Movie Reviews: Starcrash
Intergalactic smugglers Stella Star (Caroline Munro) is recruited by the Emperor of the Galaxy (Christopher Plummer) to rescue his missing son, Simon (David Hasselhoff). There is also the matter of the evil Count Zarth Arn who is threatening the galaxy with a super-weapon of immeasurable power.
This is an Italian Star Wars knock-off with Hammer lovely Caroline Munro wearing not much at all, Christopher Plummer slumming it as the Emperor of the Galaxy and a pre-Knight Rider David Hasselhoff. How could this be anything but awesome? Sure, people looking for a movie that is actually well made or anything remotely like a coherent storyline will probably hate this movie, but I thought it was a lot of fun.
Direcor Luigi Cozzi (credited here as Lewis Coates) wanted to make a sort of Jason and the Argonauts in space, but the producers had seen the success of Star Wars and insisted that they cash-in on the other film's success. Cozzi still managed to slip in a few moments that seemed right out of a Ray Harryhausen picture, namely a giant stop-motion robot that chases our heroes and a swordfight with two robots that is just like the skeleton sequence from Jason and the Argonauts.
Most of the movie's ideas seem to be cribbed from Star Wars, however. There is a villain dressed all in black that has his own doomsday weapon and one of the heroes has poorly-defined magic powers. There is also a visit to an ice planet and a floating city, but this was two years before The Empire Strikes Back. Also, you can't have a Star Wars knock-off without a famous luvvie slumming it. Star Wars had Alec Guinness and here we have Christopher Plummer. By all accounts, he only took the role for the free trip to Rome.
The score is by John Barry of James Bond fame, so that is one more interesting thing about the movie. I couldn't help but be reminded of Moonraker whenever I heard the score.
Cozzi would eventually get to make his own Ray Harryhausen knock-offs in the two Hercules movies starring Lou Ferrigno in 1983 and 1985. One of the movies involves Hercules punching a bear into space, so you know that I will be checking out those movies. However, fans of trashy Italian cinema can look forward to me reviewing another Luigi Cozzi movie before then with 1980's video nasty Contamination. Yes, this one is a knock-off as well, this time of Ridley Scott's Alien.
Three pointy hats.
Next time: Crimson Peak
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