The Spirits of Jupiter (1984 Video) User Reviews

Amateurish and dull.

[HumanoidOfFlesh · 4/10 · 6 August 2010]

The planets of the solar system are shifting their alignments and people become crazy and murderous killing each other.Big Jim Driller wears a cowboy hat and is ready for bloody fight.His son and daughter are kidnapped by some crazy policemen.The deadly chase begins...Russel Kern's "The Spirits of Jupiter" is as obscure as they come.It's relatively dull and amateurish with plenty of boring chase scenes and laughable special effects.The only gory bit worth mentioning is when Jim has to pull out his eyeball after his own dog has attacked him.The first fifty minutes are watchable and uniquely bizarre with some cheesy outbursts of madness,but after the first half "The Spirits of Jupiter" becomes boring "Mad Max" clone.And it was actually released on VHS in Poland many years ago under the title "Planeta oszalala".4 out of 10.

Odd movie definitely worth a look

[monstermonkeyhead · 9/10 · 23 February 2010]

Well, since no one has reviewed this movie, I feel it is my duty to. I came across this when a friend mailed me a pile of video tapes he didn't want anymore. It was put out by Video Search of Miami. This is a very special movie in many regards. The acting is not so hot and borders on annoying at times, but somehow that works. Many of the performances are over-the-top and a tad hammy. Considering that the plot is about people going crazy, such exaggerated weirdness fits right in. The music soundtrack is a bit overblown as well, but again it adds to the overall manic feeling. Plus, there are a couple of seemingly random songs thrown in there, which definitely raised my eyebrow. All this is very comical in a "bad movie" kind of way. However, this just makes the "people going crazy" scenes that occur near the middle of the movie more shocking. The pure mayhem of these scenes is actually frightening, and shows a real perceptive vision. I could easily see this being remade today to greater effect with more gifted actors. There are lots of good ideas here and it's quite evident that a lot of effort went into this. Somebody somewhere was trying. I think this is what they call a cult movie waiting to be discovered. For all its faults, it is very entertaining and even thought provoking.

Town-gone-mad mayhem that I enjoyed

[udar55 · 8/10 · 10 August 2013]

The entire town of Canon City, Colorado goes nutzo when the planets get out of alignment. Somehow this effects the Earth's gravity, resulting in everyone acting like a loon on a full moon. The lone non-nut in this is "Big" Jim Driller (Rex Cutter), the owner of a local silver mine who has to battle the deranged sheriff (who plays Russian roulette with his own toes) in order to save his son and daughter. This is truly a one-of-a-kind flick and, once the madness starts going down, I really started to dig it. Crazy stuff like the town butcher lopping off hands of those in line or a lady threatening to jump off a 4-inch curb. Cutter, who is also the executive producer, is actually great in the lead and when he starts sporting an eye patch I saw him as the indie world's Rooster Cogburn. Like THE CARRIER, it is a low budget affair but I started to admire it for the amount of scale and scope the filmmakers tried to bring to the project.