mark.waltz Consider this science fiction movie history 101, not quite in the serious vein as "Watch the Skies!", the more professional and non-sarcastic documentary aired on TCM about 10 years ago. Then consider the fact that the narrators of this are all veterans of the original company of "Saturday Night Live" with "STV's" John Candy thrown in for good measure. In order to understand the cult following of such deliciously bad science fiction movies as "It Conquered the World" and "Plan Nine From Outer Space", you also need to be able to compare it to "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "War of the Worlds". Great time and artistic effort was put into creating those masterpieces which stand the test of time, while the others stand the test of time because they are so delightfully silly you can't help but turn them into comedy classics that just happen to involve outer space creatures.Then, there's killer trees, wobbling rocks that manage to crush their victims even though they stroll around on turtle time while human beings can certainly outrun them (if they would only stop wasting their time trying to shoot them!), white furred apes, creatures from the sea that look like they are trying to break the Coney Island record for eating hot dogs and various other inhuman beings that can't remotely compare with the artistic talents which went into making "The Creature From the Black Lagoon". Giant turkeys, leeches, lizards, insects and even vegetables pounced up on our drive-in movie theater screens, making the giant ants of "Them!" and tarantulas seem like classics, much like the original "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" were 25-30 years before most of these movies were made.The funny thing about these bad movies is the fact that once you get past the idiotic subplots, you really find yourself enjoying them. They are extremely clever in their own inept way, maybe unintentionally, but some filmmakers must have known that their subject matter and monsters were ripe for ridicule. Some of these films make Ed Wood's notoriously bad turkeys step up a notch. I guess you could say that there's an art to making bad movies. Some of the narration here truly is bad, but it will be the film clips that you'll want to experience here, not the dumb quips from the original not ready for prime time players.Two specialty segments cover "teens gone wild" and the bad musicals of the golden age of Hollywood. Certainly, the teens gone wild segment is truly funny, totally reminding me of the Lois Bromfield spoof, "Sorority Girls From Hell", but it is the musical sequence narrated by Gilda Radner which struck my interest. Main-stream movies such as "Sunny Side Up" and "Wonder Bar" get included with two truly campy production numbers. The "Sunny Side Up" number, "Turn on the heat!", shows dancing girls making bananas grow on the vine just by wiggling their chests at them, while "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" strikes controversy today with its depiction of blacks in a small section of heaven (the white section is three times as large) eating pork chops right off the tree, plucking chickens and frying them, and most tastelessly, a giant watermelon which opens and has a tap-dancing Hal LeRoy in black face popping out. Other musical segments aren't really from musicals; One of them is actually from an MGM Technicolor short from the mid 1930's, and the rest are silly brief song interludes from some of the worst Z grade adventures ever filmed. So the film is a mixed bag of clips, but there is something here for everybody to enjoy and it might inspire future filmmakers to go out and research these films to try new ideas of their own.

mrb1980 "It Came From Hollywood" makes its main point--that some older movies are really pretty bad--then beats its audience to death with that point for 80 minutes. Hollywood comedy narrators Dan Aykroyd, Cheech and Chong, John Candy, and Gilda Radner simply spend the film telling us how bad these movies are, as unrelated, seemingly random clips from the films are shown. The movie's so dumb that it even includes sequences from good films such as "The Incredible Shrinking Man", which is rightfully regarded as a 1950s sci-fi classic.The celebrity narrators aren't even that funny, while they remind us over and over (and over) that some movies are just plain awful. The film finally rambles to an awkward ending--including John Candy laughing while his jowls and stomach shake--leaving the audience with a message of...what happened? I hope the famous narrators were well paid. Do yourself a favor and just watch the old films instead. They're a lot funnier than this piece of junk.

jim riecken (youroldpaljim) When this film first came in 1982, it gave me chance to see many old clips and trailers from old horror and science fiction flicks with a few clips from unusual films other film genres thrown in. In 1982, unlike today, not many old horror/science fiction films were out on video and these films were getting harder to see on TV. So watching this was the closest for me to seeing many of these films again and parts of ones I missed. I really didn't pay much attention to the wrap around sequences provided by Gilda Radner and others, except for the parts with Cheech and Chong, whom I have always found stupid and annoying. I found their presence here repugnant then, and I still do. At the time I overlooked the films repulsively arrogant, condescending attitude it adopts towards these old films.Now however, viewing this film, there is no longer a reason (for me at least) for this films existence because:1)Almost all of the films excerpted in this film are obtainable on video, some even on DVD for you high tech yuppies, if you know right places to look.2)The so called "funny" wrap around sequences featuring many comedians were not considered very good when this film first came out, and they look even worse today. These sequences have accomplished what seems to be the impossible - making clips from notoriously boring turkeys like ROCKET ATTACK USA somehow seem more interesting then they really are. But that is no credit to the comedians or the films makers. Its that these wrap around sequences are so dull, that the films they attempt to lampoon seem exciting in comparison. 3)The films overall smarmy, cynically condescending attitude towards these films becomes annoying. Granted, a good percentage of these films are turkeys like ROBOT MONSTER and PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE. Some are only mediocre, but a few are generally and rightfully so, regarded as classic films like WAR OF THE WORLDS and THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN. Others like are ATTACK OF THE MUSHROOM PEOPLE, while rebuffed by "mainstream" movie watchers, is generally highly regarded by knowledgeable fans of horror and science fiction movies. Apparently, the writers of this sorry excuse for a film were suffering from the limited, narrow minded view that if its science fiction or horror, its automatically worthless.4) This film features Cheech and Chong, a comedy team whose own career has been made on appealing to the lowest common denominator in public taste. Throughout their long and dubious one joke career, they have managed to make even the worst Jerry Lewis films seem brilliant. Its a tad bit hypocritical for two stars of some of the worst movies ever made to make fun of other peoples movies. The bad films excerpted here look like Oscar winners when compared to films like UP IN SMOKE. 5) The only wrap around sequence I found appealing was the clips of various female monsters while the fifties classic "Whats Your Name?" played on the sound track.Thank you and have a nice day.

Mister-6 Leave it to "Hollywood".When they finally have a chance to make a movie that pays homage to the worst films ever made (and they have some doozies here), they go and screw up "It Came from Hollywood" by thinking they need endless comic asides by Aykroyd, Radner, Candy, and Cheech and Chong. Don't get me wrong, it's always nice to see them, but why here?And how did good films make it in here? "The Incredible Shrinking Man" and "War of the Worlds" are shown and they were actually good films! Everyone agrees, right? It's not like there's a shortage of bad films in Hollywood's archives.But they do get it right when they profile "classics" like "Plan 9 from Outer Space", "Mars Needs Women", "Attack of the 50-Foot Woman" and such. And Ed Wood was always a ripe target for such a film. Just ask Tim Burton.In the end, though, it's more like a partial coming attractions trailer than a film. The movie seems to end before it began, and look at how many more bad movies they've made since then! It's staggering! Hey, "Hollywood", if there's ever a sequel made to this one, just focus on the bad films by themselves, and a little less of Aykroyd. Okay, please?Three stars, mostly for what films are shown. And for the sight of Aykroyd and Candy in pink angora sweaters while riding a Harley. Now THERE'S an idea for a bad movie.