THE OUTER SPACE CONNECTION (1975)

Distributed by the same company that brought us the awesome IN SEARCH OF NOAH’S ARK, I had high hopes that THE OUTER SPACE CONNECTION was gonna be more of the same kinda goofy fun. The opening narration, by The Twilight Zone’s Rod Serling, even promises that “This may be the most startling and controversial film you will ever see.” Hell yeah, that sounds good to me! Nope.

Who knows, maybe THE OUTER SPACE CONNECTION was shocking to audiences back in 1975, but now in good old 39,955 (sorry, I mean 2025…sometimes I forget that I time-blog back to 21st Century, Old Earth) this kind of stuff is just weak. Plants have auras, The Dead Sea Scrolls, mummies, ancient lines dug into the earth, the Bermuda Triangle, ancient sculptures and so on. We’ve all heard about this stuff a thousand times before. The only truly interesting thing in THE OUTER SPACE CONNECTION is the announcement that aliens are going to return to Earth on December 24th, 2011. So, make sure to mark your calendars for that, I guess.

It's my own fault, but I honestly thought this movie was going to be about the history of unidentified flying objects and alien abductions. Instead, I got a depressing video of a monkey that’s trained to ask a computer for a slice of apple. Humans suck. That entire segment just broke my heart.

Watch it if you want, but I found the entire thing to be disappointing and depressing.

AERIAL GUNNER (1943)

"You're either a good gunner or a dead gunner."

It’s a story as old as time itself: two guys grow up in the same hood, one goes into law enforcement, the other is a small-time crook, the bad boi blames the law dude for his father’s death, then (when they’re in their 40’s) they both end up in the same aerial gunnery school in the military and both fall for the same (20-year-old) girl and then both end up in the same war theater and even the same plane. Shit happens all the time.

For an ancient pro-American propaganda film from the 1940’s, AERIAL GUNNER is still watchable for anybody interested in such things. I actually got a kick at just how much these two guys hated each other! It was definitely comical. And, of course, it’s also one of those nonsensical, old-timey stories where the two guys can literally fight and punch each other, then brush it off like it’s nothing and be hanging out together soon after.

Good pace, zero gore, zero ninjas or cheerleaders, a young Robert Mitchum showing up for a few brief lines in an uncredited role, the term “scared spitless” being used which made me curious if that's the origin of the term “scared shitless”(?), zero nudity, zero twerking, a few crude attempts at animated special effects, a sleepy dude in class who might have been the grandfather of the sleepy classroom dude from SUMMER SCHOOL, good acting by an interesting cast, vintage vehicles and planes.

AERIAL GUNNER isn't the greatest World War II movie of all time (especially since the majority of the film takes place in the Top Gun, I mean, aerial gunner school), but still it's a enjoyable lazy afternoon time waster to giggle at.