Month: April 2017

Starcrash (1979)

STARCRASH (1979)
aka Scontri stellari oltre la terza dimensione
Article 1802 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-19-2006
Posting Date: 7-19-2006
Directed by Luigi Cozzi
Featuring Marjoe Gortner, Caroline Munro, Christopher Plummer

Space smuggler Stella Star is recruited by the emperor to investigate a secret weapon begin developed by the evil Count Zarth Arn and to find his missing son.

As if you couldn’t tell from the title (and the pseudo-John-Williams soundtrack) (and the title graphics), this is a STAR WARS ripoff. Well, even ripoffs can be amusing up to a point, and one nice thing about this movie is that it occasional references something other than STAR WARS . For example, I like the fact that the ship during the opening of the movie is named the Murray Leinster, and then there is the JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS reference with the giant metal robot (even if she’s poorly animated), and I’m further amused that one of the villain’s henchman is named Elric (a name that should be familiar to Michael Moorcock fans). Still, this kind of thing wears thin pretty quickly, and the movie gets fairly tedious. Still, if you’re a Caroline Munro fan, she does what she does best here (which has nothing to do with filling out roles and everything to do about filling out costumes). The movie even has the token “great actor” in a significant role (Christopher Plummer), but even his performance disappoints; he adds way too many “significant” pauses during his speeches. Still, he comes across as better than Joe Spinnell, who overacts shamelessly in the Zarth Arn role. Still, I’m not sure he can be held entirely responsible because only two of the English-speaking actors in the movie were allowed to keep their own voices in the English dubbed version; David Hasselhoff and Plummer.

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Zombies of the Stratosphere (1952)

ZOMBIES OF THE STRATOSPHERE (1952)
Article 1801 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 2-18-2006
Posting Date: 7-18-2006
Directed by Fred C. Brannon
Featuring Judd Holdren, Aline Towne, Wilson Wood

Martians hatch a plot to save their dying world by blowing the earth out of its orbit and having Mars take its place. They will have to contend with Larry Martin and his rocket suit.

There are some movies that have made such a strong initial impression on me that I can’t watch them again without having those original feelings rush back. This is not necessarily a good thing, especially if that initial impression was bad. This serial is one of those unfortunates. For years, I’d heard about serials and they sounded like so much fun, I couldn’t wait to see one, and this one came along, and almost singlehandedly turned me away from the whole serial genre permanently. Usually, the first episode of a serial is one of the strongest, but not in this one; it’s merely the longest episode, and it feels no different than the rest of them. What does it say about this one that its first two cliffhangers largely consist of footage from other serials? And that when it comes time for the inevitable recap episode (Chapter 10, for those who want to be forewarned) that most of the footage here is from those first two cliffhangers? This is a tired, lazy, and uninspired serial, and with Republic’s trademark fights long gone by this time, the footage that doesn’t look like it was borrowed from other sources mostly consists of dull heroes and villains standing around talking. There are a few good moments; the robot is fun, and the final episode has a bit of life to it. Other than that, there’s little to recommend here, unless you really have to see every serial with the rocket man outfit in it or you really have to see Leonard Nimoy in a Martian outfit.

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