Spoonixel Amateur movie with Big budget

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Tayyab Torres Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Darin One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

MartinHafer "The Wizard of Mars" is a rather boring low budgeted film. I watched it mostly hoping it was at least interesting when it came to the parallels to "The Wizard of Oz" but sadly this didn't pan out at all.The film begins with a space ship crashing onto the surface of Mars. There are several men and, surprise, a lady. Their biggest problem is that they only have a very limited supply of air and so they leave their vessel in search of some way to survive. This search makes up the bilk of the movie and, sadly, it never gets interesting or the least bit like "The Martian"...it's just a cheaply made film with dull characters (despite the supposed Oz parallels). Even for bad movie buffs, this film has little to offer...it's not even enjoyable on a camp level.

pnunes68 I remember seeing this movie as a kid on the "Sunday Afternoon" movie on the local station in the late 70's, but I couldn't remember the title. I knew it had to be from the 60's so IMDb helped me narrow the possibilities. The key was I remembered the astronauts finding a "Golden" road under the desert, so the "Wizard" title grabbed my eye.A Google search brought some web sites that fully describe the movie and show screen shots.I am a bit disappointed now that the actual movie does not live up to my memories of it. I remember it being kinda spooky and strange, but now it seems really stupid.I would like to see it again, too bad there doesn't seem to be a DVD yet. I wonder if it is on any movie compilation set of "B" movies.Paul

auteurus I saw this little gem on late nite TV as a kid and it has stuck with me every since. From the psychotronic sound track to the low budget effects and cheesy plot, this is a gem of Z grade science fiction from a true Hollywood outsider - David L Hewitt, the king of low budget masterpieces! I guess I'm nostalgic about unloved, low budget movies from this time period. If you shot a movie like this today on your fancy video camera, edited it on your Macintosh and promoted it on the Internet, it would suck royally. I have a certain respect for self-made directors like Hewitt who churned out exploitation flicks like this in the 60's, when it truly was a 'labor of love'.I own several Hewitt movies on DVD but sadly, Wizard has yet to see the light of day. I'd pay good money for a Wizard of Mars collectors edition DVD with a commentary from the master himself. Quick, someone get Criterion on the case!

Andy Steinberg This movie was so bad even I couldn't stand it. It was the first movie I ever removed from my massive personal collection because it was just that lame. I gave it to someone for free under the condition that he took it away, far away. I bought it under the title "Horrors of the Red Planet", and it was only slightly less nauseating than "Wizard of Mars" because it was shorter. You could cut half of this film out and you wouldn't miss it. The summary on the box had absolutely nothing to do with the movie, it mentioned black holes, alien ships and photon torpedos, none of which appeared in the film. I've seen better films on Petri dishes. The special effects were so bad they made Doctor Who look like Star Wars. (I'm not slamming DW, that's my favorite show.) A wall of shaking tin foil with a red lamp on it wa supposed to be underground magma. The science in this made Godzilla look like Andromeda Strain. One of the characters said something like,"We don't have enough oxygen to make it. But there is a little oxygen in the Martian atmosphere, so if we drop our suit pressure to below Martian air pressure, the extra oxygen will flow into our suits." WROOOOOOOONG! The characters were about as bright as coal sacks, sharp as balloons. I gave this movie a 1, which was far too generous but it's the lowest score available. If you want a better movie, watch Blood Diner.