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Again, I contend that he was originally told to or decided to play the character as a cokehead.

There are so many unintentionally disturbing things about this movie...At one point Gnorm is cowering on the sidewalk, alone and afraid, and then gets almost eaten by someone’s vicious dog. You can see the dog-owner just standing there holding the leash with their sweater tied around their waist, casually enjoying the sight of their dog gnashing at and terrorizing “the little freak”. Gnorm’s civil rights are consistently violated by the cops, but this seems especially egregious. Also when Casey pulls Gnorm in from dangling off of the high-rise balcony, it’s hard to tell, but I’m pretty sure he rips Gnorm’s arm completely off. Maybe Gnomes can quickly grow new arms and that’s why Gnorm’s are so long. But by far the *most* disturbing part of the film is Casey’s hair in the first scene. That wet, greasy mullet was so disgusting and unsettling. I was afraid his hair was going to look like that throughout the movie. If so, I would not have been able to watch.

Yeah I was legit shocked when Gnorm stopped one the gangsters, I think it was gold switchblade guy, by basically what looked like giving him an over-the-pants rusty trombone, this is to assume that Gnome and human anatomy is similar or Gnorm thought it might be so that would be his first strike in case of defense. Also was I the only one who thought Hall was playing his character a bit like a cokehead? This seems especially evident when he's introduced he's firing off his lines at a mile a minute and just rambling, which made me wonder if that was part of his character given that this was made in the late 80s. As for Robert Z'Dar, he was mostly used as the heavy or big villain in films because of his cherubism which gave him his pronounced jawline and body size made him appear very imposing and he was the titular character in the Maniac Cop trilogy in the 80s, which also starred the female lead of this film in the first sequel. He was also in another should be covered by the show movie, Samurai Cop. In regards to Blockbuster, I must be young enough to never remember them editing their movies, because whenever I went there the movies were untouched, but some would require you to either be 17 to check out or in my case, not have any checkout restrictions from my parents on the account, because I seeing the director's cut of Color of Night on the shelves as well as finding out in high school that the drama aisles had what amounted to softcore porn. Was there some kind of customer revolt that caused them to retract their policy of editing their movies?

This is yet another HDTGM film in which people are far too blase about seeing an alien/monster/creature, and here, treating him like a "freak" human, but not immediately contacting all media outlets, government and private science institutions, etc.

We watched: (Sorry, nothing pithy this week. I’m in the weeds this morning.)

I have to admit there is one shot that I found rather moving - when Gnorm goes to the beach and sees the ocean for the first time. But completely out of place tonally with the rest of the film.

Perhaps the most revolting image in HDTGM film history?

I think that first encounter with Gnorm was in AMH's garage so he just had to get him inside the house from there.

I feel so unwell after seeing this. I don't know why but this gnome is so utterly disgusting and upsetting looking. Its like if Yoda and a hairless cat mated and that child got fillers and botched plastic surgery.

How did he get Gnorm into the cage seemingly without feeling or looking at him? He was shocked when he got it back to his house and got a clear look - but he had to pick Gnorm off the floor, load it into the cage, carry the cage against his body, load it in his car, load it OUT of his car and walk it into the house. Not a peek? That entire time?

The lack of investigation after a man is blown up mere feet from a children’s play area was ridiculous. Even though Jerry Orbach was the secret bad guy (which surprised me with the reveal by the way) - they all left like an hour after an explosion! What happened to the body?!?!

One thing that drives me crazy about this type of “fish-out-of-water” movie is when the character does things that are so beyond stupid that they can’t be explained by cultural differences. I mean Gnorm is a relatively intelligent creature, right, with (at-least) bi-lingual language skills and the obvious ability to use tools, clothing, etc. So there is absolutely a 0% chance that Gnorm would try to shoot someone with the broad-side of a gun. Aside form the fact that he certainly understands the concept of pointing at something, and he has seen numerous people fire guns already, it is prohibitively difficult to grab the handle of a gun sideways and pull the trigger in this manner without being purposeful in your idiocy. Similarly. there is a scene where a speeding car is barreling directly down on Gnorm and he just stares at it as if to say, “Well, I don’t know what that things is, so let me stand here and find out.” How is this explainable? Are we to believe that In “Down-World” there is no concept of one thing smashing into another thing?

