like five times in different versions. It's at least not worse than what you would expect, but should probably be studied like any film.The film's biggest weakness is how utterly boring it is. It's simply a movie where nothing happens. It seems like there's shot after shot of the flying saucers just well, flying. None of this advances anything and the effects are horrendous. I heard the aliens were just people wearing pajamas. Hey, to be fair, they were good looking pajamas. All the talking parts go on way too long and it's something that would have been better as a very short film. It's easy to tell how bad the sets are and how basic the dialogue is. The effect with the explosion at the end is particularly bad.The Rifftrax version(s?) gave us tons of great lines like, "They move too darn fast" with, "We'll just have to kill the next group that comes along". The one that had me laughing the most was at the end when the guy was talking about how anyone we know could be an alien in disguise with the joke, "Kill them just to be safe". It's great to hear modern jokes like, "Tor studied acting under Dramatic Prairie Dog". I also loved, "Neither running or defending yourself have yet to be invented". I also liked "Holy cow!" with "He just became a Hindu". It's great fun with jokes like, "Flying saucers over Hollywood" with the jokes, "Chris Matthews repeatedly probed" and, "That has nothing to do with the flying saucers, you know". *

This film's reputation has long preceded it and due to this you may be disappointed when viewing this awful cheap science fiction film. Yes, it is badly made in almost every sense and this makes it highly watchable, but it's hardly the so-bad-it's-good masterpiece that most people proclaim it to be. Instead, it's a laughable and derivative alien invasion flick which makes the most out of a small set filled with cardboard gravestones and some incredibly hokey-looking flying saucers which wobble about all over the screen.If you're looking for some of the poorest special effects ever witnessed, look no further. Or how about a talent less cast of non-actors and actresses who find it hard to keep a straight face? Ed Wood did well to assemble a few familiar faces to give it that cult appeal, including strangely beautiful zombie woman Vampira, phoney psychic Criswell, Swedish meathead Tor Johnson, who visibly struggles with his dialogue, and aged horror star Bela Lugosi in what was to be his final role. Except the joke is that Lugosi was only around to shoot a few shots in a graveyard, so a stunt-double is employed for most of the film, walking around with his cape up over his face to disguise his identity. The trouble is, this doesn't fool anybody for a second! Poor Lugosi gets dissolved into a skeleton in one of the film's frequently ludicrous - and thereby hilarious - scenes.The one thing I liked about this film was Tor Johnson's appearance as a zombie, which was pretty scary looking. Otherwise it's abysmal all the way: a nonsensical plot, a lack of pacing and storyline, an inability to decide whether to play it straight or for laughs all help to relegate it to the dustbin of movie history. The sets are cheap and unbelievable and the special effects look like they were created by a four year old. This film has to be seen due to it's reputation, but it's pretty disappointing in the end and lacks the unintentional humour which often makes a so-bad-it's-good classic. This is just plain weird.