I'm not advocating the use of drugs, I'm just stating a fact that there are an awful lot of folks out there who like watching their Dr. Who and Star Trek with a little chemical enhancement. And now I'm pretty sure that one of those guys has gone out and made a movie to capture that particular state of mind.

To put it another way -- try to imagine if Kenneth Anger had suddenly turned aggressively heterosexual and decided to remake John Carpenter's Dark Star and you might have some idea about the trip you sign on for when you check out writer/director Jacques Boyreau's psychedelic slice of science fiction cheesecake.

In the future, the human race is dying off and men's testicles are shrinking. The last hope for humankind's survival are the crews of spaceships sent out to find and impregnate suitable alien life forms. The crew of Rocket Leroy think they may have found such life on a planet that seems to exist somewhere between the Indiana Dunes and somebody's screensaver, and it's true: the planet is crawling with babes.

The trouble is, the women are at war with each other and the leader of one side has captured and brainwashed the captain. What does one do in such a situation? Ther ship's robot suggests they call Candy Von Dewd, who will help everyone out with her good vibes.

Candy Von Dewd is introduced to us during a particularly amusing dance sequence wearing a costume so tight and skimpy that the top doesn't manage to completely cover her breasts. But by the time she hooks up with the crew of Rocket Leroy they're already pretty much doomed. Or just maybe she can help the survival of the human race by getting a little friendly with one of the crew members.

My earlier comparison to Kenneth Anger wasn't just me being cheeky -- the strange visuals, the loosely associative narrative structure, and the rampant sexuality of Anger's strange films is echoed in Boyreau's campy, yet artful, visual style. If nothing else, you have to walk away from this movie feeling like you've watched someone's personal vision, a quality that is pretty rare in movies these days. The plot may not be a tightly wound precision instrument, but one can't help but notice the churning of a demented little mind running through the movie, and that's a rare thing these days.

There are quite a few comparisons to Barbarella on the back cover of the video box, but let me just say that this movie kicks Barbarella's ass so bad it just isn't funny. (Though, to be fair, I should say that I've never been much of a fan of Barbarella, so that bar is set kind of low for me.)

The movie is being released on dvd by Alpha, which means that the disc is dirt cheap -- but unlike their public domain releases, the titles on Alpha New Cinema have animated menus (generally I'd hate that if it were listed as a feature, but on a 5.99 dvd it's a surprise to see) and the trailer for the movie along with a few more of their catalog titles. The transfer is pretty clear, and I thought it showcased the movie's visuals well. Again, at this price you're not expecting a Criterion Collection level presentation, so the quality of the transfer was also a decent surprise.

So once again, I'm not advocating the use of anything, but if you are one of those that likes to hit the hookah before watching Tom Baker trip over his long scarf, you just might want to slip Candy Von Dewd in your pipe and smoke it.