Also, while making that compilation I noticed Gnorm's kryptonite: glass doors. Bullets are no big deal, but two of his escapes are foiled by transparent bonk walls.

I made a compilation of Gnorm's assaults, because yeah!

Honestly, I was super checked out. I couldn't tell you if anyone's performance was good or not. And every time I tried to refocus, there was gross-o Gnorm with his gross-me-out lips staring at me, screeching about his fucking lumen while "Low Rider" blared in the background. The only good thing was I watched this on Tubi so the commercials gave me an occasional reprieve. I just didn't find this at all watchable. ETA: According to my Letterboxd, the movies have been all around terrible for me this week. It's been Forbidden Zone (gross), The Turning (boring), this (gross and boring), and Gretel and Hansel (boring). Fortunately, I had Cobra Kai...

The still of Gnorm in the tubi preview was enough to really turn me off the movie. It grossed me out. I appreciate how well made and acted Gnorm was by the puppeteers but Gnorm was was too much. Very Mac and Me kind of nauseated. I agree with everything they said with the actors; they really were great.

I looked him up and Joe Spinnell is Willi Cicci in the first two Godfather movies. He would have been in the third movie but he passed away the year before filming started.

UHF is great. Their appearance... is literally doing the exact same thing. It's an example of how weird the show they are watching is within the movie.

Time for my comments. I found this movie several years ago. I did a blanket search across several sites to find movie musicals to pick. The description for this one sounded interesting, especially as an Oingo Boingo origin piece. When I saw it I had much the same reaction as @Cameron H. did. It was disgusting, tasteless, yet interesting. I honestly thought I might be kicked out of the group for picking this but I had to share the misery. There are a lot of odd things but I have watched it many times since. It is now wearing off and will become a once-in-a-while watch. If people want to see it for free please let me know. I'm willing to Kast tonight or tomorrow night. Random thoughts: The Witch's Egg song the queen sings is bonkers. She talks about her dad and her search for love. Yet she's been in the Sixth Dimension (SD) for 1,000 years! Is this like Narnia where time is different? Susan Tyrrell (the Queen) wrote the Witch's Egg song. The ex-queen (Andy Warhol star Viva) calls the new queen "silicone-uddered". When did the new queen get the implants? It must have been 1,000 years ago in the SD before the ex-queen was sent to jail. Once again the time frame is odd. The jail the ex-queen is in seems awfully flimsy and no ceiling. Couldn't she have climbed out by now? The king has an autographed picture of Frenchy but how did he get it? By that I mean she's dressed differently in the picture than she is in the movie. One could argue that she's wearing the black outfit under her robe. I've seen the making-of featurette. One of the outtakes is the new queen ripping open Frenchy's robe and sucking on her bare breast in an attempt to abuse Frenchy. So the black outfit appears and disappears. I like the human chandelier but he seems to have quite the boner when he's turned into a skeleton. Also, does that mean the king and queen were making love so long that the chandelier eventually became a skeleton? I can't stand the Kipper Kids in any of their appearances. They just do the same thing over and over, while wearing jockstraps or boxing shorts. They are also the kids in the school with their noses pulled back via a rubber band. I found out they have an appearance in the movie UHF but I don't know what it is. YouTube has some outtakes of theirs that didn't make it into the movie. The Yiddishe Charleston (and everything Yiddish in this movie) is so bad the queen killed the singer! (I think that was the director singing it but am not sure. The red hair gives him away.) Everyone in this movie was committed. Most kicked their checks back into the production. Herve Villechaize came over on weekends and helped paint sets. He was an accomplished painter in real life. The picture he's painting in the movie isn't his but he was a good painter. Herve was in this because of Susan Tyrrell (the Queen and the bartender in Rockula). They had dated previously IRL but no longer were. However she got him to play the king and you saw their lovemaking and chemistry. Squeezit Henderson is a big fat snitch! Squeezit is shown to only be 11 years old in that memory where his mom calls him Chicken Boy. (Joe Spinnell is the drunken sailor. He's supposed to be famous but I've never heard of him.) So that means everyone else in the movie from the classroom is also only 11?

