This enjoyable 1964 Bryon Haskins directed sci-fi retelling of the classic Daniel Defoe story is re-released on dual formats is the story of Commander Christopher ‘Kit’ Draper (Paul Mantee) along with Colonel Dan McReady (Adam West) and their pet monkey Mona (The Woolly Monkey) while on a Mars orbiting recon mission are then suddenly on a collision course with a meteorite.
The team are then forced to burn up all their fuel in order to get out of the meteorite’s way and they have to eject from the ship in escape pods. Draper and Mona survive the descent while the Commander discovers MccReady's body, leaving him alone on the red planet trying to survive in order to get home.
“Robinson Crusoe on Mars” screenplay by IB Melchior (who wrote the story used as the basis of Death Race 2000) and John Higgins takes Mantee’s Commander a pretty well imagined look of Mars it would be a further 12 years at the time before we’d see the “Total Recall” red planet (mostly filmed in Death Valley) Kit can breath on his own for 15 minutes of he doesn't exert himself.
The impressive use of stunningly detailed background matte paintings paired with the foreground moments such as the abandoned spaceship Mars Gravity Probe 1 orbiting overhead and flaming meteors crashing out of the sky. This is probably the only time that I wanted to see more of Adam West in a movie he's set up as a possible lead in the films opening,the discovery of his body and a hallucination by Kit that's all we get from the future Batman.
The Commander is a resourceful man finding shelter, flammable rocks to create oxygen for him to and edible plants he overcomes each challenge with humour which effectively balances the dangers Kit faces Mantee is very charismatic as the lead especially in the scenes with Mona and raises a few laughs when he plays homemade bagpipes whilst hiking across Mars’ rugged landscape.
He soon too finds friendship when Friday (Victor Lundin) on the run from alien slave-masters who mining the planet for minerals playing a protracted game of hide and seek from his captors who never leave their spaceships zipping around at hyper speed these crafts are from George Pal’s The War of the Worlds while the spacesuits were from Destination Moon while Kit is desperately trying to make contact with a ship circling the planet.
On its release in 1964 it failed at the box office but “Robinson Crusoe on Mars” it's a charming & vibrant family friendly survivalist sci-fi tale that's in the same vein of “I am Legend” and this year's monster hit Ridley Scott’s “The Martian” a perfectly timed release from Eureka.
The widescreen 1080P transfer disc for Robinson Crusoe on Mars contains the trailer, an informative but dry Audio Commentary with Academy Award winning visual effects artist Robert Skotak (Aliens) and moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures talking about his career along with the production history of Robinson Crusoe on Mars .
The team are then forced to burn up all their fuel in order to get out of the meteorite’s way and they have to eject from the ship in escape pods. Draper and Mona survive the descent while the Commander discovers MccReady's body, leaving him alone on the red planet trying to survive in order to get home.
“Robinson Crusoe on Mars” screenplay by IB Melchior (who wrote the story used as the basis of Death Race 2000) and John Higgins takes Mantee’s Commander a pretty well imagined look of Mars it would be a further 12 years at the time before we’d see the “Total Recall” red planet (mostly filmed in Death Valley) Kit can breath on his own for 15 minutes of he doesn't exert himself.
The impressive use of stunningly detailed background matte paintings paired with the foreground moments such as the abandoned spaceship Mars Gravity Probe 1 orbiting overhead and flaming meteors crashing out of the sky. This is probably the only time that I wanted to see more of Adam West in a movie he's set up as a possible lead in the films opening,the discovery of his body and a hallucination by Kit that's all we get from the future Batman.
The Commander is a resourceful man finding shelter, flammable rocks to create oxygen for him to and edible plants he overcomes each challenge with humour which effectively balances the dangers Kit faces Mantee is very charismatic as the lead especially in the scenes with Mona and raises a few laughs when he plays homemade bagpipes whilst hiking across Mars’ rugged landscape.
He soon too finds friendship when Friday (Victor Lundin) on the run from alien slave-masters who mining the planet for minerals playing a protracted game of hide and seek from his captors who never leave their spaceships zipping around at hyper speed these crafts are from George Pal’s The War of the Worlds while the spacesuits were from Destination Moon while Kit is desperately trying to make contact with a ship circling the planet.
On its release in 1964 it failed at the box office but “Robinson Crusoe on Mars” it's a charming & vibrant family friendly survivalist sci-fi tale that's in the same vein of “I am Legend” and this year's monster hit Ridley Scott’s “The Martian” a perfectly timed release from Eureka.
The widescreen 1080P transfer disc for Robinson Crusoe on Mars contains the trailer, an informative but dry Audio Commentary with Academy Award winning visual effects artist Robert Skotak (Aliens) and moderated by Michael Felsher of Red Shirt Pictures talking about his career along with the production history of Robinson Crusoe on Mars .
RSS Feed
