Space Station 76 movie review

rattraveller

October 10, 2014 - 6:37am

Found this one at my local Redbox under the comedy section. Starring Liv Tyler as the newest officer (XO of the ship) assigned to the named station she works to integrate herself into the social setting of the station before an asteriod hits the station. At least that's what the description said.

The reason I picked up this film is that the hook is that the station setting is not a modern one although the film is but one in which 1970s technology and social mores are used. To me I thought this might make for some interesting SF ideas.

MY opinion is that for setting and props they did pretty good. The cigarette lighter as part of the bridge counsel and the little bot robots were pretty right on. The failures were that this wasn't a comedy. This was one of those period neighborhood dramas in which everyone has secrets and problems that get revealed in inappropriate ways. Liv Tyler's character is the only female officer and all the other officers wives want to know why she isn't married with kids and is instead pursueing a career.

Rated R for nudity, adult situations, sexual situations, drug use (70s style), gerbil canniblism and mother-in-law abandonment check it out if you want to but not with anyone who didn't live through the 70s and be warned (spoiler) the asteroid didn't even hit the station, but you might get some good setting ideas.

Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go?

Ascent

October 10, 2014 - 7:22pm

I think you got way too involved in following the story. This movie was clearly not about the story. It was a lot of comedy, sight gags, paralellisms and mockery, and even the so-called "drama" served to bring humor. The words "gerbil cannibalism" in your description is what convinced me to give it a try. Seeing those words, I had a feeling it was going to be good and it was. Here is where I found the movie: Space Station 76

I guess this shows our complete juxtaposition of perceptions. I thought the movie was hilarious, though I see where the majority of people would completely miss the humor. It's a thinker's comedy. It's not the type of humor you can get a laugh out of at a glance and I can see why it would be completely lost on most modern audiences that grew up in the late 80's or later. You have to understand the reason for the gimmick. For example, I got a kick out of the little girl skating in the hall marking up the wall. To some this might be mildly amusing as a little girl does what kids do and marks up the wall. But the reality is that this is a reference to the sterile sets up to the late 70's and they are marking up all those sterile sets by following this little girl. Understanding this, I gave a good giggle. I can personally remember the tie-on skate wheels she was wearing with half-boot heels. Classic.

This movie was very detailed in how it subtly mocked everything in 70's movies simply by including them, such as the persistent waltz in the sky elevator music and the ample reverse porthole views, mind-numbing slow pace and absence of populated environment (ala Silent Running), the 60's/70's pop culture and bad wardrobes in the future, inexplicable leaps in time, or the gratuitous sexual suggestivity and man pandering, as well as the weak overtures to feminism and the closet homosexuality of the mysogynist.

Other humorous details were subtle in their own ways, such as the introduction of the absolutely ridiculous robots performing mundane tasks. Gynobot was simply mocking the future, the platitude-spouting Dr. Bot was mocking the old 70's and 80's robot toys as well as the trend of pop psychology and self-help guru speak, and the little android cleaning the little girl's marker off of the walls (Yes, I giggled again,) was again mocking the sterile environment.

There were also more overt comedic moments such as the shear number of awkward moments, the cafeteria scene mocking homophobia and racism, and the future tech spoiling intentions. (I about died when the futuretech protected the captain from harming himself.)

If you were watching the "drama", then you were not watching the movie. The movie's comedy is conducted in stages, which is another indicator that there is no overarching "drama" to cling to. It is literally as the box described, just a woman getting to know the crew. Yes, there was a drama, but it was secondary and was merely a means to bring the movie to its conclusion, bringing the viewer back down to earth, so-to-speak.

However, there was a fairly offensive scene of a little girl looking at a porn mag (though only "tasteful" images were presented,) in a failed effort to mock the body image crisis caused by modern media, which began in the 60's.

Just a couple of my favorite lines:

Misty: "Just relax and let the pill work." Worst. mother. ever.

Dr. Bot: "I am going to up your dosage of —valium— to...as much as you'd like."

Favorite scene: Mechanical breast massage gone horribly wrong. ROFL.

It has nods to Star Command and Aliens (via "Nostrodamus").

By the way, yes, the asteroid hit the station. It just did not destroy the station, but gave what amounted to a fender-bender, scratching the paint, so-to-speak, which served a purpose in the moment that elegantly summed up the plot with visual imagery at the moment that the illusion was shattered. One might think that it brought the movie to a screeching hault, but it was merely the conclusion to the story, bringing resolution and an end to the secrets.

I thoroughly liked this movie beginning to end. Though I think they could have toned down the sexual moments.

Though, for use in a Star Frontiers adventure, there's only one useful thing I got: asteroid pockets. Brilliant. (Just a note: asteroids don't just bounce off of each other. ROFL)

Warning: a couple of connected moments of gratuitous female full frontal nudity for no reason. Hilarious but provocative. Also, a couple of masturbation scenes. (Modern comedies often go uncomfortably too far with such things. It's just something you have to accept or reject the whole thing.)

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rattraveller

October 10, 2014 - 4:06pm

So a robotic arm grabbing a breast to the point of pain is thinking comedy?

Sounds like a great job but where did you say we had to go?

Rum Rogue

October 10, 2014 - 4:09pm

It's going to be a tough one to watch a second time anytime soon, overall I had a good laugh with it. So many 70's and 70-80's transitions scenes and gimmicks. I could'nt help but run old shows through my head on some scenes. Everything from Space:1999 to Dallas.

Then little sight gags such as the cigarette lighter, robots, "valium lady" going to "work."

I have to agree that anyone without growing up in the 70's or early 80's transition time would find the scenery amusing and miss many of the subtle musings.
I also feel that if you go into this flick with serious expectations you will be disappointed.

Time flies when your having rum.

Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time.

Rum Rogue

October 10, 2014 - 4:12pm

rattraveller wrote:

So a robotic arm grabbing a breast to the point of pain is thinking comedy?

Amusing but not much thought into it. More of a sight gag I thought/felt.

Time flies when your having rum.

Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time.

Ascent

October 10, 2014 - 7:30pm

Yes, it was shtick. I did not say that every tidbit required thought.

Some of the gags in this movie reminded me of Ice Pirates.

Rum Rogue

October 10, 2014 - 8:23pm

Ascent wrote:

Yes, it was shtick. I did not say that every tidbit required thought.

Some of the gags in this movie reminded me of Ice Pirates.

HAH!! Ice Pirates cames to mind during the robotic hand grope scene. I don't know why, but it did. Maybe it just seemed like that scene should have been in Ice Pirates.

Time flies when your having rum.

Im a government employee, I dont goof-off. I constructively abuse my time.

Ascent

October 10, 2014 - 8:56pm

LOL. Yeah. Also the lighter in the panel, the 3 robots, the gay hologram scene, the holographic arboritum, the getting stoned in the real arboritum, the reveal of the two having made love next to the mother's cryo chamber, or when the guy is trying to do himself in. Those all reminded me of Ice Pirates-type scenes and may have even been directly inspired by Ice Pirates.

The thing I think they should have done is give the black guy a small spaceman's fro and a jive walk.

Tchklinxa

October 26, 2014 - 9:09am

My hubby & I saw it too, we loved the job they did on presenting the 70's both in general everyday feel & sci-fi style sets of the period... we had a ton of fun chatting about that while watching. We got it was dark drama-comedy, but felt most people would not like the film, B-rate sci-fi fans might but most viewers would not like it. We got it was pointing out stereotypes about life in the 1970s... I would like to point out most of this looking at how messed up people where in the 70s as an historic comment on the society past to show how isolated people where then misses how isolated they still are. Some in modern life we have drug commercials on TV for anxiety, I have met women who completely denigrate other women for not being Suzy Home Maker (i.e. for being a Career chick) or for being Suzy Home Maker, I know dudes everyone knows are gay but they still are in the closet, I have known people to stay married when they should probably divorce, I have totally met self-centered "finding" themselves still parents who do cruel and messed up manipulative head games to their kids, I totally have met people who are married and having casual sex with others in secret (cheating... the OPP crowd) and I have met men who have a problem with women doing their job or knowing anything they perceive as their realm of expertise... I deal with that BS daily and I mean daily. I also deal with men at work that feel I am in violation of God's law by working outside of the home. Just saying... But I liked the film & I would love to see the play some day. (Did anyone else think the mom might have been touching the babies? So she could mess with her daughter.)

