Entertainment
Raunchy, 60s Sci-Fi Comedy Is A Wild Alien Invasion
By Robert Scucci
| Published
Whenever an older movie on streaming starts with a disclaimer stating, “The content you are about to view features depictions that are objectionable,” you know they’re trying to save face for something. 1962’s Invasion of the Star Creatures has this disclaimer, and it took me a minute to figure out why. It’s a movie about an invasion of very tall, sexy alien women who plan to take over planet Earth. Accompanying them are their male, plant-based counterparts who possess superhuman strength. Caught in the middle are two military privates who fall in love with the women while carrying themselves in slapstick fashion like Laurel and Hardy or the Marx Brothers.
It’s all pretty standard stuff, and my initial notes on this shlocky sci-fi adventure stated, “Anybody offended by this in 2026 needs therapy.” In my mind, that was a solid take. The alien women in Invasion of the Star Creatures are powerful and completely in control. Privates Philbrick (Robert Ball) and Penn (Frank Ray Perilli) are bumbling idiots who just so happen to be attracted to them. Their Sergeant (Trustin Howard) is a walking caricature who loves barking orders. It’s broad. It’s silly. It’s what you’d expect.
Then suddenly, out of nowhere, everybody’s smoking a peace pipe with a Native American tribe, and I began to understand why this film had a disclaimer at the beginning. I can’t say it’s grossly offensive by any stretch of the imagination, because Invasion of the Star Creatures is very much a product of its time. Its disclaimer even concludes with, “We present this material for its historical value. We strongly believe that awareness of yesterday’s prejudice and its lasting effects can be enhanced when that prejudice is seen through the lens of the entertainment it informed at the time.”
In other words, Invasion of the Star Creatures is objectionable to some in spots, but with the early 60s context in mind, it’s still a fun watch if you’re willing to look past your modern bias.
It’s Just Goofy Slapstick With An Alien Plot
Invasion of the Star Creatures tells a painfully simple story about Privates Philbrick and Penn, two military idiots so useless they’re relegated to trash duty and other humiliating tasks around the barracks. Despite their buffoonery, they’re summoned by their Sergeant to investigate a cavern that suddenly appears on the military’s radar.
They enter the cavern and are immediately accosted and kidnapped by giant vegetable creatures. These creatures lead Philbrick and Penn to their female alien overlords, Dr. Puna (Joanne Arnold) and Professor Tanga (Dolores Reed). Initially overpowered, Philbrick accidentally learns that kissing the aliens incapacitates them briefly after trying to make out with Dr. Puna.
Realizing they can’t handle an impending alien invasion alone despite knowing their weakness, the privates head back to base, explain everything to the Sergeant, and return to the cavern. Along the way, they have a run-in with friendly Native Americans who love to smoke their peace pipe, sing nonsense syllables, and dance the day away.
Now, I could be way off base here, but I’m fairly certain this is why Invasion of the Star Creatures opens with a disclaimer. It’s not misogynistic. It’s not even casually demeaning toward women, who in this case overpower their human counterparts with ease and speak with confident authority. If there were no disclaimer in front of this B movie from the 1960s, I wouldn’t even think twice about it because this is more or less what you sign up for when watching movies of this caliber from this era.
Streaming Invasion Of The Star Creatures
While the Native Americans may be depicted in objectionable ways, they’re also depicted as helpful and self-sufficient, and their presence drives the story forward. On the flip side, literally anybody else could have helped Philbrick, Penn, and Sergeant along on their trip to the cavern, so in that regard, it is a pretty wild creative choice, but one that ranks low on my personal offenso-meter.
Invasion of the Star Creatures is a solid B movie, and that’s all it ever needs to be. It’s the kind of slapstick that makes you want to say “yuk, yuk, yuk,” and slap your knee, and there’s really no need to overthink this one. It’s fun. It’s fine. Choices were made. You don’t have to watch it if you don’t want to.
If you want to see what all the fuss is about, though, Invasion of the Star Creatures is currently streaming for free on Tubi.
Entertainment
3 AdultFriendFinder red flags — how to avoid scams on AFF
Depending on who you ask, AdultFriendFinder is either the Wild West of hookup sites, an “anything goes” paradise for adult fun, or a total scam replete with bots, fake profiles, and inactive accounts.
After months of personal testing, I can confidently say which AFF you experience ultimately boils down to how you use the site. If you approach it naively, without a strategy, you’re probably going to have some frustrating experiences. On the other hand, if you exercise a modicum of caution and common sense, you’ll discover a huge, fun, and kink-friendly community.
Here are three red flags to look out for as you use AFF, to help you spot potential scammers and separate the authentic users from the fake profiles.
Hookup apps for everyone
AdultFriendFinder
—
readers’ pick for casual connections
Tinder
—
top pick for finding hookups
Hinge
—
popular choice for regular meetups
Credit: AdultFriendFinder
Unverified accounts
AdultFriendFinder already offers a fantastic first step in combatting fake profiles that they call ConfirmID. Once you’ve created an account, you can, at any time, upload a clear scan of a government-issued ID card and then, using a webcam, undergo a quick face verification scan to confirm that you are indeed the person identified in the government document.
This step strikes the perfect balance between not being onerous enough to annoy the average user but still requiring enough effort to deter scammers, who notoriously go after the low-hanging fruit.
Mashable Trend Report
Once you’ve completed the ConfirmID sequence, you’ll be rewarded with a verification badge on your profile, and we strongly recommend that you limit your one-on-one interactions on the site to other verified users.
