Comments on: Star Party… OF DOOM!

By: Carnival of Space #57 - This One’s for the Ladies! - Out of the Cradle

Carnival of Space #57 - This One’s for the Ladies! - Out of the Cradle — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 04:19:42 +0000

[...] In other media news, Bad Astronomy is asking if any one has seen a movie entitled ‘Star Party’, in Star Party… OF DOOM! [...]

By: Mechanic

Mechanic — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 17:19:53 +0000

I guess it would be a ‘real’ sci fi movie if the ‘schnozz’ got the girl in the pink shirt. We can only hope.

By: Ade

Ade — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 10:42:49 +0000

I’ve gotta agree with Doc. Night of the Comet rocks, bad astronomy or not. It’s worth a watch for the ‘scary noises’ game, oh, and some serious cheerleader uzi action. Meh, easily pleased me.

By: DenverAstro

DenverAstro — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 03:40:37 +0000

Well, I can say one thing. In that first photo, the girl is using a Meade ETX 125. It’s a piece of junk telescope and Ive never seen one of those used at a star party. At least not for serious observing or astrophotography. I doubt you would see a PHD in astrophysics using one of those in the field.
The reason I can say that scope is junk is because I had one. I had a shyster sales guy talk me into buying one of those as my first telescope. I have learned much since then. One of the most important lessons I have learned is that you get what you pay for. I now use a 10″ Dob for visual stuff and a Televue NP127 on a Losmandy mount for photography. Now Im a happy camper )

By: jess tauber

jess tauber — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:23:25 +0000

And for the Harvey Korman tie-in, it was HEDY, NOT HEDLEY!

By: jess tauber

jess tauber — Sat, 31 May 2008 22:19:31 +0000

Have any of you seen the classic film ‘The Heavenly Body’? (see http://www.classicfilmguide.com/index.php?s=pageA&item=169).

No horror, just mild comedy. The only part where I smirked was when the comet hits the moon, and the tail is facing away from the impact direction, yet is still attached to the nucleus- wouldn’t having the moon in between the comet and the sun cause emissions to radically decrease in the moments before impact, detaching the visual tail? I don’t remember whether the dark side from the sun was hit- would be weird though if they got that wrong too.

If Hedy Lamarr can be in love with an astronomer, then anything is possible- she was one smart lady, helped come up with a concept for spreading signals over many frequencies just in time for WWII, for which she got recognition only many decades later.

By: Ronn Blankenship

Ronn Blankenship — Sat, 31 May 2008 19:07:43 +0000

starman91 said:

“The rest must be the undergrads taking astronomy for their science requirements, because they heard it “was easy”.”

I’m not sure what they had heard, but pretty much every semester on the first night of class when I got there I would find a number of students waiting for me to sign add cards so they could get into the class because it had filled up usually on the first day of pre-registration . . .

By: themadlolscientist

themadlolscientist — Sat, 31 May 2008 18:44:06 +0000

Never mind the trailer. I’ll take the yellow car.

By: Kevin F.

Kevin F. — Sat, 31 May 2008 11:08:24 +0000

Not a ONE of those flashlights had a red filter on them.

Which is odd considering it would be just right for a Horror movie.

By: Jim666

Jim666 — Sat, 31 May 2008 06:20:56 +0000

Wasn’t Tom Cruise in Star Party? There are no ratings on IMDB. Maybe the act of viewing Star Party is lethal (like watching any flick with Tom Cruise).

By: John

John — Sat, 31 May 2008 04:14:44 +0000

If all astronomers looked like that, there would be a lot more astronomers.

By: Steve P.

Steve P. — Sat, 31 May 2008 03:16:50 +0000

Definitely softcore.

By: The Ridger

The Ridger — Sat, 31 May 2008 00:17:21 +0000

Didn’t anybody look at the site? They’re *amateur astronomers* and a park ranger.

By: Mark Martin

Mark Martin — Fri, 30 May 2008 23:45:42 +0000

ARP1234,

Go to YouTube and look up “Young Stephen Hawking”. You won’t be disappointed.

