KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (1979)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Very disappointing...

Sorry, this movie sucks

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

In the early 70's there was a band called Kiss.They wrote great songs and struggled to get radio play. After releasing 3 classic albums,they release a live record and become extremely popular. They released 3 more classic albums and another live one and 3 years after becoming a band,they are the biggest stars in the world. What would be a good business decision at this point?Maybe release 4 mediocre solo albums and a 2 disc greatest hits.Hey,why not make a crappy movie that same year? In the 70s real movies weren't shown on TV so things like this were a big deal. Made for TV movies probably got the best ratings and they never put any effort into making them. This movie is about a mad scientist who works at an amusement park. Still reading?? He gets fired and makes a robot Kiss. You know what happens next. This movie is only for hardcore Kiss fans and it will just make them mad.Never,ever see this movie.

Whether or not you like the rock band KISS, it's hard not to admit that they are the biggest whores in the history of music. I am not talking about their sex lives, but their willingness to almost anything for a buck. No, wait...considering that they starred in KISS MEETS THE PHANTOM OF THE PARK, they would do ANYTHING, A-N-Y-T-H-I-N-G for a dollar!! You don't believe me? Well check out their official website as well as Gene Simmons' site. There is KISS wine, KISS skateboards, KISS phone skins, KISS comic books and even KISS toys. Heck, sooner or later I almost expect to see KISS home pregnancy kits, toilet paper and suppositories!! If I were in their position, I might, too, succumb to the lure of cash...it's hard to say. But as far as this made for TV movie goes, it's hard to imagine money holds this much power over anyone and this is way beyond the limit for traditional rock and roll whoring! It is, in my opinion, a travesty and KISS owes its fans something to pay them back for making this film--like maybe some free Gene Simmons Java (this is a real product, I swear).To say this is a horrible film is a gross misstatement. Aside from playing a few of their famous songs (such as "Beth" and "Detroit Rock City"), there is nothing about this film that is good in any way. Heck, even the choice of songs is often suspect, as the group definitely had better stuff than many of the forgettable tunes in this film.As I explain the plot, I want you to understand that I am not insane nor am I on drugs--this REALLY is the plot for the film. An amusement park has invited KISS for a series of concerts. However, the mastermind behind creating the park is a loopy guy (Anthony Zerbe--who made a career out of playing evil and slimy villains) and he hates KISS--though you are never exactly sure why. But, because Zerbe does not control the park, he is forced to spend most of his time living underneath the park--perfecting his weird audio-animatronic creations (similar to Disney's but even more evil). But, when Zerbe is fired, he vows revenge and unleashes his army of robot zombies!! Egad! Can anyone help? Is there any hope? Well, sure...as it turns out that KISS is actually made up of superheroes who make the X-Men look like losers. The Star Child (Paul Stanley) can shoot lasers out of his eyes and sing well. The Demon (Gene Simmons) can growl like a lion, shoot fire out of his mouth and sing...not so well (but he makes up for it by singing loudly). The Space Ace (Ace Frehley) can appear and disappear at will (sort of like his career with KISS, actually). And, the Cat...is a guy painted like a cat. So how do they have all these cool powers (that look REALLY bad on film, by the way)? They have a case with magic talismans which enable them to live many lives, play great tunes (sometimes) and shoot things out of their bodies (I'll say no more).So, Zerbe can't get himself a decent hairdo, but he is able to figure out that his next step is to steal these talismans. Unfortunately, they (like most talismans) are protected by a force field and his robot-zombie can't get them--that is until Zerbe creates a cool ray gun which renders the force field inert (by the way, how did he test this to know that it would work?!). In addition, he has created four exact replicas who will take KISS' place after they are kidnapped. Step one (get the talismans) and step two (kidnap KISS) work out great, but considering that Zerbe did not appear to have a step three it's not surprising that it all fell apart at the end. You'd think step three would be global domination or at least getting some hot chicks, but you never hear or see anything that would indicate there is any plan other than to replace KISS with robots (and, judging by this movie, this MIGHT have already been done by some other mad scientist before filming began!).Overall, this is a god-awful mess of a film which happens to have a few good songs, but otherwise it's 100% terrible and ONLY of interest to rapid KISS fans (who STILL might insist this is better than STAR WARS or the works of Akira Kurosawa) or bad film aficionados like myself. What makes this especially bad is not just the terrible script but the fact that it's obvious that the band could have cared less about the film--putting no energy into it and not even bothering to show up for the dubbing sessions or scenes (see the IMDb trivia section for more of this). Basically, it's just a change to whore themselves out and get even richer!

I gave this a 10 out of 10 for campiness. This is a fantastic homage to the 70's. The scenes at the amusement park brought back memories of going to Ponchatrain beach in New Orleans (torn down in 1984 to put up condos sadly) I remember watching this at Halloween time when it was shown on TV. If you want to see it in it's greatest, get the old video version with Peter Criss' lines voiced over by another actor. A bit of a friendly correction to the comment above. The song "Rip and Distroy" was an evil version of "Hotter than Hell". A bit of trivia. When Gene jumped over the fence, he k/o'ed one of the cameras.I've got the DVD of this movie and I still watch it occasionally. Good stuff.

Before I watched this, I was told that I was going to want to turn it off within the first ten minutes. But I watched it and actually got into it. The acting wasn't bad by most characters, the band members wern't that good at acting but oh well. I had a good laugh at the lame graphics, with the laser guns, flying and "powers" the band members had. It actually had an alright sort of plot with a good ending. The name of the movie could of been a little more creative (when I heard the name, I thought of "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein"). But overall the movie wasn't bad, the acting was alright, and I'm sure it was considered amazing back in the 70's when it came out. So I'm giving this movie an 8/10.