Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Load of rubbish!!

Expected more

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Many folk have this oddity as one of their childhood memories but, it is a far cry from the way I remembered it. Time has not been kind to this mostly silly space treatment of the Defoe classic. For those that have not seen it for many years, I might suggest they leave it that way - some things are best left within the fond memories of the past. In its day, the ultra low budget effects were acceptable but now look dismal. Only one scene held its original power for me and that was the dream sequence - otherwise I'm over it. If you can look at something for the sole purpose of pioneering progress, then you may last the overlong distance. The DVD re-mastering and music are excellent.

I first watched this movie about human survival, yet somewhat palatable as you witness the difficulty of Commander Christopher Draper (Paul Mantee) and his pet Monkey Mona survive the Martian landscape for a food and water. Let me start over by explaining Draper's uncustomary circumstance. Two astronauts, (The other being Dan McCready played by Adam West), and a monkey named Mona are on a collision course with a large meteoriod. Commander Draper and McCready have to abort their ship and enter two separate life pods to avoid an oncoming sphere. Forced down to Mars in a life pods which crash land, Draper and Mona survived but McCready wasn't so lucky. The real problem starts when the air, food and water run out. You follow Draper in his struggles. The cinematography was used with specific camera angles as if you were with Draper all the time. The movie made me feel like I was there along for the adventure. Despite all those obstacles the biggest challenge was solitude, isolation. This movie worked for me on all counts. I wasn't bored even with this limited cast as your waiting for something to happen at anytime. Adequate supporting role by Victor Lunden as Friday. This film sparked my curiosity for the stars.

***SPOILERS*** Remake of the 1719 Daniel Defoe classic "Robinson Crusoe" taking place in the far future as Commander Chris "Kit" Draper, Paul Mantee, avoiding a runaway meteor crashes on the red planet with his co-pilot Col. Dan McReady, Adam West, getting killed and only having his pet monkey Mona, Barney the Wooly Monkey, as his only companion. Trying to survive the harsh environment Draper has to rely on Mona to find him water as well as the Martian rocks when their heated to provide him both heat and oxygen.It's some time later that Draper comes upon an alien concentration camp on the planet that is using slaves to construct a landing site for it's space crafts and rescues one of the escaping slaves that he names Friday, after the character in the original Defoe novel, played by Victor Lundrin who looks like Elvis Presley wearing a "Beatle" wig. This partnership between Draper and Friday at first a slave master relationship grows over time where the two learn to respect each other and treat themselves as equals together with Draper's pet monkey Mona who not only leads the two to water but to freedom up in the planets freezing northern regions.****SPOILERS**** Attacked by alien spaceships on their trip up to the frozen north the trio are saved when a giant asteroid that strikes the Martian North Pole melting the ice and snow there making it possible for them to be rescued by a US space probe mapping the planet. Beautifully photographed in dazzling color the film, like the novel, shows how men of different backgrounds or in this case planets can work together and learn to respect each other when their survival is at stake.Draper who at first looked down on Friday as an uncivilized savage found that he in fact was an intelligent as well as religious, yes Friday did believe in a supreme being or God that created the Universe. As for the lovable monkey Mona she in fact used her animal instincts to save the day for both Draper and Friday as well as adding a bit of comedy relief in this at first hopeless and depressing situation that the two found themselves in.

For what it is, this is a gem. I had somehow gotten the impression that this film was a Disney comedy starring Dean Jones and had no desire at all to see it (nothing against Jones or Disney), but when our movie group voted to watch this out the choices we had, I shut up and paid attention.To my surprise, "Robinson Crusoe" on Mars turned out to be a nicely made thriller which had a lot going for it. The director and screen writer knew how to sustain viewer interest by letting the details of the stranded astronaut's struggle speak for themselves without too much exposition or hand wringing, and they managed to frame the iconic moments in the original story in a refreshing, novel way. (For instance, instead of finding a human footprint, the hero finds a cairn with an exposed bones of a human foot.)It says a lot for the care and thought and talent that went into this movie that I spent the whole first half of the film waiting for the introduction of the "Friday" character, yet when it actually happened it was staged in such a way that I was startled and taken by surprise anyway. That's good film making. The movie's not perfect. Things lose a little energy in the second half as Friday and the astronaut head for the polar icecaps while fleeing from the aliens, and it seems like the two characters started wearing their blankets over their regular clothes for no particular reason (I know, the visual cues for the original story, but it's stupid and awkward). But it's still pretty darn good and the two actors play well off each other.Adam West is in this for about 64 seconds, enjoy his appearances while they last.If you like adventure movies set in space, and you don't insist on hundreds of millions of dollars of CGI to carry the story, "RCOM" might be right up your alley. Or canal.