Evil Brain from Outer Space (1966)

This hilariously stupid film was edited together from three episodes of "Supa Jaiantsu," a Japanese TV show about an extraterrestrial superhero called Starman. (Funny, he doesn't look Jewish.) Balazar (sp?), the evil leader of the planet Zumeria (again, I'm guessing at the spelling) has been killed, but his brain was kept alive and plans to add the Earth to the Zumerian empire. He will do so by arming his soldiers with nuclear weapons and dispatching the mutants created by Zumerian scientists. In response, the high council of alien leaders (from their base on the Emerald Planet) orders Starman to Earth to stop the invasion and destroy Balazar's brain.From there, we get a lot of strangely choreographed fight scenes that I swear have a "West Side Story" groove to them. These scenes show the Zumerians to be a bunch of wimps. All Starman has to do is kick a few butts, and the Zumerian soldiers flee for their lives. The mutants-- who I've nicknamed "The Radioactive-Steam Breather" and "Hawkwoman"--were so damned silly-looking, I laughed uproariously when they first appeared on-screen. And the high council looks as zany as any gathering of low-budget aliens you'll ever see.Starman is a rather stodgy, uncharismatic superhero. If you played a drinking game based on how many times he changes facial expressions, you would die of thirst. Not to mention Starman's preposterous costume, which gives him a male camel toe that enters the room before he himself does.When the Zumerians "disguise" themselves as Earth people (by dressing like Humphrey Bogart), we're told they paid for their food and clothes by robbing banks. Why they didn't just steal the food and clothing directly is anyone's guess. That's just one of many sub-plots the film introduces and just as quickly abandons. (Tommy Wiseau must have been taking notes.)Still, this is a piece of entertainment made for Japanese children some 50-odd years ago. Its utter stupidity and silliness have endeared it to me. THE EVIL BRAIN FROM OUTER SPACE is 78 minutes of mindless fun that I likely will watch again someday.

I got this film in the Pure Terror 50 Movie Pack - which is suppose to be all horror films. Why this film is in the Pure Terror horror pack I'll never know. This film is pure science fiction action. It would be better off acquired in a sci-f film pack. LOL. I'm not complaining though because this is a weird but fun sci-fi film.This one is childish but so much fun. If you like the older superhero TV shows and films then you might like this movie. The alien is more like a superhero than anything else.I have to say this film is awful in a good way. It's corny enough to keep sci-fi and superhero fans entertained - fans of the older or classic films/shows.4/10

The film joyfully reuses the same shots of fight scenes from early in the picture later, as if one is not supposed to recall them. Regardless, I still wonder about some of the characters who appear within the film, then disappear after they have served what ever purpose they were created to serve. There are several evil doctors, a lab assistant that steals the brain in the film's opening shots, a few local detectives from the Tokyo Police Department, but, most of all, an exceptionally nerdy pair of siblings- a four-eyed nerd girl about ten years of age, and her eight year or so old snotty little brother-forerunner to the baseball cap wearing little punks of the Godzilla series. After the boy, naturally, penetrates the impenetrable defenses of the bumbling Zimarians, and is finally seen, we see him run away, get a cut, because the denouement has obviously been left on the cutting room floor, and then never see his, nor his nerdy sister's, sorry little asses again.Still, watching Starman battle the same idiotic henchmen- who never swarm en masse, but wait to go one on one with the clearly stronger superhero, is a hoot; no matter how many times the exact same shots are recycled. But, are you telling me that, fifty years ago, they couldn't have forced Utsui to wear an undershirt beneath his costume. After all, areolae are not that….well, you get the point. I guess that's all one could expect for a film that clocks in at less than twenty cents to see. Still, the lone disappointment with the film had to be the fact that Starman never got a chance to make 'nice' with any of the handful of attractive young Japanese babes on hand. It's simply not fair to leave such allure in the air, and then not consummate it. I'd have to give this film a slight recommendation, if only for its silly camp value, and inoffensive mind-numbing. That's still better than the majority of superhero films today. Areola power!

Keep in mind that the last movie I saw and reviewed just before this one was "Gone With The Wind". I can't really say why I watch stuff like "Evil Brain From Outer Space", I guess it's a need to achieve some kind of balance. What surprised me right off the bat was that this was a Japanese monster movie, but without your traditional Godzilla, Gamera or Rodan. It features a Japanese super-hero named Starman sent to Earth to defeat a horde of multiplying Sumerian mutations from the planet Zimar, whose leader Balazar was assassinated by a de-controlled robot. Balazar's brain lives on and plans to conquer Earth via nuclear war. Whew! Can you keep up with that? You know, if all the characters in this flick weren't Japanese, I could almost swear it was a sample of Mexican lucha libre, as Starman battles a couple of nasty spandex suited mutants in choreographed martial arts dance routines. It's all fairly well suited for the pre teen-ager, just like most of the Japanese monster films of the same era. I did get a kick out of one scene when the civilian Kuwota opens a book and runs his finger left to right over a line of Japanese writing. Even this novice knows that Japanese is read right to left! At least the movie gets as much mileage as it can from 'one of the most ingenious devices ever invented'. With the help of the globe meter, a wristwatch with five dials, one can fly through space, detect radioactivity, and speak and understand all the known languages on Earth. I'll have to get me one of those!