{"id":20478,"date":"2021-02-26T00:30:04","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T05:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=20478"},"modified":"2021-02-26T00:36:37","modified_gmt":"2021-02-26T05:36:37","slug":"rebel-without-much-of-a-plot-laserblast-1978","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/?p=20478","title":{"rendered":"Rebel Without Much of a Plot: Laserblast (1978)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now don’t get me wrong – Laserblast<\/strong><\/a> (1978) isn’t a good film, but as a good bad film<\/em>, it has its merits, especially since it’s fairly short, which accentuates the incoherence of its muddled screenplay.<\/p>\n

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Whether it was intended to be a riff on Rebel Without a Cause<\/strong> (1955) with the loser teen acquiring a laserblaster for revenge, or a patchwork of ideas slapped together because the production had great desert locations, a camera car + house, a stop-motion artist, and then-cutting edge synthesizers, Laserblast<\/strong> has its share of positives in the cinema fromage genre, not to mention its place in the history of producer Charles Band and composer Richard Band – plus Joel Goldsmith.<\/p>\n

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Their incorporation seems odd, but David Allen’s stop-motion creatures are really good.<\/p><\/div>\n

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It’s also worth noting that when comparing indie studios to the established multinationals, the histories of the former are far more interesting, perhaps because indies were propelled by the vision & personalities of individuals or a mini-dynasties, the various genres they exploited and \/ or created, their subsequent success at drive-ins, and later home video and cable TV markets.<\/p>\n

For example, Warner Bros. was quite massive by the 1980s, but once the last Warner brother<\/a> had ceded control to a more formal team of suits in 1969<\/a>, its’ history was dominated by mergers, catalogue acquisitions, distribution deals, and its own controlling interests in video & cable, and rebranding itself and upgrading its logo. (Personal note: the 70s Warner Communications logo<\/a> is still my favourite, followed by the short-lived Kinney Services \/ Kinney National Company<\/a> shield.)<\/p>\n

The history of independent companies may not have extended through 50+ decades, but many lived, struggled, and died under the reign of some intriguing, colourful, and \/ or unlikely personalities – like Hemdale Film Corporation<\/a>, the indie fused by actor-director David Hemmings (Blow-Up<\/strong><\/a>) and Michael Daly which thrived in the exploitation realm before inching upwards with Oscar-winning productions like Platoon<\/strong> (1986).<\/p>\n

Band’s career ultimately settled towards Full Moon Features, but I’ve a soft spot for Empire International Pictures<\/a> because its name so blatantly boasts of Big Things from a small company surviving on extremely odd exploitation fare, many shot in Italy. The company logo<\/a> is also packed with the optimism of the 1980s – it’s glossy, golden, gleaming, and incorporates geometric objects like a sloped grid pattern and a ball, plus a generous drenching of purple, navy blue, and subtle infusion of pink.<\/p>\n

And while the major studios of today are large multinationals whose identity is defined by slight changes in branding and further mergers & consolidations, the Band name and its main players are still tied to the extant company, Full Moon Features.<\/p>\n

And the very fragrant Laserblast<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Coming next:<\/em> the documentary The Last Blockbuster<\/strong> (2020) from Passion River.<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading,<\/p>\n

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Mark R. Hasan<\/strong>, Editor
\nKQEK.com<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Review of LASERBLAST (1978), Charles Band’s eccentric sci-fi production, starring Kim Milford, Cheryl Smith, and a powerful alien pineapple!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20510,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[6530,1434,2562,2563,6551],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/Laserblast_featured.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8nuyW-5ki","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20478"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20478"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20524,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20478\/revisions\/20524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20510"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kqek.com\/mobile\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}