queen of '80s camp, Pia Zadora became a household name of sorts when 
she won a Best Newcomer Golden Globe for the lurid Butterfly, followed by the ridiculous soap opera The Lonely Lady. Proving she could be a good sport, she went on to both a credible singing career and perhaps the decade's most ridiculous New Wave musical, Voyage of the Rock Aliens. A bizarre, virtually plotless collection of music video-style song and dance numbers wedged into a carbon copy of the kitschy 1970 Olivia Newton-John musical Toomorrow, it begins with some aliens on a ship watching the music video for Pia's European smash duet with Jermaine Jackson, "When the Rain Begins to Fall" (still the biggest hit for both of them, and a very catchy song).
Though dubious as cinema, Voyage of the Rock Aliens is a jaw-dropping and wildly entertaining time capsule on every pop culture level imaginable. Glowing checkerboard clothes, synth-heavy pop music, and a solo number with a lip-synching 
Sheffer slowly intercut with a glowering cougar ensure that this will live in the pantheon of beloved musical oddities for eternity for the steadfast excavators who keep stumbling across it. There is indeed a good reason why sites devoted to cinematic catastrophes always get around to this one sooner or later despite the fact that it only played American theaters in very limited regional test campaigns. Meanwhile lucky Europeans got it on a much larger scale, while the soundtrack has become a collector's item for those lucky enough to stumble on it. Most people caught the movie four years later when Prism unleashed this on VHS, while occasional cable airings ensured stunned reactions from unsuspecting HBO subscribers from coast to coast. And would you believe it was directed by James Fargo, who started off with the Dirty Harry films The Enforcer and Every Which Way But Loose as well as the Chuck Norris vehicle Forced Vengeance?
the alternate German credits (from a cruddy VHS source), and the original standalone music video for "When the Rain Begins to Fall," which begins and 
ends without the aliens. Audio is presented in English or German stereo with no subtitles.
Since German home video execs are apparently insane, that meant this one had to come out on Blu-ray, too. Issued 
two years later in 2014, it presents the film in both standard full frame and a matted 1.78:1 version; the latter is utterly skippable since it just blows the image up without any increase in detail and just looks a lot more claustrophobic. The 1.33:1 version appears to be a better-than-average upconversion from a PAL master running 91 mins. 38 secs., looking watchable in motion and at least nowhere near the depths some German Blu-rays can sink to (see Stick for a horrifying example). English and German audio options are presented in standard Dolby Digital stereo.
What's most surprising about the German Blu-ray (in a good way) is the extras, with everything from the double-disc set ported over (trailer, music videos, German credits, UK ending). Newly added are four very different TV spots, a 17-minute "promo reel" (one of those extended pitches they used to run on TV to fill up space between movies with an overly enthusiastic announcer trying to sum up the highlights), a "bilgergalerie" of promotional stills and artwork, and an extra four music videos(!): Jimmy and the Mustangs' "Trouble Maker," Zadora's "Real Love" and "You Bring Out the Lover in Me," and the movie version of "Little Bit of Heaven" slightly retooled into music video form. 
separation during the songs but nothing particularly dramatic otherwise. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided as usual. Crucially, this version also runs at the 
correct film speed with the original running time of 95 minutes, so the songs and dialogue are all correctly pitched now. "Embarking on a Voyage: The Making of an Alien Dance Rock Opera" (40m50s) features Berryman, executive producer Max A. Keller, producer Micheline Keller, wardrobe assistant Donzaleigh Abernathy, co-writer and co-producer Charles Hairston, special effects artist Dwight Roberts, and miniatures artist Anton Tremblay chatting about the radical change of the film from its original non-musical incarnation, the engineering of the ship effects, the intimidation of dressing "teeny weeny" Ruth Gordon, and the importance of chainsaw safety on the set. A new reunion featurette, "Where They Are Now: Reuniting the Band Rhema in the 21st Century" (48m39s) with members of Rhema -- Crag Jensen, Marc Jackson, Jeffrey Casey, Patrick Byrnes, and Gregory Bond -- is a priceless record of the band's history from its origins as a Christian rock band in Arizona through their fortuitous meeting with the film's producers (which ended up with one member deemed unsuitable for the camera), the production in Atlanta, the memorable encounter they had with an acting coach, the lessons learned along the way, and their own musical adventures after the band's dissolution. Vinegar Syndrome
CMV Laservision (1.75:1)
CMV Laservision (1.33:1)
