I'm not surprised that many people do not 'get' this film. It is a very low-budget, 'psuedo-Sci-Fi' film. 'Psuedo', because it is most definitely not serious about being 'Sci-Fi'. All of the 'science' is portrayed totally tongue-firmly-in-cheek. If you didn't get that with the "baby bang" reference from "Doctor" Penny Priddy during the press conference scene, well, then I'm sorry, but you're hopeless.<br /><br />If anything, this is an anti-Sci-Fi film. It's a spoof of all those 1950's-era Sci-Fi films where the incredibly bad science interpretation is played completely seriously. I mean, c'mon, the Overthruster tracking device with the UPS-truck turn-signal click should have clued you in that someone isn't quite serious here.<br /><br />What we've got here is a great romp with some future mega-stars having a great time. Lithgow's performance alone is worth the price of admission. Ellen Barkin is luscious in both that pink dress and her tied-up black skirt. That jail-cell flirtation scene... well, what more can I say? Those wonderful in-jokes: "Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems". YOYO-dyne? "The Future Begins Tomorrow"... well, of course it does. "Negative, we do not have crossover... we are over New Jersey. All is not lost." Well, of course it isn't... or is it? (Born and raised there, Woodbridge Twp., sorry. To this day, my sister and brother-in-law live in New Brunswick, I'm not making this up.) If you own the DVD, as I do, then you probably know that practically nothing was created for this film. The Red Lectroid bivouac was an abandoned Firestone tire factory. If you ever did high-school drama, you probably recognized Lizardo's foot-pedals as an ancient lighting dimmer board. The spinning Styrofoam cup in the "shock tower" (an automotive term) takes the cake.<br /><br />There is so much going on in this low-low-budget film to laugh with, not at. If you watch this film looking not to trash it but to laugh with it, I think you will get far, far more out of it.<br /><br />I only wish they had been able to make the sequel.<br /><br />And finally, I originally saw this film when it was first released, in the Harvard Square cinema in Cambridge, Mass. The screening was sparsely attended, but you could tell that some people "got it" even then, and many didn't. Too bad.