I wonder if this movie has a following? It didn’t do much at the box office at all, but these things sometimes acquire a second life on video.
It’s not a particular favourite of mine, I recorded it mostly because of the list of directors, including John Landis and Joe Dante. And it’s got a fairly good cast. In fact, as the credits say, it stars ‘Lots of actors’.
Arsenio Hall plays a man whose apartment is trying to kill him. There’s some nice slapstick here.
Next is a woeful segment, in which a ‘Pethouse Plaything’ narrates her daily life, accompanied with film of her doing all these mundane things while completely naked. I guess, maybe it’s satire, but the most satirical thing about the whole segments is the phrase ‘Pethouse Plaything.’
Next, a segment about an old man who gets zapped into the TV by his remote control. Along the way he’s stuck in a Disney cartoon, and King Kong.
Next, A woman has just had a baby, and she and her husband want to see the baby – this being America where your baby is taken away from you and kept in a room with all the others, and you can only see them at certain times. I’ve never understood that. The couple are Michelle Pfeiffer
And Peter Horton
Griffin Dunne plays a very odd doctor who’s trying to hide the fact that the hospital has lost their baby.
Joe Pantoliano is selling a hair cure.
The actual Amazon Women on the Moon segment runs throughout the movie. It’s nice from a design point of view, with lots of nods towards classic Sci Fi. They even have Forrest J Ackerman playing the President of the United States.
David Alan Grier plays Don ‘No Soul’ Simmons in a public service announcement.
BB King hosts an appeal for Blacks Without Soul.
I like this segment, probably because it’s short enough not to outstay its welcome.
Steve Guttenberg is going on a blind date.
He thinks he’s hit the jackpot when he meets Rosanna Arquette. But she’s got a Date-Tel 1000, which gives her a readout of his previous dating history.
The next segment is Bullshit Or Not? Henry Silva investigates the Jack The Ripper story. “Here, in the West End of London”.
Nice Fake Newspaper
The startling truth is that Jack the Ripper was the Loch Ness Monster.
Archie Hahn plays a man who has his life reviewed by two TV movie reviewers. Which ends with him dropping dead.
This ties in with a later segment, featuring his funeral where he’s roasted by a panel of comics. Joe Dante favourite Robert Picardo plays the manager of the funeral home.
In Son of the Invisible Man Ed Begley Jr thinks he’s achieved invisibility, and demonstrates his power in a pub. Sadly, he’s wrong.
Ralph Bellamy plays a drugstore owner, as a young man tries to buy condoms.
Sybil Danning appears in Amazon Women on the Moon.
Marc McClure is looking for something to do on a Saturday Night
Russ Meyer plays the video store salesman who gives him a video date.
Andrew Dice Clay plays the video date’s angry boyfriend.
The last segment is Reckless Youth featuring Carrie Fisher
And Paul Bartel.
BBC Genome: BBC One – 8th August 1993 – 00:00
After this, there’s a trailer for Sunday night programmes.
A look at the weather follows, then David Allen wishes us all a good night, as BBC1 closes down.