The Green Slime
                                                    
Director: Kinji Fukasaku
Year: 1968
Rating: 7.0
I don't care if this film was mocked unmercifully on Mystery Science Theater 3000 or that there is a Green Slime Award for the worst sci-fi film of the year, this was great. Sure, there is a ton that one can be critical about the film - the acting, the monsters, the special effects, the small white helmets - but it is packed with ideas and plots and has a great look to it. And a great poster. It is a co-production between MGM and Toei with MGM providing the script, the funding and the actors while Toei took on all the duties off the screen. They did the editing, the special effects, the cinematography, the set designs and the director. And the director wasn't just someone who was available - they chose Kinji Fukasaku, Admittedly, at the time Fukasaku wasn't the icon that he was to become within a few years, but he was well on his way. If you have seen many of the sci-fi films from Japan in the 1960s, this fits in just perfectly with Atragon, Terror Beneath the Sea and Dogora.



As soon as you see the launching pad with a rocket on it, you know immediately that the Japanese did the special effects. Though this isn't Toho, the special effects were created by someone who had studied under Eiji Tsuburaya. Their miniature models always have a clean bright appearance. They glisten. Some great miniature work here with the spacecraft and the space station. All clearly fake, but that is what makes them so great. Earth may soon be coming to an end. A giant asteroid of six million tons of rocks is hurtling for a rendezvous with the world. In ten hours, 7am the next day. It has to be blown up. Armageddon anyone? The man they pick to do so with a crew is the steel-jawed Rankin (Robert Horton). He is a dick, but probably the man to save the earth. He flies to the space station and drama breaks out. The station is headed by Elliot (Richard Jaeckel) and he and Rankin had a falling out over the lovely Lisa. Lisa is played by Luciana Paluzzi, a bit famous at the time from Thunderball - and that is her Italian accented voice we hear. Lisa was once engaged to Rankin, but now to Elliot - clearly dating co-workers was not a big deal back then.



Off Rankin and Elliot go to the asteroid and plant the bombs - and blow it up! Yay! Mission accomplished. Go home heroes. Except for one little thing. A splotch of green ooze is unnoticed on one of the uniforms. Back on the station that little bit of green jelly grows into an alien life form and begins killing with its electric tentacles. Alien anyone? It is the size of a postal mailbox, with numerous tentacles and a big red eye And they begin re-producing. Dozens of them and the crew frantically tries to survive. 90-minutes of fun. The Japanese version is less as it cuts out the threesome drama. I love the "monsters". They just want to survive as well.