The Story:
Dr. Fartin (yeah, the joke gets really old about 10 minutes into the film, but that doesn't stop it from being used through the end) has a master plan to rid the military of gays, including bombing gay hot spots with the super military aircraft "the Enola Gay Basher." But things go horribly wrong when Dr. Fartin is abducted by bug eyed aliens who use an electric probe (or blow torch???) to make him gay! Now, it's up to the FBI and Fartin's wife to figure out a way to turn him straight again and defeat the gay aliens before the whole world turns gay!

Don't Ask Don't Tell is one of those radical camp films that seems like a really well-executed film student project. The original film Killers from Space is completely overdubbed with new dialogue, and some new footage has been filmed in glorious black and white to intersperse necessary scenes to string the story along in its new context. This is a very timely piece, featuring satire on President Bush, the healthcare industry, conversion cults, and racial issues. The movie is set in "Inbred, Texas" for instance. The funny thing about this movie is, with its new dialogue, it plays out much like an Ed Woods movie. Much of the humor depends upon that silly Airplane type of dialogue. A good deal of it is laugh-out-loud funny, and of course, some of it is very cliché, both from the general humor point of view, and from the gay camp point of view. A lot of the "gay" jokes have been done before. The new footage feels forced at times, but at other times it works. For instance, when Dr. Fartin's wife wants to persuade an FBI man to help her, she lifts her dress to show him her thong—which, of course, is actually new footage, as is any footage in the film that includes nudity. Ironically, it's all female nudity in this gay-themed film. Considering the amount of female nudity, the really obvious gay jokes, and the not so drag-queenish drag queen in the new footage, it appears that this movie may have had a lot of heterosexual input. It's still funny, but it's truly a bit too straight for its own gay good. If you're gay and watching this film, you may feel like you're victim of a bit of pandering. Still it is funny for the most part, and the intention is to poke fun at the idiocy of homophobia. The biggest problem, I'd say, is that the overdub joke runs stale about half way through. It's a clever concept, but it starts to lose steam. It was at about the halfway point that I began to feel like the novelty was wearing off. The movie was about an hour and 20 minutes—they probably should have edited it down to about an hour and it would have held up better. The movie ends on a high note because blooper reels for the new footage run during the credits.

The DVD

Video:
Alas, this is a letterboxed aspect ratio of 1:85:1. Naturally, the film is black and white, and the original Killers from Space film hasn't been even slightly patched up. It's brutally damaged, but that goes with the territory. The new footage tries to look as old, but of course, it still looks newer.

Sound:
Flat out mono, so-to-speak. Sound effects and music are loud and clear, but the overdubbed dialogue is rather muffled at times. Perhaps they were trying to make it SOUND like an old movie as well?

Extras:
There are a handful of extras here. The menu switches tend to be really slow and unresponsive. Extras look like this:

ALIEN SECTORS—these are the chapter breaks, 13 in all.

ORIGINAL SCENE BUTTONS—periodically throughout the movie, an icon will flash on screen, and if you hit 'enter' on your DVD remote, you will be taken to the original clip from Killers from Space with the original dialogue. There are drawbacks to this. First, as I said, any page switching on this DVD is slow. Also, if you decide to click on the original scene quite a while after the icon flashes, when you click on the icon that switches you back to the Don't Ask Don't Tell film, it starts at the spot where the icon first showed, setting you back in your watching.

PRODUCTION NOTES—these are actually still shots, behind the scenes, with small captions describing the photos underneath.

MUSIC FEATURES—You can listen to the full versions of two songs written for the movie, with an art still shot on screen. Then, you can watch the video for one of the tracks which features all scenes from the movie, and a dance number by the aliens.

QUESTIONABLE COMMENTARY—several cast & crew members, who are hard for me to identify due to their unclear introductions on the commentary, talk and joke about the movie. They also go on and on about the naked actress they used in the new footage, which kind of makes me feel like an even more pandered to gay viewer, although it's comforting to know it's coming from liberal minded creators who are using the movie to make a point about homophobia. I'm honestly not sure if any gay person had any hand in making this movie at all. Anyway, there's a sound problem with this commentary. It seems like the microphone recording it picked up the audio track from the movie as the commentators were watching it, so the audio track does not cut out when they begin to talk, making it a challenge to hear what they are saying.

WEB LINK—If you open the DVD case, take out the disc, open the DVD-drive tray on your computer, place the disc in, close the tray, and click on the extra features in the menu, you can access the Refried Flicks homepage instead of simply typing in the URL.

Final Thoughts:
Don't Ask Don't Tell is a funny satire about homophobia, created by taking an old sci-fi film and overdubbing new voices to create a campy tale of conversion aliens. While it's a bit cliché at times, and the novelty runs thin, it has its funny moments. But it's probably not going to end up as a cult favorite with either gays or straights. It's too gay for straights, and too straight for gays.