Amazon Women on the Moon

Contrary to popular rumor, this 1987 collection of comedy skits is not about a group of female employees from Amazon.com on a mission to the lunar surface. It's a series of unrelated spoofs and sketches designed to resemble an aimless night of TV channel-surfing, and the satirical targets include grade-Z science fiction films of the 1950s, sex films of the 1930s, hospital soap operas, and Playboy video centerfolds. There's a charity drive in which legendary bluesman B.B. King pleas for donations to help "Blacks Without Soul," and Ed Begley Jr. thinks he's the son of the Invisible Man, which would be fine if he weren't as visible as everyone else. The various sketches feature an all-star cast including Rosanna Arquette, Griffin Dunne, Carrie Fisher, Michelle Pfeiffer, the late Phil Hartman in an early role, and many others. It's strictly hit-or-miss, and many of the sketches fall flat, especially since the subjects being spoofed (the title sketch is a send-up of the actual 1954 movie Cat Women on the Moon) are funny enough without being satirized. Even though Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide describes most of the sketches as "astonishingly unfunny," this can be a very amusing movie if you're in the mood for a no-brainer with a lot of familiar Hollywood faces. Now a modest little cult film, it's the kind of disposable entertainment that maintains its appeal almost in spite of itself. --Jeff Shannon

The 1987 portmanteau comedy feature Amazon Women on the Moon lampoons several film genres in general and the 1954 sci-fi cheapie Cat Women of the Moon in particular. Other sketches in Amazon Women include an opening bit with Arsenio Hall; a vignette titled "Son of the Invisible Man" wherein a naked Ed Begley Jr. runs around in full view of the nonplussed supporting cast; the It's Alive parody "Hospital", which offers the spectacle of Michelle Pfeiffer giving birth to Mr. Potato Head; and a Siskel & Ebert takeoff, featuring Arche Hahn as a TV viewer whose entire life is given a "thumbs down." Directed by several hands, including Joe Dante, Carl Gottleib, Peter Horton, John Landis, and Robert K. Weiss, Amazon Women on the Moon also features a satire of the Kroger G. Babb school of "sex hygiene" exploitation cheapies, with syphilis victim Carrie Fisher being counseled by unctuous doctor Paul Bartel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

• Side #1 --

Side #1 --
0. Amazon Women On The Moon
1. Main Title; "Mondo Condo" [5:45]
2. Penthouse Video [2:01]
3. Murray in Videoland [3:27]
4. Hospital [5:01]
5. Hairlooming [1:06]
6. Amazon Women on the Moon [3:28]
7. Blacks Without Soul [1:48]
8. Two I.D.'s [6:03]
9. Bullshit or Not [2:41]
10. Critic's Corner [4:23]
11. Amazon Women on the Moon - Part 2 [2:34]
12. Silly Pat [:54]
13. Roast Your Loved One [8:59]
14. Don "No Soul" Simmons [2:06]
15. Video Pirates [2:01]
16. Son of the Invisible Man [3:59]
17. Amazon Women on the Moon - Part 3 [2:38]
18. Art Sale [1:44]
19. First Lady of the Evening [1:20]
20. Titan Man [5:04]
21. Amazon Women on the Moon - Part 4 [3:42]
22. Video Date [4:39]
23. End Credits [1:59]
24. Reckless Youth [7:05]