Consider this science fiction movie history 101, not quite in the serious vein as "Watch the Skies!", the more professional and non-sarcastic documentary aired on TCM about 10 years ago. Then consider the fact that the narrators of this are all veterans of the original company of "Saturday Night Live" with "STV's" John Candy thrown in for good measure. In order to understand the cult following of such deliciously bad science fiction movies as "It Conquered the World" and "Plan Nine From Outer Space", you also need to be able to compare it to "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "War of the Worlds". Great time and artistic effort was put into creating those masterpieces which stand the test of time, while the others stand the test of time because they are so delightfully silly you can't help but turn them into comedy classics that just happen to involve outer space creatures.Then, there's killer trees, wobbling rocks that manage to crush their victims even though they stroll around on turtle time while human beings can certainly outrun them (if they would only stop wasting their time trying to shoot them!), white furred apes, creatures from the sea that look like they are trying to break the Coney Island record for eating hot dogs and various other inhuman beings that can't remotely compare with the artistic talents which went into making "The Creature From the Black Lagoon". Giant turkeys, leeches, lizards, insects and even vegetables pounced up on our drive-in movie theater screens, making the giant ants of "Them!" and tarantulas seem like classics, much like the original "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" were 25-30 years before most of these movies were made.The funny thing about these bad movies is the fact that once you get past the idiotic subplots, you really find yourself enjoying them. They are extremely clever in their own inept way, maybe unintentionally, but some filmmakers must have known that their subject matter and monsters were ripe for ridicule. Some of these films make Ed Wood's notoriously bad turkeys step up a notch. I guess you could say that there's an art to making bad movies. Some of the narration here truly is bad, but it will be the film clips that you'll want to experience here, not the dumb quips from the original not ready for prime time players.Two specialty segments cover "teens gone wild" and the bad musicals of the golden age of Hollywood. Certainly, the teens gone wild segment is truly funny, totally reminding me of the Lois Bromfield spoof, "Sorority Girls From Hell", but it is the musical sequence narrated by Gilda Radner which struck my interest. Main-stream movies such as "Sunny Side Up" and "Wonder Bar" get included with two truly campy production numbers. The "Sunny Side Up" number, "Turn on the heat!", shows dancing girls making bananas grow on the vine just by wiggling their chests at them, while "Goin' to Heaven on a Mule" strikes controversy today with its depiction of blacks in a small section of heaven (the white section is three times as large) eating pork chops right off the tree, plucking chickens and frying them, and most tastelessly, a giant watermelon which opens and has a tap-dancing Hal LeRoy in black face popping out. Other musical segments aren't really from musicals; One of them is actually from an MGM Technicolor short from the mid 1930's, and the rest are silly brief song interludes from some of the worst Z grade adventures ever filmed. So the film is a mixed bag of clips, but there is something here for everybody to enjoy and it might inspire future filmmakers to go out and research these films to try new ideas of their own.

It came from Hollywood features clips from some of the best b movies ever featuring;plan 9 from outer space,attack of the 50 foot woman,the killer shrews,glen or Glenda,son of Godzilla,the thing with two heads, Frankenstein meets the space monster,horror of party beach,and much more.but some of the movie clips shown are a list movies like day the earth stood still,war of the worlds,and the incredible shrinking man. hosted in segments by;Gilda radner,Dan ackroyd,john candy,and cheech and chong(they host getting high in the movies)its a fine hodgepodge of classic movie clips.it was put together very well and hopefully soon they will release this to DVD.i remember them showing this in place of Saturday night live once and they chopped it up.the getting high segment was missing of course and the racy clip from sunny side up with AL Jolson in black face was snipped.if you never seen this and you love Hollywood's b movies and some a list movies you will enjoy it came from Hollywood.and like john candy says in the beginning there's dirty parts too,not really its pg rated and there's no nude scenes.some adult language but thats it.bevare of the scene from glen or Glenda with bela Lugosi its a trip.some of the other films are i married a monster from outer space,mars needs women,amazing colossal man,cyclops,crawling eye,the manster,incredible melting man,attack of the mushroom people,Santa Claus vs the martians(with Pia zadora)beginning of the end,the giant claw,reefer madness,marijuana,and many others i didn't list.i recommend it came from Hollywood.its fun and its funny.10 out of 10.

I believe ICFH was definitely the inspiration for MST3K (1988). In 1982, many so called Baby Boomers were reminded, in a very entertaining way, of the "Late Late Show" movies of their childhood. They were also made aware of many movies that they were unaware of previously. I think this movie was a major factor in the resurgence of Ed Wood, and also the fact that virtually all the other movies shown on ICFH are now available on DVD.I think the first six years of the MST3K series,is basically a continuation the Cheech&Chong skit on ICFH. It's apparent this movie was very influential during the 80's,and continues to be a "Cult Classic".

In what seems to be a precursor to "Mystery Science Theater 3000", several famous comedians (playing themselves) mock some of Hollywood's worst movies ever. Cheech and Chong have lots of fun with "The Amazing Colossal Man", while John Candy and Dan Aykroyd love playing with Ed Wood's movies. Gilda Radner has a hysterically weird experience after hearing on the radio of an escaped gorilla. They all have some great comments and gags, especially when Chong orders an unusual container of popcorn.Either way, "It Came from Hollywood" is a testament to how funny all of these people really are. You'll love the "intimate" scene between Candy and Aykroyd.