By: Quiet Desperation

Quiet Desperation — Fri, 30 May 2008 21:39:37 +0000

It can’t be as good as “Night of the Comet”.

I’m *still* hunting down and, um, retiring the people involved in that film. The ones who raped League Of Extraordinary Gentlemen are next.

I’ve said too much. This post did not happen.

By: beagledad

beagledad — Fri, 30 May 2008 21:38:36 +0000

Of course astronomers look like that! Don’t you remember Daryl Hannah in Roxanne? She was– oh, wait. Yeah, I see what you mean.

By: BMcP

BMcP — Fri, 30 May 2008 20:45:10 +0000

Well of course all the actors are young, twenty-something tanned hunks and babes, people don’t pay $10 at the theater to look at fat, dumpy people unless they are villains or meant to feel pity for as part of the story.

Sad but true.

By: John Paradox

John Paradox — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:59:25 +0000

Erica
Bwahaha. I didn’t expect it to be, but it’s available from Netflix! Rent it today, Phil!
Movies like this make me wish MST3K was still on the air.

Actually, it hasn’t been released, and no date is given on NF.

Also, check out RiffTrax and Cinematic Titanic… former MSTies, with Mike on RiffTrax, Joel on CT…

J/P=?

By: ARP1234

ARP1234 — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:43:26 +0000

Nicole, this may be sadly true….

As for another poster saying this film looks like the setup for
a porn flick, there was indeed such a film (I heard about it in
my Film and Society class at Columbia – yeah, that’s it!) that
involved a very attractive co-ed who went to visit her astronomy
professor (we knew he was an astro prof because his office had
books and a telescope and some big photos of nebulae and
Saturn on his walls) because she wasn’t doing very well in his
class and wondered if there was anything she could do to
improve her grade.

Judging by the response, she either got a really good grade
or neither of them cared. And I tell ya, that “professor” didn’t
look anything like Schnozz Guy from the main flick of this thread.

So see, there have been some excellent portrayls of astronomers
in film. This one got the babe and everything!

I think he might have even looked through a telescope or
did some research or something, but I don’t remember really….

By: Mark Martin

Mark Martin — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:28:28 +0000

KaiYves said:

“Iâ??d like to see â??Murder at the Observatoryâ??”

Will you settle for Death From A Distance?: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0027504/

By: aiabx

aiabx — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:26:19 +0000

Usually by the third night of a really good star party I’m hallucinating from booze and lack of sleep and find myself surrounded by beautiful women and strange lights from space.

So, yeah, it looks pretty accurate to me.

By: Erica

Erica — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:13:58 +0000

Bwahaha. I didn't expect it to be, but it's available from Netflix! Rent it today, Phil! Movies like this make me wish MST3K was still on the air.

By: Christopher Ferro

Christopher Ferro — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:08:24 +0000

Why are we assuming that because there are astronomers or star party attendees that they are Ph.Ds? Does the IMDB page state this (I am loathe to waste my time reading it)? If it’s as formulaic or bad as it appears to be, its more likely the “schnozz” guy is the astronomy geek and he someone convinced the others to come to “his” star party. Probably based in part on some crush he has on one of the women.

CJSF

By: Nicole

Nicole — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:08:11 +0000

“And I have been to enough star parties and observatory open houses
to tell you that the only time a female that hot shows up is if she is
either lost or with a boyfriend who is pretending to seem intelligent
and cultured now that they are in the next phase of the relationship,
i.e., more than just constant hot sex.”

Oy! I pretend to take offense to that! You just haven’t been to the right astronomy departments if you haven’t seen any hot chicks.

By: andy

andy — Fri, 30 May 2008 18:58:24 +0000

It has that whole I’m-a-horror-movie-where-stupid-people-open-doors-they-shouldn’t-and-scream-a-lot-and run-around-and-make-bad-decisions-until-you-want-to-scream-and-get-your-money-back feel to it.

That description reminds me of this awesome fake trailer from Grindhouse...