So much average

it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

THE GREEN SLIME is an unwieldy space opera-cum-monster flick, a Japanese-American-Italian co-production filmed in Japan with a mainly American cast. The director is none other than Kinji Fukasaku, better known to today's audiences as the man behind BATTLE ROYALE, and this must be one of his worst films. The problem with it is that it's incredibly dated, full of shoddy special effects, '60s dancing, fashions, and hairdos, and with an uneven pacing even this fan of B-movies found it hard to watch. The storyline is nothing new, and throws in all of the usual ingredients including a love triangle between the heroes, a mad scientist who can only think of the greater good, ray guns, tentacle-waving one-eyed aliens and much, much more.Robert Horton is the stiff hero battling the creatures, although I preferred Richard Jaeckel as the tough commander who screws up time and time again. Lending some glamour is '60s Italian babe Luciana Paluzzi, whose turn in THUNDERBALL catapulted her to world stardom. There are a ton of special effects in this film which are all Japanese-made, so the emphasis is on quantity over quality. The rubber-suited aliens take some beating, but shoddy scenery, ray gun effects, and awful-looking space miniatures are also thrown into the brew. This is undoubtedly one of the cheesiest films I've ever watched, which may be a recommendation for some bad film lovers. It's a lot of fun if you can get over all of the factors stacked against it.

Okay, I get the "It's so awful it's good" reviews. Personally I think it's just so awful that it is truly awful. I paid $0.25 to see it on the Bainbridge, Maryland Naval Base in 1970. I wanted my money back - but I didn't ask. The only scene I remember is the space ship going through 'space' right to left. The flame shooting out of the rocket's exhaust has so little pressure that it is going straight up out and flickering! Must have been a Bunsen burner being used as the rocket motor. Except the flame smoked and the smoke rose and hit the top of the box the rocket was mounted in and then curled down the sides of the box. The whole thing was such a waste - except that spaceship in the box has stayed with me for over 40 years.

Sci-fi movies don't age well. What was plausible only a few decades ago seems funny now (can you imagine the mass hysteria that was caused by a radio broadcast of "war of the worlds" today?). So if you want to watch this movie be sure to let go of your 21st century knowledge and view it like it's 1968. If you want to know about it's looks and feel just imagine the thunder birds with real people and... GREEN SLIME!It's a fun movie that shows what the 60's where about. The women are sexy and can do little more then scream and look helpless. The men are all robust and react without fear. People are confident in the future of space travel and believe it is only a matter of time before many manned space stations will be in earth's orbit. And unfortunately it also shows that the apartheid was not over yet as shown by the all-white crew.

The Green Slime is one of those rarities of film history, a Japanese production with all Occidental players. I guess the Japanese actors were to busy fighting off various monsters on earth who keep smashing up their country to worry about The Green Slime from outer space.Robert Horton is a future astronaut working for the United Nations Space Administration and he's got a nasty mission. There's a big asteroid that's come out of orbit and heading here toward earth. The mission is get to the space station that's commanded by another astronaut colleague Richard Jaeckel and pick up a crew and plant some really heavy duty nukes on the asteroid and blow it up.There's some nasty green slime on the asteroid and one idiot scientist takes some back with him. It grows and turns into some nasty creatures who multiply faster than insects and you can't kill them.In addition there's an old rivalry between Horton and Jaeckel over a mission they were on together years ago and over station doctor Luciana Paluzzi. As if the slime monsters weren't enough problems Horton and Jaeckel get all testosterone over Paluzzi.There are elements of The Blob, The Day The Earth Stood Still and the Danish science fiction film Reptilicus in The Green Slime. You'll find a few unintentional laughs in it.I guess these players must have been desperate for work.