Prince of Space (1959)

With a title like "Prince of Space" you know it's not going to be Gone With The Wind or The Treasure of Sierra Madre. The special effects are terrible, the writing (at least in the American dub) is laughable and the villains look hilarious with their fake noses. Phantom of Krankor is probably the worst and most ineffective movie villain ever. You almost feel sorry for him. Prince of Space tells him maybe five or six times that his weapons have no effect on him, but Phantom just won't listen. We never feel like Prince of Space (or the planet) is in any real danger.For some reason, the krankorians look like birds. And the Krankorians' space ship looks exactly like a fried chicken. One of the funniest parts is at the beginning, where the children first see the spaceship on TV, and one of them says something like: "is it a commercial?" And the other one replies: "it can't be a toy commercial, because that looks like a real spaceship!" Ha...ha...ha...ha...!The krankorians also have a seriously frightening monster that guards their HQ. It looks like a giant pig mixed with a bat and breathes fire. I wonder how many kids were traumatized by that scene. The scariest thing is that the villains forgot to wear underpants.It's not a very good movie, but I have to admit that I kind of liked it. It's a fun movie to watch on a Saturday night. And to be honest, I would rather watch this three times in a row than any of the new Transformers movies.

Prince of Space is made by a filmmaker I've never heard of with a cast that I'll probably never see in any other movie. As one of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 guys comments "it's one of Godzilla's days off." But for what it's worth, Prince of Space is a lot of fun, in the most undeniably cheesy way possible, like cheese-balls or cheese-whiz out of can with Mr. Sparkle on the cover. It's about aliens landing on Earth, taking some scientists, and plotting destruction- but Prince of Space, in an outfit designed by a blind leper, will come to the rescue! Granted, this is, in all intents and purposes from its home planet, or country, a kids movie. The kids are obviously the heroes for the little ones watching it, or would've watched it back in the 50s. It features space-ships made out of plastic spoons, blaster guns that showcasing the finest of Japanese special effects of the period (sorry for the sarcasm, it's deserved), and has an unlikely cheery ending.The recommendation I would give- in a sort of classic bad-B-movie way, comes also by way of it being available through MSTK3. It's a little like a trade-off with a movie like this, which is pleasant. Instead of the only pleasure being derived by the wisecracks, puns, pop-culture references, brief sing-along, and the occasional "when will this movie frigging end" looks on a movie that is bad in an irredeemable way ala Monster-a-go-go, this has the laughs coming at both sides. You might laugh at the stupid noses of the aliens, or Prince of Space's costume itself, or at some random, stupid line "you're weapons cannot defeat me!", or at the commentary track. It makes for a fun viewing, even if the movie in and of itself has no artistic reason for being aside from a cheap cash-in on sci-fi flicks for kids. It's like eating a box of extra sugary cereal from a company that's about to go bankrupt- and with Tom Servo, Crow and Mike Nelson at the helm on the sidelines!

...was how Crow described "Yusei oji" (called "Prince of Space" in English) when Pearl made him, Mike and Servo watch it on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". Full of ridiculous dialog and obviously phony sets, it's easily one of the most laughable movies that they ever had to watch. The plot centers on a race of aliens trying to take over Earth, but a good guy from outer space comes and saves the world. Conveniently, their weapons have no effect on him (he even notes this several times).So, the movie alone is a total stinker, but the "MST3K" version is 10/10. You're sure to like it.

This is an example of a horrible move the, that is so terrible it's good. It was on my 2nd favorite show Mystery Science Theater 3000(MST3K) (1st fav: Smallville). On that show they make fun of B-movies and it was just ridiculously funny. One of the best parts was when the plane was crashing and the man was "Panicking" and swaying his head from side to side. And you know how when flying a jet you have the oxygen mask? Well it looked like Ray bands, so then the MST3K people started to sing Stevie Wonder "Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful?" and my cousin fell off the sofa laughing. But that was just ONE of the hilarious parts of the movie.