Perfect profile photos
Alright, admittedly this one requires some personal judgment, as everyone should strive to upload good, high-quality photos of themselves to dating websites. But if every photo looks like it belongs in a magazine, or if the person in the photo looks a little too good to be true, you should exercise caution.
In the age of generative AI and filters, it’s trivially easy to create a fake photo or series of photos, so you should also be on the lookout for what isn’t in the photos. Are there recognizable local landmarks (clubs, restaurants, well-known parks, or street corners) in the photos, or are they all equally generic?
Over-eager chatters
Ever since chat bots became a thing, dating sites have become plagued with them, and as AI improves more and more, it’s not always easy to know, right away, if the “person” you’re talking to is really human. One dead giveaway, though, is how much they chat and how quickly they reply.
Real people go off on tangents, employ non sequiturs, and sometimes stumble with awkward questions or comments. Chat bots, on the other hand, are typically always chipper and extremely fast-talking, so much so that a paragraph-long answer can come back to you in seconds.
They also almost always have an agenda, too, whether that’s directing you to click on a link (“Follow my Instagram profile”) or getting you to divulge some potentially compromising bit of personal information about yourself.
Entertainment
SNL opens with another Pete Hegseth press conference
Saturday Night Live returned from a brief hiatus Saturday with a cold open depicting a joint press conference between Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and FBI Director Kash Patel, with “Master of None” creator Aziz Ansari playing the latter.
Colin Jost’s Hegseth hit the familiar beats at the podium — performative machismo, military bravado, and repeated jabs at the secretary’s well-documented drinking habits. This time, Hegseth arrived at the mic hauling an oversized pitcher of scotch, which he assured the room was his one for the day. He then fielded questions from the press about the administration’s handling of U.S. strikes on Iran, dismissing each reporter with the particular brand of smug confidence that has become central to Jost’s portrayal of the character.
Ansari’s Patel proved to be the sketch’s standout, arriving to defend his tenure at the FBI and proceeding to do so poorly. The bit’s centerpiece involved Patel simultaneously denying and admitting that he had locked himself out of his work email for 36 hours after forgetting he had changed his password to “kashmeoutside69.”
Funnily enough, Patel was reportedly locked out of his FBI email in real life and believed, at least momentarily, that he was being fired. As the sketch demonstrated, the distance between SNL’s Cold Open and the actual news cycle has rarely felt smaller.
Entertainment
NYT Connections Sports Edition today: Hints and answers for May 3, 2026
Today’s Connections: Sports Edition will require some knowledge of popular U.S. sports and pop culture.
As we’ve shared in previous hints stories, this is a version of the popular New York Times word game that seeks to test the knowledge of sports fans.
Like the original Connections, the game is all about finding the “common threads between words.” And just like Wordle, Connections resets after midnight and each new set of words gets trickier and trickier — so we’ve served up some hints and tips to get you over the hurdle.
If you just want to be told today’s puzzle, you can jump to the end of this article for the latest Connections solution. But if you’d rather solve it yourself, keep reading for some clues, tips, and strategies to assist you.
What is Connections: Sports Edition?
The NYT‘s latest daily word game has launched in association with The Athletic, the New York Times property that provides the publication’s sports coverage. The sports Connections can be played on both web browsers and mobile devices and require players to group four words that share something in common.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Each puzzle features 16 words, and each grouping of words is split into four categories. These sets could comprise anything from book titles, software, country names, etc. Even though multiple words will seem like they fit together, there’s only one correct answer.
If a player gets all four words in a set correct, those words are removed from the board. Guess wrong and it counts as a mistake — players get up to four mistakes before the game ends.
This Tweet is currently unavailable. It might be loading or has been removed.
Players can also rearrange and shuffle the board to make spotting connections easier. Additionally, each group is color-coded with yellow being the easiest, followed by green, blue, and purple. Like Wordle, you can share the results with your friends on social media.
Mashable Top Stories
Here’s a hint for today’s Connections: Sports Edition categories
Want a hint about the categories without being told the categories? Then give these a try:
Here are today’s Connections: Sports Edition categories
Need a little extra help? Today’s connections fall into the following categories:
-
Yellow: In Good Shape
-
Green: Current NFL Head Coaches
-
Blue: Famous Sports “Curses”
-
Purple: Starts of Big Ten Names
Looking for Wordle today? Here’s the answer to today’s Wordle.
Ready for the answers? This is your last chance to turn back and solve today’s puzzle before we reveal the solutions.
Drumroll, please!
The solution to today’s Connections: Sports Edition #586 is…
What is the answer to Connections: Sports Edition today?
-
In Good Shape: AGIL, ATHLETIC, FIT, STRONG
-
Current NFL Head Coaches: COEN, GLENN, REID, RYANS
-
Famous Sports “Curses”: BAMBINO, BILLY GOAT, MADDEN, SI COVER
-
Starts of Big Ten Names: BOIL, BUCK, CORN, HAWK
Don’t feel down if you didn’t manage to guess it this time. There will be new sports Connections for you to stretch your brain with tomorrow, and we’ll be back again to guide you with more helpful hints.
Are you also playing NYT Strands? See hints and answers for today’s Strands.
If you’re looking for more puzzles, Mashable’s got games now! Check out our games hub for Mahjong, Sudoku, free crossword, and more.
Not the day you’re after? Here’s the solution to yesterday’s Connections.
Wild D Jonas Brodin out for Game 1, F Joel Eriksson Ek also ailing
Cameron Young holds six-shot lead after three rounds in Miami
