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"Amazon Women on the Moon" is a very funny comedy that makes fun of movies and television shows - and the people who watch them. Released a decade after "The Groove Tube" and "Kentucky Fried Movie," it was one of the last great "anthology comedies," combining nearly two dozen unpredictable comedy segments.

Rosanna Arquette appears as an attractive young woman who embarrasses her blind date by first asking for a major credit card to perform a surprisingly thorough credit check. But the surprises keep coming even within the movie itself, as it switches again and again to different and unrelated scenes. A swashbuckling ship full of pirates is shown attacking another ship flying a strange flag - "MCA Home Video". It turns out they're video pirates - who, no, are not afraid of the FBI warning at the beginning of each videotape.

The movie eventually settles on an open-ended premise - it's a re-run of a cheap science fiction movie being rerun on late-night TV - which is constantly being interrupted by surreal commercials. There's an urgent plea to raise money for Don "No Soul" Simmons, a black man who, the announcer explains, was tragically, born without any soul. And "Silly Putty" isn't good enough for the wealthy of today, who instead insist on playing with "Silly Pate." A change of channels discovers "Reckless Youth", a black-and-white juvenile delinquent film decrying the corrupting influence of rock and roll. But soon the movie returns to the scenes from its ridiculous science fiction melodrama - "Amazon Women on the Moon."

There were some talented people behind the parodies, including John Landis - who'd also directed part of the original "Kentucky Fried Movie" - and Joe Dante, a true fan of cheap B pictures who'd grown up to direct movies like "Gremlins" and "Innerspace." The movie's cameos includes many familiar actors from the 1980s, including Arsenio Hall, Carrie Fisher, Phil Hartman, Ed Begley Jr., and even Andrew Dice Clay. Some of the film's in-jokes suggest a real awareness of the film industry, including a scene where two Siskel and Ebert-like movie critics review -the life of the man watching their show.

The two reviewers particularly object to the unbelievable scene where he has a heart attack while watching two TV reviewers talking about his life. This inevitably leads to a strange funeral, where the presents of the eulogy turn out to be Rip Taylor, Henny Youngman, Slappy White and Steve Allen. The jokes keep coming fast and furious, while the movie's format ensures a new surprise is always just a few minutes away. The fast-cutting keeps the movie funny, entertaining, and strangely fascinating.

Even when it's showing scenes from "Amazon Women on the Moon."

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