Mike Davis‘ Sex Galaxy has more in common with Woody Allen’s What’s Up, Tiger Lily? than the narrative collage work of Craig Baldwin, but when it comes time to throw in an extra joke, Davis doesn’t shy away from adding material from a melange of sources. Davis has also made a much dirtier film than those other directors.

“Sex Galaxy” actually sounds like the title of a ’70s porn movie and while Davis’ dubbed-in dialogue is as filthy as it gets, there’s probably only a little bit more nudity in this film than appears in Baldwin’s Mock Up on Mu.

A hundred years into the future, the planet Earth has become a dried up dust bowl thanks to global warming and thusly sex has been outlawed to stop overpopulation. Three horny scientists are shot into space to deal with a sewage problem on a space station, but after easily fixing the pipes there they then fly to a planet rumored to be inhabited only by women who exist to solely satisfy men’s desires. However, the girls are controlled by their robot pimp named Rod and the planet is overrun with giant prehistoric monsters, including the deadly, man-eating vagisaur.

The goofy ’60s sci-fi film that Davis has chosen to cannibalize for his own dirty humor is Voyage to the Planet of Prehistoric Women, which itself was a Roger Corman production that cannibalized from his previous sci-fi adventure Voyage to the Prehistoric Planet, which used cannibalized footage from the Russian film Planeta Bur. As the original, serious-minded Soviet Union flick got chopped up and re-edited and new footage added in, each film down the line got sleazier and sleazier until Davis turned it into his own ultimate lascivious playground. One has to feel a little bit sorry for original director Pavel Klushantsev that his film is pretty much lost to the ages, as well as breathe a sigh of relief that Corman didn’t get his mitts on Solaris. It’s bad enough that Soderbergh and Clooney had their remaking way with that.

But put that wistful mourning away because Sex Galaxy is absolutely hysterical. The most surprising thing about the film, though, is actually how plot-heavy it is. The movie isn’t just a series of dirty jokes strung together. Oh, there’s a ton of dirty jokes, filthy puns, overly creative terms for women’s breasts and the sexual act, plus one hilarious, graphically-revolting sequence using a cut-in educational film about how to treat syphillic sores on a man’s penis. But Davis hangs those jokes on a decent plot-intensive script.

However,, I might also be wrong about one thing. The most surprising thing about the film might actually be Davis’ underlying message that gettin’ it on with an army of mindless babes wearing seashell bras can’t compare to being in love with the right woman. Even more shocking, Davis seems to be absolutely sincere on this point and isn’t just being cynical. That’s why Sex Galaxy is really a successful work overall. There’s a humanism at play beneath the film’s raunchy exterior.

(This film was sent to the Underground Film Journal as a screener from the 2008 Spooky Movie Film Festival, Washington, D.C.’s horror film festival, which runs this year Oct. 16-20. However, Sex Galaxy will play during a special preview night on Oct. 11.)

Watch the Sex Galaxy movie trailer: