J-Men Forever!

I saw this back in the 80's late one evening during the classic Night Flight on USA Network. It was also the most requested film to be replayed for several years. Firesign Theater took a bunch of the il Republic Pictures cliffhanger serials and mashed them together with some original footage to create this wild little film. The original dialogue has been overdubbed with new dialogue full of jokes and innuendo. Jokes that are still very funny today. Well worth the very reasonable price!

I remember first seeing this on early late-night cable. Thought it was wildly funny and clever. Then it kinda vanished - perhaps understandably. To REALLY appreciate it, I guess it might help to know a bit about the Firesign Theater, cliffhanger serials, What's Up Tiger Lily, the disco era, etc. But even without that background, it's still late-night clever fun.

If I could have been involved in the making of a movie, right after GWTW, this would be next. The facetious premise is that Rock and Roll is evil, and it is so evil and deadly, that by blasting Smaltzy Music with large doses of Rock and Roll from the moon, Smaltzy Music, along with others on earth will be destroyed, or at least driven crazy. Commando Cody fights the moon men who are trying to destroy him with a ray gun. When I was a kid it was my good fortune to see many Republic Cliffhanger serials before the main feature at the town cinema. J-Men forever is made of clips from these serials and new words have been overdubbed into the rather convoluted, but wonderful story. Sometimes the voices are appropriate for the faces they are coming out of and sometimes they are not. This adds to the hilarity. J-Men is chock full of gay banter, rapid reparte, gifted gabbiness, heartfelt harangues, and zesty zingers. It is a gold mine of trite expressions, double entendres, euphemisms and non sequiturs. A boon to the complicated overdubbing is the fact that the speaking players often have their backs to the camera, have on bulky masks, or are shot from a distant camera range. What really "sends me" is the plethora of special effects these old serials had including, space ships, deadly ray guns and robots. Some of the dialogue includes, "you send me, the caped mad man had a statue made to honor himself against his will," and my favorite, "wait in the damn hall!" Who of us has not had to deal with an obnoxious person that we would like to simply tell with authority to "wait in the damn hall!" This movie is about creativity and I have deepest admiration to the crew that masterminded and produced this wonderful flick. Contrary to popular opinion, you would not have to be stoned to enjoy it--you just have to be an artiste.

Argueably the funniest movie ever made. Bits and pieces of 40's serials spliced together with Machine Gun Kelley voicing the insanely comic villain "Lightning Bug" ("you dug? I mean dig?"). Where to begin? I had no idea Captain Marvel machine-gunned people in the back as they ran away, or threw guys off of rooftops. Captain America looks pretty absurd in his woolen long-johns and riding a motorcycle through the desert. And the names: "Jam Armhole", "Sleeve Coat", and "Juicy Withers", just for starters. It has the frantic energy and layered esoteric references and fabulous wordplay of the Firesign Theater boys, but Kelly really steals the movie with his wild threats and demented "Hahahahaha!!!!" I think you could easily watch this a dozen times and STILL not catch everything going on - the first 2-3 times you'll just be laughing too hard. Do yourself a favor, 4-ears, and pick this one up before the Supreme Court decides you don't have a right to be amused.

"They often call me Speedo but my real name is the Lightning Bug".............. "Touch your head"....." You bomb the snatch.." "Huh?" ..."I mean snatch the bomb"......Yes, these phrases DO mean something, but not until you've seen J-Men. Proctor and Bergman did an outstanding job developing original dialog to fit the screen clips they used to create a totally new context for the old serial movies from Republic Pictures and others. Even though this is a 24 year old effort the humor is just as sharp and witty today. The soundtrack would now be considered retro, but the entire concept of conquering the Earth with Rock and Roll music makes you wish the Lightning Bug would've won. I managed to tape one of the "Night Flight" showings and I'm looking forward to the DVD.My kids know this movie as well as I do, and I've even adopted my email address from it. BUY THIS AND GET A BOX OF DEPENDS - you'll need 'em from laughing so hard.

This is one of the absolute funniest movies that I've ever seen in my life. The only negative that I can think of about this movie is the fact that this movie is in black and white. Black and white movies are okay, but I personally prefer to watch colour or colourized movies. I love this movie. This is the type or kind of movie that I'll watch repeatedly. Get yourself a great big tall glass of your favorite beverage, get a big bag of popcorn, roll yourself up a big ol' fat joint and sit back and watch an absolute classic cult film that will never get old.

I’m gonna put this out there for all the fans of MST3K, RiffTrax, Cinematic Titanic, and of course Firesign Theater - you owe it to yourself to check this out. It was a viewer favorite back in the days of USA network’s “Night Flight”, but sadly somehow never made it to digital distribution, languishing on disc for however many years. Despite this, if you can find a copy in stock, it’s well worth the purchase price.

IMHO a highly underrated cult classic. In the style of that Woody Allen movie, they overdubbed a bunch of old Saturday serials. Dont be confused about the title. Its not gay porn. The sexy dialogue is nothing compared to all the talk about pot and hash and rock n roll.