Review of Laserblast (1978) by Josh G — 30 Dec 2008

Without the aid of MST3K, I think that Laserblast would still be funny... although there are long stretches of the movie that would likely just drag.

The story is about a kid named Billy who happens to run across a strange alien laser gun while out sobbing in the desert. Once he figures out how to use the weapon (it takes a good five minutes of the movie), he spends another ten minutes blowing things up -- trees, rocks, whatever is around. The majority of the movie's budget had to have been spent on these special effects. There are times when things are blown up later in the movie, wherein the explosion is shown four or five times.

The gun has an adverse effect on Billy, turning him into a zombie-like homicidal maniac, the sort that goes on killing sprees with a laser gun in an effort to eradicate everybody who ever done him wrong, e.g. the doctor (Roddy McDowall) who removed a piece of metal from his chest.

Meanwhile, we have some claymation turtle-aliens who are trying to find Billy in order to... to what? Their story isn't clear at all until the unbelievably abrupt ending.

All in all, it's a hilarious flick. Including one of the most insane and confused storylines ever put to film, and some horrendous editing (there is a camera rig clearly visible on the side of Billy's van at one point)... this was already a movie that was so bad it's good. But thanks to Mike, Crow, and Tom Servo, it became one of the funniest movies I've ever seen.

What a terrible, awesome film.

P.S. I really want to give the movie 2 1/2 stars, as Leonard Maltin apparently did. But my conscious won't let me. Sorry.