So Bad, But Entertaining

When I was nosing around T.J. Maxx in San Jose a couple of weeks ago, I came upon their bargain DVD rack, where I saw a set called the “SCI-FI Collection” containing two DVDs of black-and-white “classic” films. I bought it.

Volume 10 (somehow I never in my life have run across Volumes 1-9) contained two “classic” sci-fi movies – “Battle Beyond the Sun” and “Assignment: Outer Space.” Volume 11 contained two more “classics” – “Atom Age Vampire” and “The Atomic Brain.”

I actually had seen one of these before. I remember going to a theater in the ‘60s and watching “Battle Beyond the Sun.” It’s a Russian movie with dubbed-in English dialog. The space ship’s logo kind of shimmers, giving away the fact that they digitally replaced Cyrillic words with a non-Russian name.

The acting in all these was so bad that it was funny. Instead of becoming bored to tears (and no one would ever blame me for that), I found myself smiling and chuckling.

I won’t bore you with details on plots. Suffice to say that the screenwriters sure were reaching when they were writing the screenplays. Production-wise, the pacing was bad, the lighting was horrible, the editing left a lot to be desired, and the special effects were absolutely hilarious or non-existent.

You’ll notice I have been putting the word “classic” in quotes. That’s THEIR choice of words, not mine. Old, yes. Classic, no.

But y’know what? The entire set cost me only $3.99. I think I got at least triple my money’s worth of off-the-wall entertainment that I didn’t quite expect.

Sometimes, things just work out that way. (Hmmm, I wonder where I can find Volumes 1-9 …)