Astro-Zombies (1968)

Finally, the film that has it all! A mad astro-scientist ("B" horror king John Carradine) reviving corpses at his laboratory in a secluded mansion, two gore-crazed, solar-powered killer robot zombies, a bloody trail of girl-next-door victims, Chinese communist spies and deadly Mexican secret agents led by the insanely voluptuous Tura Satana (Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!) and intrepid CIA agent Wendell Corey hot on their trail and trying to figure it all out! Almost too much for one movie; must be seen to be believed! A high-powered fusion of Ed Wood, Russ Meyer and George Romero! Co-written and co-produced by television star Wayne Rogers (M*A*S*H).

from the dumpster to our dvd players

astro zobies...sounds like a more promising plan 9 from outer space. it's not much better actually. my buddy nabbed this dvd used for real cheap and we had a good time trashing it. probably not something i'd wanna see again though. i remember alot of the movie being padded out. one grueling scene had some chick looking around terrified in a shoddy lab room for what felt like an hour! just form the openning credits you know you're in trouble. i'm still not sure if the marching wind-up toy robots were supposed to be actuall robots or not.
worth a look for bad movie buffs February 28, 2008

Tura Tura Tura!

Worth the price just to see 'Satana' (Tura Satana) in action! The "interrogation" of the CIA agent is a cinematic masterpiece.
'Frenchot' the mad scientist's (John Carradine) assistant is the inspiration for Dr. Tongue's assistant 'Woody Tobias Junior' on SCTV. The hat that 'Juan' wears as Satana, himself and their deceptive partner drive through L.A. using the device that Spock used on Star Trek to search for life on the surface of planets is a fashion statement! The scenes shot in broad daylight that are supposed to be taking place at night...the head that's chopped off that's clearly a wig stand with flanged edges...I could go on and on...but, again, this movie is worth it just for Tura Satana's role as 'Satana'. The only reason I gave it only four stars is the electrocution death of the star of the movie at the end of the film and the ridiculous head of the Astro Zombie himself. August 31, 2007

Astro Zombies.

Carradine & henchman creating title monsters in the basement. Tura Satana as evil spy in an evening gown out for zombie secrets. C.I.A. wants to put a stop to it all ! Co - written by Wayne Rogers : M*A*S*H*. Great fun. ( color ) August 11, 2007

A few bits of goodness, but my finger was mostly on the FF button

I am continuing my mission to review every movie with the word "zombie" or "dead" in the title. I'm on the fence when it comes to "Astro Zombies". It's barely a good "bad movie"; and comes quite close to crossing the line into being a bad "bad movie".

First, and most important, what strain of Zombie are these Astro Zombies? These are the solar powered, plastic "space man" masked, stabbing and killing variety of zombie. There are no flesh-eaters here, but these zombies are so unique that they are almost endearing. Especially when one has to run around holding a flashlight to his solar panel, so he may ambulate at night when his power reserves are low. The zombies get a 6/10 for uniqueness.

The gore is barely existent. A few splashes of red here and there, and some jiggling hearts and brains in jars. Gore score: 1/10.

Speaking of jiggling, the gratuitous sexism and nudity is low on the scale as well. The zombies "happen" to rip open their victims' shirts while stabbing them, but it's so poorly shot that it doesn't really matter. There is one naked dancing girl, who is painted head to toe, and another young lady strapped to a torture table (for no reason what so ever). Once again, these scenes are poorly shot/lit/edited. Late 60's jiggly score of 3/10.

Unfortunately, the zombies in this movie are barely in this picture. Most of the film is taken up by John Carradine using a screwdriver. Or John Carradine flipping a switch. Or John Carradine telling his hunchback assistant about how he is going to flip a switch. Or the hunchback giving the camera a creepy look. Or federal agents talking in a room about John Carradine flipping a switch. After a while I found myself fast-forwarding lengthy sections of this movie. Boredom scale (0 being boring, 10 being Dawn of the Dead) 3/10.

Cheesy dialogue. A good "bad movie" will have a wealth of terrible one-liners and pseudo science. A bad "bad movie" will have dialogue too bad to make fun of, and acting worse than a 70's soft-core porn movie. I did enjoy the cheesy dialogue in this film. The best source of laughable lines came from Tura Satana, who was so cool and cruel that she almost seemed out of place in this film. Her bad acting was far better than everyone else's terrible acting. I give Astro Zombies a delicious cheesy dialogue score of 7/10.

Overall, I can't recommend this movie to fans of Zombie films. It is o.k. if you have a fascination with bad movies, though. Try to rent it, or pick it up used for under five dollars, if you are curious.
April 2, 2007

GOTTA LOVE THE ASTROZOMBIES

WONDERFUL B MOVIE MAYHEM. LOVED THE SPY STUFF, CARRADINE'S PSEUDO-SCIENCE, THE GREAT WIND-UP ROBOTS AND TANKS OPENING SEQUENCE,THE ASTOZOMBIES...HELL I DUG IT ALL! NOT GREAT ART (WHO EXPECTED IT TO BE?) BUT IT IS GREAT FUN! December 10, 2004

More reviews at Amazon.com ...