SUN RA ! MUSICIAN, YES - ACTOR, NO

I just watched this movie the other night. It was SPACE IS THE PLACE and it starred the great Sun Ra. Now when I say great, I'm referring to the man's music. I am in no way referring to the man's acting ability of which there seems to be none. At least if this movie is the standard.
The movie does not really have a totally coherent plot except for the fact that Sun Ra is going to save the Black race through his music and take them to space where they can start over again without any oppression from the White man.
I'm not even sure that Sun Ra was going for any real plot, but maybe he was going for the concept instead.
Scenes jump from Sun Ra playing a card game with some other black guy who is in opposition with Ra's plan. Sun Ra destroys a nightclub in the 1940's with his piano playing which is the second scene of this film. The rest is Sun Ra going around trying to preach the message to the Blacks, and the enemy following around trying to thwart his mission.
There are also some rocket scientists who try to get Ra to tell them how his technology works and then try and kill him at a concert. This movie does have some concert footage but it is not prime Sun Ra stuff.
As for the acting,Sun Ra seems like he's reading everything off of cue cards and maybe he is. He has a sly smile on his face through most of the movie, either he's thinking that maybe this movie was a bad idea and he's just taking it all in stride, or maybe he's just stoned out of his gourd.
All the words I'm spewing out here should not lead one to think that I didn't like this movie, I actually did enjoy watching this.
The costumes are pretty way out and the special effects look like they were done by the guys who did the TOHO Godzilla movies. (Undeniably the best ones were made by the Japanese studio, and anyone who thinks that the Hollywood Godzilla movie that came out in the 90's is better, really is mentally lost).
I can't maybe put my finger on it, but I have a soft spot for this film. It's like a lot of those experimental films that came out in the late 60', early 70's. They don't all make sense but there is something about them that allows me to enjoy them on some level.

That being said I come to the next movie I shall review for all of you who truly need more of this trash in your life. It's called THE HORROR OF SPIDER ISLAND and this ting is really by all of the standards that you would learn in critic school a stinker. The plot is basic, and this isn't really a bad thing in itself, but it is executed oh so badly.
A group of dancers and there new manager are stranded on an island. They find a cabin of a professor who has been working on the island. The professor is dead and we soon learn that it is due to some alien and/or mutated spider like creature. The creature attacks the manager as he is taking a late night stroll and the guy although kills the thing, has been bitten, and is soon turning into some hideous monster, chasing after the girls who have to strip down to their underwear a lot because it's so hot on the island.
Two guys who work for the professor arrive and after a bikini party in honor of them being saved the mutated manager attacks.
As far as the acting ability of the cast, it couldn't be any worse. The directing is bad, the fight scenes are so bad they're laughable.
And yet this movie has a certain 3:00 AM ambiance to it that makes it somewhat enjoyable. This would be listed in that category of "so bad it's good" I guess.
The main thing is that if you watch this movie, please, and I say this with the utmost sincerity, do not do it while you are sober.