romanorum1 The movie's setting is 2001, when according to the opening monologue, "the planet earth is no longer racked by wars and threats of annihilation. Man has learned to live with himself." Really? A bit optimistic there! Anyway, the United Nations, the world's governing body (Yikes!), has undertaken missions to determine if life exists on the planets of the solar system. So far there has been no luck. The current rocket mission is to explore the surface of planet Uranus (pronounced as Ur-ah-nus), which has a cloud-top temperature of 200° Centigrade. After all, it's almost 1.8 billion miles from the sun! It emits a "strange radiation" and is not very dense, being composed of ammonia and methane. These facts do not faze the five men in a rocket ship who seem to land in a forest (actually an icy surface). It is obvious that little or no pre-landing preparation was accomplished, for there were no orbiting satellites, no unmanned probe, and no specific information gathering. Ah, details, details . . .After boring dialogue that consumes nearly one-half of the picture, the explorers finally depart their spacecraft with their rubber suits and headgear. They find weird happenings, like green plants that do not belong there; they lack root systems. Houses and windmills automatically appear when the spacemen think about them. It seems that the planet is using mind control to dominate the spacemen. The memories of the men are used to format illusions instead of the realities of the planet. They include the Danish pastries, er, alluring earth women who do not really exist on Ur-ah-nus. When Captain Graham (John Agar) is rescued after sinking in a quicksand-like substance (ammonia snow particles), he says rather haltingly, "I . . . am . . . glad . . . you were here . . . to pull me out." "Be careful," the boss wisely utters. The men do encounter a one-eyed Allosaurus – they think it's a rodent. It seems that one of the crew has a fear of rats. "That's it," utters the commander, "Our deepest and greatest fears are being dug up by our subconscious by whatever the power is out there and pitted against us!" The novice astronaut chimes in that it is not only the fears that are used but also the desires (cute chicks) as part of mind control. Oh, the tension! What to do?Before long the space heroes are smooching on the Danish pastries (Ingrid, Greta, Ann, Mimi). But time is running out for them to blast off from their optimum orbital position. If they miss it there will not be enough fuel to return to earth. Oh, the horror! Then they encounter other oddities, like the giant tarantula. They soon (not soon enough) encounter the telepathic Big Eye-on-Brain, which is exposed without any covering! Big Eye's sinister plan is to conquer the earth (HA HA HA HA HA). "You will submit, and I shall possess you." Oh, the pressure! Can they stop this maniacal alien? The ludicrous ending will not be revealed here. Darn!Directed and produced by the incomparable Sid Pink, who gave us "The Angry Red Planet" (1959) and "Reptilicus" (1961), this Danish honey was made on the cheap ($75,000). Filming could not have taken more than a few weeks. It shows: wretched dubbing, laughable dialogue, wooden acting, cheap sets, and meager production values. The film was sent to American International, who reportedly made several special effects changes before the American distribution to theaters. So aging is not an issue with this stinker, as it was awful at the very beginning! Hard to believe it was even worse than it is! John Agar, that creature from Earth, made such films as "Tarantula" (1955), "The Brain from Planet Arous" (1957), and "Attack of the Puppet People" (1958). Surprisingly he is only the second-in-command here. The other actors are better left unnamed.

AaronCapenBanner John Agar, who costarred with John Wayne in John Ford directed films, then became a staple in Universal Studios Sci-Fi films of the '50's, now finds himself playing Capt. Don Graham, who leads a UN expedition to explore the hostile planet Uranus, and discovers a strange place where they seem to encounter people from their past, only to discover that a giant pulsating brain is behind it all, and must be defeated if they are to escape, and save the Earth.Denmark produced film is a bit better than "Reptilicus"(the same director) but is still a tacky and silly film. If filmed in black & white as an episode of "The Twilight Zone", this might have worked, but at feature length it's a bust.

zetes Journey to the Seventh Planet (Sidney W. Pink, 1962) - Kind of a piece of crap, but, damn, it's an amusing piece of crap with some good ideas. It's not entirely its fault that the filmmakers had no money (and little talent), and, besides, its cheapness gives it some additional amusement.So these guys are journeying to the seventh planet. Hmmm. Let's see: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, um...Yes, it's an expedition to explore Uranus. I'm curious as to whether the big joke with Uranus was the same back then. I think the British pronounce it with a short "a" sound, with the emphasis on the third syllable. It seems to me then that the joke would change from "your anus" to "urine us". Not quite as funny, but I'm sure British school boys still titter at it. This film, a US/Danish co-production, gets around the gag by pronouncing it "Yer-ah-nus", a pronunciation which I do not believe is acceptable anywhere.Deep within Uranus, they discover a sentient creature which can control the astronauts' minds, and also has the ability to reproduce the astronauts' greatest fears and desires as physical objects. It produces stop-motion dinosaurs and stock footage tarantulas to attack the astronauts. It also produces their left-behind-on-Earth loved ones to distract them from their mission. This is reminiscent of Stanislaw Lem's novel Solaris, which was published the year before (and it's very doubtful anyone involved with this film had read it by then). The film also has a lot of similarities with Star Trek. Star Trek's biggest inspiration is probably Forbidden Planet, but the astronauts, the nature of their mission, and the Earth they've left behind are even more Trek-like than Forbidden Planet.Again, this is not a good movie by any means. But if you're a fan of B sci-fi, this I'd probably categorize as a must-see. I really want to see some of Sydney Pink's other films now. Hell, the title Reptilicus sells itself, doesn't it? I also want to mention Journey to the Seventh Planet ends with the most ludicrous lounge-singer end credits song ever

bensonmum2 Searching for life on another planet, a group of astronauts stumble on a virtual utopia when they arrive on Uranus. "Virtual" being the key word, however, as nothing is real. Uranus is inhabited by a strange creature capable of taking the thoughts of the astronauts and bringing their dreams and desires to life. But this being has plans beyond Uranus that include the conquest of Earth.Journey to the Seventh Planet is a real mixed bag. Filmed in Denmark by would-be auteur Sidney Pink, Journey to the Seventh Planet has some interesting ideas behind its plot, but it suffers from poor execution. On the positive side, the idea of a creature that uses its victims' thoughts against them as a weapon might not be new, but here it's handled in an interesting manner. I liked the way the creature brings up childhood memories and crushes in an attempt to lull the head astronaut into a false sense of security. Or the way the creature keeps throwing woman after woman at the womanizer played by John Agar. Unfortunately though, the negatives far outweigh these positives. First there's Pink's weak direction. The film suffers from poor pacing and too many scenes with nothing much going on. I blame Pink's direction for making the movie un-fun (if that's a word). Second, there are the terrible special effects. Sometimes when watching a low budget movie like Journey to the Seventh Planet, I'll find the low budget effects charming. Not here. These are just low budget effects. Next, other than Agar, I'm not familiar with any of these Danish actors. But I feel somewhat confident that their anonymity is due to their acting ability and not their nationality. Also, I'm usually a John Agar fan and supporter, but Journey to the Seventh Planet might be one of his weakest performances I've seen. It's way below average for him. Finally, there's the dubbing. I've seen enough foreign genre films that dubbing usually doesn't bother me. But here, it's just weird. Everything seems exaggeratedly slow because of the bizarre sounding dubbing. Really distracting. So, in summary – a few good ideas undone by poor production values, weak direction, below par acting, and lousy dubbing. A 4/10 is about the best I can give Journey to the Seventh Planet.