"Galaxy of Terror" and "Forbidden World"

[D-Man]

Two Corman productions from the 80's in one day, I watched.  Both of which I expected to be nothing more than pale imitations of Alien.  One confirmed my expectations, and the other exceeded them. 

Galaxy of Terror was the bigger surprise of the two for me.  I was impressed with everything that Corman was able to accomplish on such a small budget.  The sets were better than expected, and the story is also a bit more original than the conventional alien monster story.  Plus, it had some really impressive death scenes, which always leads to a thumbs up from me in this genre.  I really shouldn't have been surprised how well it was all designed though, when I found out that a young James Cameron and Dennis Skotak were involved in this as well.  Definitely give this one a watch.

Forbidden World (AKA Mutant), while also able to impress on a small budget, falls into the more predictable category of the average Alien ripoff, as far as the story goes.  There are also some good kills, and nice gruesome effects here, but like this site's review points out, it ends just a little too abruptly.  Plus, there's the usual gratuitous sex and nudity that takes up way too much screen time, in my opinion.  It's a good time waster, but I still prefer Galaxy of Terror. 

[Jack]

I've been meaning to see Galaxy of Terror forever.  I always hear good things about it.

As far as Forbidden World,

there's the usual gratuitous sex and nudity that takes up way too much screen time, in my opinion. 

See, that would probably count as a plus in my opinion    I'm usually okay with average Alien ripoffs.  It's kind of my favorite subgenre actually.

[D-Man]

^ Now that I think about it, you've got a point.  I guess I just had more of a bloodlust at the time.   

And really, this film was actually a notch above the other Alien ripoffs I've seen in the past, when you come down to it.  I was just too impressed by Galaxy of Terror before I saw it.