Review of Amazon Women on the Moon (1987) by Harry W — 01 Jun 2014

One of the first sketch comedy films I had ever seen, Amazon Women on the Moon got my attention due to its zany title.

Unfortunately, it is clear that Amazon Women on the Moon is a very dated film with comedy sketches that no longer have the same impact today that they did back in 1987. The gags may have the appeal of being 80's sketches, but they are generic versions of them.

While Amazon Women on the Moon takes viewers back to the 1980's and gives them nostalgia to what kind of humour was popular in the time, it is another example of a film that has not survived the battle of age all that well. It is a common occurrence with sketch comedy anthology films because the standard of humour has changed since 1987. While some of the humour is still effective for its originality, others are just slow and repetitive.

For one thing, the titular film within a film entitled Amazon Women on the Moon isn't as humourously satirical as it really should have been. For a film which capitalises on the presence of B-movie stars Sybil Danning and Lana Clarkson as well as adult film actress Monique Gabrielle, Amazon Women on the Moon doesn't use enough nudity to a humourous extent. And when you consider the fact that the title of the film is Amazon Women on the Moon, you'd expect there to be more nudity like there was in the cheesy low-budget 1980's movies that had titles and concepts like these. Instead, Amazon Women on the Moon decides to parody 1950's science fiction movies without even doing it with jokes that haven't been seen too many times before. In general the quality of the humour in Amazon Women on the Moon is very inconsistent and viewers may find themselves laughing at one sketch and then cringing at the next.

In my experience, the only really funny moments in Amazon Women on the Moon were the sketches featuring Arsenio Hall and Marc McClure because Arsenio Hall's physical humour was ok and Marc McClure's sketch wasn't restrained in its humour at all. You can tell from Marc McClure's sketch that Amazon Women on the Moon intended to be an edgy comedy, but its humour ends up being too subtle and fails to take advantage of its potential which means that it is too subtle in its execution to soar.

One of the problems in Amazon Women on the Moon is that it doesn't know what makes a sketch comedy good. Usually on a show like Saturday Night Live, the humour is consistent because the performers are aware that viewers are watching and intend to make them laugh, but none of the actors in Amazon Women on the Moon seem to be aware that viewers watching are hoping to burst out laughing at any second. That seems to be the true problem in Amazon Women on the Moon, because the 5 directors of the film seem to lack the awareness of viewers or any communication between the which means that the quality of the execution ends up seriously scattered and lacklustre.

Amazon Women on the Moon has subject matter which is funnier than the film itself which means that its surface value is actually funnier than the film, so the problems with Amazon Women on the Moon can be blamed on the poor execution of the attempted humour. Although people who grew up in the 1980's may enjoy a look back, the style of contemporary humour sets a significantly higher bar than Amazon Women on the Moon is actually able to reach which means that it no longer has much relevance today.

It seems like the cast of the film are having fun, but the directors of the film take the project too seriously because the sketches in Amazon Women on the Moon have a dramatic edge to them which seems to overshadow the comic potential. Instead of genuinely taking on the opportunity as a moment to have fun or go out and try something new, it seems almost as if the film was a chore for the filmmakers. The material is old and dull, and it's all been seen before. So watching multiple renditions of the same few jokes again and again at a slow pace over the course of a running time of 85 minutes which feels a lot longer than it actually is does not qualify as a good viewing experience in my book and therefore makes Amazon Women on the Moon a hard film for me to genuinely recommend.

So despite a few laughs and some potential, Amazon Women on the Moon has humour that is too tame and is funnier on the surface than it actually is in execution.