Film Year: 1951
Genre: Science Fiction
Director: Lesley SelanderStarring: Marguerite Chapman, Cameron Mitchell, Arthur Franz
Rifftrax Year: 2016
Riffers: Matthew J. Elliott, Ian Potter
The Movie
What's this? Another space movie starring Space Mutiny star Cameron Mitchell? Why yes! I think I'll watch that!
Recycling sets from Rocketship X-M and costumes from Destination Moon, Flight to Mars is yet another space travel movie about the future of the 1950's seeking to explore the stars. This group of scientists crash land on Mars and find themselves trapped there. Luckily the human-looking Martians taken them in and help them repair their ship. They however have an ulterior motive of recreating the ship and plan an exodus from Mars to Earth.
Those who read my Rocketship X-M review know I'm no Rocketship X-M fan. I point this out so anybody who reads this knows that when I say I'd rather watch Rocketship X-M than Flight to Mars, they know I really mean it. At least things happen in Rocketship X-M. Semi-interesting things too. Flight to Mars, if you pardon the pun, just never takes off. It's dull in the beginning before the launch, after the launch it continues to be dull, and when the promise of Martian civilization exploration and conflict happens...it decides to be dull instead. Nothing really happens in this movie, which is something I never would have expected to say about a journey to Mars movie. I mean, Red Planet at least had a killer robot.
The one thing I can really say about this movie is that technicolor does suit the rocketship genre well, and they use it to show off some lovely ladies in short-skirted space uniforms. Unfortunately the palette of the film is so muted that the fact that it's filmed in color seems like a total waste.
Recycling sets from Rocketship X-M and costumes from Destination Moon, Flight to Mars is yet another space travel movie about the future of the 1950's seeking to explore the stars. This group of scientists crash land on Mars and find themselves trapped there. Luckily the human-looking Martians taken them in and help them repair their ship. They however have an ulterior motive of recreating the ship and plan an exodus from Mars to Earth.
Those who read my Rocketship X-M review know I'm no Rocketship X-M fan. I point this out so anybody who reads this knows that when I say I'd rather watch Rocketship X-M than Flight to Mars, they know I really mean it. At least things happen in Rocketship X-M. Semi-interesting things too. Flight to Mars, if you pardon the pun, just never takes off. It's dull in the beginning before the launch, after the launch it continues to be dull, and when the promise of Martian civilization exploration and conflict happens...it decides to be dull instead. Nothing really happens in this movie, which is something I never would have expected to say about a journey to Mars movie. I mean, Red Planet at least had a killer robot.
The one thing I can really say about this movie is that technicolor does suit the rocketship genre well, and they use it to show off some lovely ladies in short-skirted space uniforms. Unfortunately the palette of the film is so muted that the fact that it's filmed in color seems like a total waste.
The Trax
Matthew J. Elliot and Ian Potter get their "strap on" in the cockpit of this space flight and take this Flight to Mars. Elliot and Potter are reliably funny here. Unfortunately the primary flaw of this riff is the movie selected, which just wears the viewer down. It admittedly took several sittings to just finish the bland film to type this review, though the riffers did keep me laughing.
Matthew and Ian at the very least are in tune to making fun of the movie's aesthetic, so even if there's nothing interesting going on on-screen they'll at least chime in with something funny about the way it's set up. They get some good chuckles at the Martian uniforms, while there are some creative jabs at the scenery I didn't expect, such as a radio broadcast declaring the launch of the rocket next to a model of the rocket itself, prompting the riff of "Reports suggest that it may be fired off of a desk next to a radio speaker!"
Probably the biggest laugh of the riff happens about halfway through when there is nothing interesting going on (natch), and Matthew and Ian take a good long while setting up a ghost story about how the set was haunted by the ghost of a hand model. All of this is to simply lead up to a blooper of a crewman's hand accidentally being in the shot, and when it happens the riffers scream in horror. I lost my shit for a good five minutes after that.
Flight to Mars brings the funny, but the movie is just too boring for the format. If you tune into the laughs more than the film this riff is worth getting, though people who are eager to see a cheesy rocketship movie on top of that will probably not be very enthused by this product.
Matthew and Ian at the very least are in tune to making fun of the movie's aesthetic, so even if there's nothing interesting going on on-screen they'll at least chime in with something funny about the way it's set up. They get some good chuckles at the Martian uniforms, while there are some creative jabs at the scenery I didn't expect, such as a radio broadcast declaring the launch of the rocket next to a model of the rocket itself, prompting the riff of "Reports suggest that it may be fired off of a desk next to a radio speaker!"
Probably the biggest laugh of the riff happens about halfway through when there is nothing interesting going on (natch), and Matthew and Ian take a good long while setting up a ghost story about how the set was haunted by the ghost of a hand model. All of this is to simply lead up to a blooper of a crewman's hand accidentally being in the shot, and when it happens the riffers scream in horror. I lost my shit for a good five minutes after that.
Flight to Mars brings the funny, but the movie is just too boring for the format. If you tune into the laughs more than the film this riff is worth getting, though people who are eager to see a cheesy rocketship movie on top of that will probably not be very enthused by this product.
Good
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