The above trailer is slightly NSFW.
I was really excited for Sex Galaxy, a sci-fi comedy billed as a 100% recycled movie. Apparently so was the old man beside me at the Roxie Theatre, who let out an emphatic “Ooh!” when the first pair of fleshy boobs appeared.
The movie mashes up about 49 different films but takes much of its material from Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, which incidentally takes much of its material from Planeta Bur. The basic premise is such: it’s the future, sex is outlawed, and a trio of astronauts are taking a salacious detour after they finish their space mission early. Their destination? Sex Galaxy, where the women can’t even spell the word “no.”
“The footage,” director Mike Davis said at Sunday’s screening, “dictated the story.” After he put together a rough cut, he wrote the script, which is full of zings and one-liners. There’s no doubt that the movie is a successful comedy, especially with the actors’ brilliant delivery and Davis’s apt comedic timing (government PSA on venereal disease, anyone?). But–you knew this was coming–the poor dubbing makes what could have passed as a smooth, conventional movie into a sloppy collage.
Davis claimed Sex Galaxy is supposed to look like a karate movie, but then again, he also noted it makes you “lower your standards.” It seems the trouble lay in production, when actors recorded lines without knowing (or seeing!) who they were playing. The tracks were later added to the footage, causing characters to babble on with closed lips far longer than any karate film would take it.
Mike, a message from me to you: your audience doesn’t have to lower its standards. Besides, everyone knows that bad dubbing only works with karate spoofs and racist Asian jokes.
Sex Galaxy plays at the Another Hole in the Head film festival again tonight at 5 p.m. at the Roxie Theatre.
