THE DAY IT CAME TO EARTH (1979)
Article 4414 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 1-6-2014
Directed by Harry Thomason
Featuring Wink Roberts, Roger Manning, Robert Ginnaven
Country: USA
What it is: Bad movie parody

A meteorite lands in a lake and resurrects the body of a murdered mob informer, which then wreaks havoc in the area.

Given the fact that the only recognizable name in the cast is comedian George Gobel, as well as a few other hints, I’m assuming that the movie is intended as a parody of a really bad fifties monster movie. However, there’s a problem; a parody is supposed to be funny, and not only do large chunks of this movie give no hint that they’re trying for laughs, but when it is noticeably doing so (which isn’t always apparent), it falls flat. Which means that it ends up becoming, in effect, a very bad movie itself. This might be fun if the movie wasn’t as annoying as it was, but between the bottom-of-the-barrel musical score, the tiresome yelling and screaming, and its targeting of some of the most tiresome cliches of all time (the car that won’t start, the drunk who sees the monster), this one really started to grate on me. It does have a cult following, I have no doubt, but when it comes down to it, I’ve seen parodies like this one that are actually funny, as well as movies that are targets of this parody that are more entertaining.