MOVIE
The Gist: Earth Man's Lost Film Found
$24.95 For Dvd
Scott Dikkers, cofounder of the satirical weekly The Onion, transferred his deft comedic sensibilities to the world of movies in 1997, but his first feature disappeared after a brief festival run. Now Spaceman is making a comeback on television and DVD.
This deadpan alien-comes-to-Earth parody begins with the requisite abduction of a 4-year-old nameless boy. Twenty years later, a spaceship crashes into Lake Michigan. The boy, now a man, has unwittingly returned home with no clue of his origin. If this smacks of cliché, don't worry. Dikkers gleefully rips into B-movie conventions in this low-budget science fiction homage. Spaceman can't get a job because his only marketable skill is the mastery of lethal combat techniques (he's been raised as a ceremonial warrior on a distant planet). After a failed stint as a grocery clerk (during which he nearly skewers a shoplifter), the character embarks on a quest for a more suitable job. But he botches a chance to prove himself as a mob hit man when he can't bring himself to kill an unarmed victim. All the while, Spaceman struggles to decipher flashbacks of his Earth mommy cooing, "What a good boy."
Spaceman is caustic, over the top, and bitterly funny. Genre twists abound. It's the FBI agents trailing our hero - not alien abductors - who want to probe everything in sight. The mob boss is a barber who fusses over his hit men's hairstyles. And the music adds a sophisticated touch: Dikkers commissioned a score by the Milwaukee Chamber Orchestra. It all comes together beautifully: The lush, rousing soundtrack plays while Spaceman broadcasts an SOS signal into space with a Tupperware lid.
Airs this summer on the Sci Fi Channel: www.scifi.com.
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