Runtime:
92 minutes
Directed
by: Luigi Cozzi
Starring:
Marjoe Gortner, Caroline Munro, David Hasselhoff, Robert Tessier, Joe
Spinell
From:
New World Pictures, at least in the United States
This Italian schlock, when an experience it was watching this:
Here is another film I have known of for
years now but just saw last night; of course I knew of Caroline Munro's
infamous skimpy black leather outfit (and it was spectacular), yet I
wasn't quite prepared for how low-budget and just how baffling the movie
was. Did something get lost in translation?
The movie was a rather blatant clone of what is now known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope; there's even a lightsaber, which made me wonder how they did not get sued to oblivion. Several heroes get together to stop evil Joe Spinell from ruling the galaxy. These babyfaces include smugglers, the son of the Emperor, and a robot named Elle who was voiced by Hamilton Camp and spoke as if it was from Texas. The budget was obviously meager and it does look laughable compared to what was seen in the new Star Wars... yet I can't get mad as I am sure they tried their best with what little money they had, and both the sets & models looked good, all things considered; some were even multicolored when you wouldn't expect them to be. The stop-motion is pretty cool, although I am not sure why there were giant robots that were feminized by giving them boobs AND nipples...
It's just that the plot, t does not always make sense, and sometimes is highly illogical. There are plenty of examples I can give but I'll just mention one. Marjoe Gortner has some magical powers and yet there is no explanation for them or how often they can be used. I mean, they are the sort that you'd think could be used all the time and they'd be greatly beneficial, but despite a half-assed explanation trying to explain this away, it still is rather puzzling. I mean, he did have a great head of hair and a hell of a tan in Starcrash, but the entire character was rather confounding.
All that said, at least I was entertained (if not puzzled at times) while watching this high piece of camp, where people like Christopher Plummer were somehow roped in, and there are quality B-actors like Robert Tessier and Joe Spinell as the evil villain. They must have ponied up the cash to pay John Barry to provide the score; allegedly the filmmakers did not want him to actually watch Starcrash, as he may have been aghast at how he was working on a wacky genre effort like this was.
I still don't quite know how to rate this; I guess I'll give it two stars, and then throw up my hands and be glad I picked the rating at random. If nothing else, I can now use the phrase, “David Hasselhoff, wielding a lightsaber” and describe something that actually happened in a movie.
The movie was a rather blatant clone of what is now known as Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope; there's even a lightsaber, which made me wonder how they did not get sued to oblivion. Several heroes get together to stop evil Joe Spinell from ruling the galaxy. These babyfaces include smugglers, the son of the Emperor, and a robot named Elle who was voiced by Hamilton Camp and spoke as if it was from Texas. The budget was obviously meager and it does look laughable compared to what was seen in the new Star Wars... yet I can't get mad as I am sure they tried their best with what little money they had, and both the sets & models looked good, all things considered; some were even multicolored when you wouldn't expect them to be. The stop-motion is pretty cool, although I am not sure why there were giant robots that were feminized by giving them boobs AND nipples...
It's just that the plot, t does not always make sense, and sometimes is highly illogical. There are plenty of examples I can give but I'll just mention one. Marjoe Gortner has some magical powers and yet there is no explanation for them or how often they can be used. I mean, they are the sort that you'd think could be used all the time and they'd be greatly beneficial, but despite a half-assed explanation trying to explain this away, it still is rather puzzling. I mean, he did have a great head of hair and a hell of a tan in Starcrash, but the entire character was rather confounding.
All that said, at least I was entertained (if not puzzled at times) while watching this high piece of camp, where people like Christopher Plummer were somehow roped in, and there are quality B-actors like Robert Tessier and Joe Spinell as the evil villain. They must have ponied up the cash to pay John Barry to provide the score; allegedly the filmmakers did not want him to actually watch Starcrash, as he may have been aghast at how he was working on a wacky genre effort like this was.
I still don't quite know how to rate this; I guess I'll give it two stars, and then throw up my hands and be glad I picked the rating at random. If nothing else, I can now use the phrase, “David Hasselhoff, wielding a lightsaber” and describe something that actually happened in a movie.
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