As I stated in my Letterboxd review I think I get what they wanted to do with this movie. They liked the classic animation style of Max Fleischer aka Betty Boop and that rubber band animation style and they wanted to do a weird live action version of that. However, much like another film that I loathed that HDTGM did, Velicopastor, they want to do a send up of something without understanding what it was they were sending up. Like Fleischer cartoons were not pushing bounties when it came to being offensive, they pushed them a bit it terms of suggestiveness perhaps, so when they had a blackface character it wasn't being edgy it is just what people did at the time. The women were sex bombs and suggestive but they didn't just have their tits out. It just seemed to me that idea was a hook to hang their hat on and what they really wanted to do was just be weird for the sake of being weird and offensive because it's easier to be offensive than come up with actual jokes. Doing things on the cheap and trying to get away with it, crouching offensive humor behind a guise of "Well these people do drag" or "this man is gay" to justify just cheap and shoddy jokes. Fun fact I own two copies of this movie but didn't watch it until the other day. Both were gifted to me by people that know I like weird movies and I like bad movies. To be fair to them on paper it does seem like something I would enjoy. If I was 20 years younger I may think different as I do now. The funny thing is earlier this year I watched a documentary on the band The Residents and they talked about this movie briefly in it. The Elfmans were friends with The Residents and they were filming it in their space. There is a difference in what the difference between what the The Residents were doing and what Forbidden Zone was doing. One is actual art with something to say. The execution comes off as weird but they are trying to say something. Forbidden Zone wants to be that but has nothing to say. Heck, Holy Mountain and El Topo are bizarre surrealist movies but again they are trying to say something.

I kind of hate it when people ask how something got made, and the answer is drugs. It always feels sort of lazy to me. However, watching this, I don't think it was made because of drugs, but I think it is meant to be watched while high. There's not really much of a plot, so my mind would wander from time to time, and then, suddenly, there would be, like, a chicken talking. This wouldn't be explained. It would just kind of happen. I think the kind of X-Rated Sesame Street, ADHD-ness of it is meant to be taken in all at once. It's made for you to just catch certain things on different viewings. Not that I would want to re-watch it, but for, like, the kind of people who would want to.

But seriously, I had a massive migraine yesterday and couldn't start watching this until last night. I just finished it. Honestly, I'm not too sure what to think of it. Let's see if I can work it out. My prevailing feeling is one of nausea. Like, the whole thing is gross. Not just with the sexism and racism, but just everything about it turned my stomach. However, I think this was absolutely the type of visceral reaction they were hoping for, so, like Mission Accomplished? It felt very student art filmy. Very punk rocky. very John Waters-y. But, without the deftness of any of those things, and kind of fails at everything it is trying to do. Like, if I look at it at a Comedy, I don't think it's very funny. If I look at it as a Musical, *most* of the numbers are intentionally terrible. It also misses me as an Art Film as it seems to lack a point beyond lets be as offensive as we can be. I mean, there's a word for people like that, and it's "asshole." So...the movie is kind of a big asshole. Again, I feel like that was very much the intention of the film, so I guess it succeeds. In a weird way, I'm glad I saw it. It's definitely not something I would have ever picked for myself, I hadn't even heard of it before, and that's what I like about Musical Mondays. It forces me to go outside of my comfort zone. That being said, I would neve want to watch this ever again. It is pretty fucking distasteful -- lol.

Me watching this movie with my eyes closed and fingers in my ears humming...