1984 Directed by James Fargo
Aliens land in the mythical town of "Speelburgh, U.S.A" searching for the source of rock & roll. What they find is a gang of teenagers, led by Dee Dee and Frankie, along with Frankie's posse/rock band, the Pack. The leader of the aliens takes a shine to Dee Dee and all sorts of trouble breaks out.
Pia Zadora Craig Sheffer Ruth Gordon Tom Nolan Michael Berryman Alison La Placa Gregory Bond Craig Quiter Patrick Byrnes Marc Jackson Jeffrey Casey Jimmy Haddox Marshall Rohner Jeffrey Cranford Troy Mack Peter Stelzer Wallace Merck Spyder Mittleman G. Kelly Moore Pete Munro Herschel Rice Ralph Pace Madonna Christian Rudy Goldschmidt Kenneth Livingston Taylor Dennon Rawles Michael Rooney Richard Sullivant Jac McAnelly Show All…
Charles Grenzbach Julia Evershade Ron Judkins Anna Boorstin Richard D. Rogers John Wilkinson Lorie O'Shatz
Attack of the Aliens, Attack of the Rock 'n' Roll Aliens, Rock Aliens
There are now two phases of my life: before rock aliens and after rock aliens. B.R.A. and A.R.A. I'll never be the same.
Some of these songs grate worse than New Wave Rockabilly, and I'm too young to remember who Pia Zadora was or why we should care, but I loved the nonstop music video assault and cartoon crazy touches like a robot who turns into a fire hydrant and a polluted Great Lake with a sea monster! Voyage of the Rock Aliens beams down good time silly fun from start to finish. How can anyone hate a movie featuring Jermaine Jackson as the leader of some future punk gang, a dance number with underwear tangled feet beneath bathroom stalls, and sub-DEVO gobbeldeygook music about riding a tractor? AMAZING!
No stars can reflect this one but it does have Ruth Gordon as a sheriff who says “Let’s get Wet!”
I can't dislike a movie that has this many hollow new wave flavoured musical numbers. The heroically disliked Pia Zadora (I guess I had to be there) is charming as the bubbly non-teen who is pulled between a DEVO alien and the guy from NIGHTBREED (rocking a leather jacket with no shirt). It's formless and seems to have a dozen endings, but even beyond the music, there are some solid ZAZ-style gags. Michael Berryman plays a chainsaw-wielding psycho.
Very much enjoy the fact that this was co-directed by a hack who did Clint Eastwood films. Gotta pay off that mortgage!
Every so often, I see a movie that I can't wait to watch again, and that I can't wait to show to other people. Voyage of the Rock Aliens is one of those, and I'm amazed that I've never heard of this movie before.
This movie has everything, it's set in the 80s with some retro elements (beyond Ruth Gordon), aliens, rock music, and a few other things I'm not mentioning specifically to avoid the spoilers (which is why this is covered to the things in the title). In particular, the music here is some of the best music that I've seen in a film; there's an odd thing about how many of the songs vaguely remind me of other…
"hey you little grease monkey, how would you like to tickle my carburetor?"
sci-fi rock musical from James Fargo, director of The Enforcer, finds a weird middle ground between The Apple and Rock N' Roll High School that maybe probably shouldn't exist - the bright pink, studded uniforms of the aliens are like Lisa Frank meets Rob Halford, the songs are surprisingly catchy and Michael Berryman plays an escaped mental patient named Chainsaw who lives up to his namesake; this clearly has no intended audience, but that's very much to its benefit
I never knew I needed a sci-fi rock musical in my life but apparently I did. Voyage of the Rock Aliens is an highly idiosyncratic film directed by James Fargo who crafts inventive, whacked-out music numbers in the style of the videos you’d see on MTV at the time*. Clearly, Fargo saw this as his magnum opus; it’s loaded with passion and intentionality, no matter how wacky it gets.
Want proof?
The rock aliens pilot a gigantic spaceship resembling a guitar made popular by 80s hair metal bands. The ship also serves as narrator, orienting the audience during the opening of the film.
Then before the audience can fully comprehend the ship is serving as narrator, they’re treated to a…
"IS IT A BIRD? IS IT A PLANE? NO, IT'S A ROCK ALIEN!"
Where has Voyage of the Rock Aliens been all my life dang! This was a glorious 80s spectacle of cheesy goodness! A mesmerizing mash up of a sci-fi/teen comedy/new wave music video it's quite the ambitious slab of gratuitous 80s excess. Constantly blasted with colourful visuals, catchy tunes and campy sci-fi nonsense it fires on all cylinders. I was singing along, laughing and crying with joy all at once!
The plot...oh boy the plot. Let me see if I get this right. A group of new wave aliens are travelling through space, searching for the essence of rock n' roll. They stumble upon the small town of…
Pia Zadora dances through an entire musical number with her hands in her pockets.
The words "And Ruth Gordon as The Sheriff" appear on screen in the first 20 seconds.
And for once, a fire hydrant pisses on a dog.
This is a whole religion.
Holy crap why isn’t this crap playing in rep theaters every weekend?!?
80’s kitsch, a singing Pia Zadora, a bunch of DEVO-esque alien dudes, multiple bad musical numbers, Ruth Gordon as a cop, dueling rock bands, Michael Berryman with a chainsaw, NIGHTBREED’s Craig Sheffer as the bad guy, more bad 80’s tropes…what more do you need?
Bad in the best way (over drinks on a Friday night).
When I was 12 years old back in 1984, during the height of popularity for all things Jacksons, I saw a late-night music video show that premiered “When the Rain Begins to Fall”, a duet between Jermaine Jackson and Pia Zadora. My adolescent self thought that the song was cool in its own right, but I was most impressed with the visuals, which featured Jackson and Zadora as rival gang members who, Romeo and Juliet style, fall into a doomed romance. I saw that video once, and only once, before it dropped off the face of the Earth altogether.
I was today years old when I learned that this music video for “When the Rain Begins to Fall” was spliced,…
An alien rock band searches for the source of rock 'n' roll on earth but the band leader becomes too attached to a small-town girl called Dee Dee.
If you were to look up in a dictionary the definition of the "Eighties" you will most likely find a link to this movie that is free to view on YouTube. It's the most eighties that ever eightiesed. Glam, Rock 'n' Roll, techno-rock and power ballads galore grace the screen in this wild musical B-movie trip.
The start of the film is a hot mess as they get some contractual obligations out of the way by throwing in a random music video with one of the Jackson brothers in the mix. After…
Happy UFO day everyone!🛸👽
Yeah, yeah. I know. That was yesterday but I think I need a whole week as I vote for fair medical treatment for all under ...aliens. It's probably a lot safer, and like, at least I only have forced visitation with the gross little shits like once every three years or so, I think? I am not sure how alien human hybrid rights works actually but it's got to be a lot better than human forced birth policies? Idk. I don't have enough energy or mental wellness to understand how these things work tbh so
But this is not the pro choice review! I am too terrified/depressed for that so I'm giving it a week or…
