Iron Sky (2012) & Iron Sky: The Coming Race (2019)
Movies #1,108 & 1,109 • TWO FOR TUESDAYS
"August Sky" month continues here on TWO FOR TUESDAYS.
[[[ NOTE: add link to this in GERMAN CHAINSAW review when you post it to other site ]]]]
These movies are A LOT. But that is by design. You don't put Hitler riding a T-Rex on the moon by accident. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
These two B-movie-ass-looking are somehow Finland's most expensive films ever made, which somehow just adds to the hilarity of the whole endeavor. I definitely liked the original one more so let's start there.
It's all the way in the distant future (2018) and the Nazis, having secretly escaped earth at the end of WWII, have set up shop on the darkside of the moon. A Sarah Palin-like American President is vying for reelection and so she sends an African-American model on a "BLACK to the MOON" promotional gimmick. There is satire and then there is this: something so goofy and overt that it nearly renders any/all commentary moot. But I did find the humor in this amusing to a degree. This was a nice Dr. Strangelove homage? Sure...
I mean, it's a little different because it features a Black man who has been cosmetically turned white against his will and now looks like nearly identical to that Wayan Brothers movie...
The plotline surrounding the idea that the Moon Nazis' discovery of this guy's iPhone and its computing power allowing them to complete their ultimate War Machine weapon is legitimately good satire. (Although the subsequent continuation of this thread in The Coming Race is one of that movie's worst ideas, and it's a real race to the bottom there.)
Look, I hesitate to say too much about either of these. I feel like just knowing the baseline plot is enough for anyone to decide whether or not they want to take the plunge into the Iron Sky Universe (apparently a third installment — featuring Andy Garcia (?!) — is coming out soon?) or not. Who knows. Look, I could appreciate both the humor (to a degree, not everything hits for sure), and the aesthetic (which is very bad! but bad in a way that I liked) but maybe I'm just a freak.
SCORE 6.5/10: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
The crowdfunded direct sequel, Iron Sky: The Coming Race came out seven years later and despite featuring Udo Kier as Vril Adolph Hitler, it is easily the lesser effort. Also, somehow, despite being crowdfunded, it led to the bankruptcy of the Iron Sky Universe production company. I love the hubris that is attempting to turn this bonkers idea into a Marvel-like cinematic universe and I also love that it's completely imploded (but again: The Ark: An Iron Sky Story is apparently real so what is dead never truly dies?).
The main issue of this one is that is simply not funny at all. And that's a humongous problem when your movie is so clearly geared to function in that vein.
The legend Udo K. — reprising his role from the original in addition to playing the reptilian Hitler (this is loosely based on the Vril novel and ensuing conspiracy theories which is a whole 'nother can of worms) — has a ton more to do here which is one of the only things going for it. The only other real positive is that the action is ramped up to the nth degree, so you get stuff like Vril Osama bin Laden and Vril Pope Urban II riding wagon-pulling Triceratops off a cliff into a pit of lava and the aforementioned T-Rex/Hitler combo getting karate kicked to death by a blonde lady...
Even though they had a half decade to make this one, the writing is far more shoddy in every single way and there's no bigger example than the Tom Green subplot.
On the remnants of the partially destroyed Nazi Moonbase in 2049 (after nuclear war ruined the earth at the end of the first one — sorry, forgot to mention that detail), he leads a cult called the Jobsists formed around the teachings of Steve Jobs. It's like "remember the interesting stuff we did with Apple/iPhones in the original movie? Well here's some more 'satire' on that only it doesn't make any sense and isn't funny." It's a shame too because I was excited to see Green was in this. It just doesn't work at all.
Anyway, those are the two Iron Sky movies. The pride of Finland! I need to go take a shower.
SCORE: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️½
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Preview- Iron Sky & Iron Sky Dictator's Cut (2-Disc Edition Bluray)
Preview- Iron Sky & Iron Sky Dictator’s Cut (2-Disc Edition Bluray)
INCLUDES THE THEATRICAL CUT AND THE EXTENDED ‘DICTATOR’S CUT’
THE WORLDWIDE BOX OFFICE PHENOMENON IS HERE! In the last moments of World War II, a secret Nazi space programme evaded destruction by the Allies and made a daring escape to the Moon. In the intervening 70 years they have re-colonised, re-armed with devastating new weapons and silently plotted their revenge.
When an American astronaut…
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