Oblivion

DVD of the Week: the campy 1994 Oblivion

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There’s a big budget Hollywood movie named Oblivion opening this week.  I really enjoyed the original version, the sci fi spoof 1994 Oblivion, now available on DVD.    It is set in the year 3030 on the planet Oblivion, which strongly resembles a frontier town from a spaghetti Western, peppered with the occasional cyborg, ray gun and ATM machine.

Oblivion is intentionally campy, has a silly plot and lots of tongue-in-cheek dialogue.  The scene where the funeral is interrupted by the weekly bingo game upstairs is especially funny.  The cast seems to be having lots of fun with the material. Musetta Vander as the  rawhide whip-wielding dominatrix Lash and Carel Struycken as the death-forboding undertaker Gaunt are especially over-the-top good.  In addition, Julie Newmar plays a cougarish saloon proprietor, and Star Trek’s George Takei is the Jim Beam-swilling town doc.  Amazingly, Oblivion rated a 1996 sequel, Oblivion 2:  Backlash, in which most of the cast returned.

The first cowboys & aliens movie

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I really enjoyed the first cowboys and & aliens movie, the sci fi spoof 1994 Oblivion, now available on DVD.    It is set in the year 3030 on the planet Oblivion, which strongly resembles a frontier town from a spaghetti Western, peppered with the occasional cyborg, ray gun and ATM machine.

Oblivion is intentionally campy, has a silly plot and lots of tongue-in-cheek dialogue.  The scene where the funeral is interrupted by the weekly bingo game upstairs is especially funny.  The cast seems to be having lots of fun with the material. Musetta Vander as the  rawhide whip-wielding dominatrix Lash and Carel Struycken as the death-forboding undertaker Gaunt are especially over-the-top good.  In addition, Julie Newmar plays a cougarish saloon proprietor, and Star Trek’s George Takei is the Jim Beam-swilling town doc.  Amazingly, Oblivion rated a 1996 sequel, Oblivion 2:  Backlash, in which most of the cast returned.

I haven’t yet seen the $100 million summer blockbuster Cowboys & Aliens, which opens this weekend.  Cowboys & Aliens is set on the planet Earth, where Daniel Craig, playing a Clint Eastwoodesque Man With No Name, awakes with his memory erased by aliens and a futuristic bracelet.  Harrison Ford’s torch-bearing mounted lynch mob is interrupted by laser attack from an alien spaceship.  Saloon gal Olivia Wilde (House, The OC) is pulled into the sky by alien forces.  It takes itself much more seriously than does Oblivion, and I only hope that it’s half as entertaining as Oblivion.

Cowboys & Aliens gets a Super Bowl commercial

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The Super Bowl audience just got a glimpse of the newest genre mutant – a sci fi blended with a Western.  Universal recently released the trailer for its $100 million summer 2011 blockbuster Cowboys & Aliens.  In this article, the New York Times reports that the trailer’s first showing to a live audience evoked gales of laughter – but it’s not supposed to be a comedy.

According to the trailer, Harrison Ford’s torch-bearing mounted lynch mob is interrupted by laser attack from an alien spaceship.  Daniel Craig, playing a Clint Eastwoodesque Man With No Name, awakes with his memory erased by aliens and a futuristic bracelet.  Saloon gal Olivia Wilde (House, The OC) is pulled into the sky by alien forces.

It turns out that this isn’t the first Western with space aliens, although Oblivion aimed a lot lower. This 1994 schlockfest starred Andrew Divoff (as the alien Redeye), Richard Joseph Paul, Meg Foster, Isaac Hayes and Julie Newmar, with George Takei as the Jim Beam-swilling town doctor.  Amazingly, Oblivion rated a 1996 sequel, Oblivion 2:  Backlash.

Here’s the real trailer for Cowboys & Aliens.