Rock Lobster

Lobster Man from Mars (1989) is a pretty funny riff on 50s space invader movies. It is also a pretty funny riff on the 80s movie business. I'm not sure they really go together though.

Some kid is just putting the final touches on an amateur feature film about a Lobster Man who is invading from Mars. In the meantime, film producer Tony Curtis (!) finds out that he made too much money last year and needs a tax write-off fast. Fate brings them together.

That's the framing story. Most of the footage deals with a young Brit and his girlfriend visiting his scientist uncle Patrick MacNee (!) in California, near Old Faithful. Their enormous car breaks down when a UFO lands, people start turning into skeletons, and who is that mysterious private eye? He's Tommy Sledge, who I guess had a TV series. I've never heard of him.

This sci-fi parody got plenty of laughs out of us, but it was definitely sub-Larry Blamire (Lost Skeleton, Lost Skeleton Returns Again). Also, who did that framing story work? Why was a kid in the 80s making a 50s monster movie. Was it supposed to be period or just retro? Was it supposed to be funny, or just incompetent? Picking a tone and sticking with it would have helped. But, so what? It's only a stupid movie about a stupid movie. And it did have a gorilla monster in a diving helmet, can't hate that.

The story behind the story is that Stanley Sheff and Bob Greenberg wrote the movie using the student film concept to allow it to be filmed cheaply. But it wasn't made until after Greenberg had died, and Sheff directed as a tribute to his dead friend.

As for Tony Curtis, he needed to make a child support payment. I can't explain what Patrick MacNee was doing it this.

In conclusion, they did use "Rock Lobster" as the theme song. It didn't really go, but who could resist using it? Not me.