"Never fire a laser at a mirror."

Ascent

October 26, 2014 - 10:55am

Do you mean mess with her daughter's head? I think it was about the old slam of breasts representing womanhood, the mirror to men growing facial hair.

Tchklinxa

October 26, 2014 - 11:27am

Yes, messing with the head. I meant the gerbil babies being eaten by their mother... it was metaphor I am sure in that the human mother was cruel and very self centered and had no problem lying to her daughter and taking any joy away the child had to gratify herself, so the questions like "why would a mother do that?" could be asked of the gerbil mother while we watched the human mother harm her child psychologically, but I was wondering if the human mother might have been touching a baby every now and then so the gerbil mother would eat it... it would be consistent with the character.

"Never fire a laser at a mirror."

Ascent

October 26, 2014 - 3:11pm

LOL. I thought you were talking about her fluffing the girls in the mirror that gave her daughter the body image issues. (Of course, you figured that out. :P)

The little girl finally admitted that she was the one touching the baby gerbils when she brought the last one to the arboretum to set it free. She couldn't resist picking them up. She simply denied doing it before then.

However, I feel like the gerbils were an allegory for something else in the movie. I just haven't figured out what it was.

Tchklinxa

October 26, 2014 - 5:14pm

I agree the gerbils mean more then gerbils... lol, I may have missed understood the girl taking the last one to her firend to raise.

"Never fire a laser at a mirror."

Ascent

October 26, 2014 - 11:39pm

I just figured it out. The gerbil mother and the child together are the allegory for the child's mother. The gerbil was chewing off the heads of her children because other people were touching them. Likewise, the child's mother was in effect chewing off her daughter's head by isolating her from the female captain out of spite. That said, the little girl was an absolute desaster toward pets, which itself was an allegory for her mother, who was an absolute desaster toward everyone arround her. The child's mother would wreck other people's joy, marriages, freedom and self-respect, and she demonstrated the same clinginess as her child when she silenced and hugged the protesting robot. She was, in effect, a disaster in equal proportion to her daughter. Maneater could be her theme song. (So could Human Wreckage.) Her daughter was clearly going to grow up to be the same way. Or maybe the female captain was saving her from that eventuality by lovingly teaching her the lesson her mother could never learn.

Man, I love good subtext.

Okay, so there was a story and some drama. But the movie was ultimately about the parody.

bossmoss

November 18, 2014 - 4:55am

OK, I finally watched this movie today.

For a movie made on a shoestring budget, it looked pretty good.

I had not known it was based on a play. A very large percetage of it was improv, according to Wikipedia, which explains why it seems like a series of disjointed scenes. Knowing that helped me understand it so much better. The people making the movie were the same ones who made the play, and they described it as a "dark dramedy" (comedy-drama). The director said that most of the humor comes from the sadness of it. I did find it incredibly sad, and yet weirdly funny, so I guess the director succeeded.

The main thing that hit me was, THAT POOR KID! On the other side of that, I liked the things the girl did to survive, such as the "gravity game" where she'd turn off the gravity and float around the room - that was cool. I thought it was funny that she was never on wires - in the making of feature, they show that the crew just picked her up.

My absolute favorite part was Dr. Bot. I loved when the psycho lady admitted that the only person she cared about on the station was Dr. Bot, causing him to have a meltdown as she hugged him. That one made me laugh out loud.

Also when the captain had the revelation that Dr. Bot was not actually sapient, but simply reciting pre-recorded tapes based on what you said. "Smoking cigarettes has been shown to cause cancer in carbon-based life forms. YOU are a carbon-based life form, therefore cigarettes may cause cancer inside of YOU."

I loved the set. The blend of the Space: 1999 replica hallways with 70s decor was priceless. The wallpaper & wood paneling in the homepod was hilarious. I also loved the woman looking at the fashion catalog through a view-master.

Overall, it was a fun, weird movie, and easily evoked the slow, awkward feel of old 70s films.

Were there things I could use in my Star Frontiers game? A few. I liked the ships, and the exterior of the station itself. The small arboretum was interesting, because they are usually huge. I may have to include more arboretums on my space stations...

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