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5
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6 |
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10
= Highest Rating |
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In
a spacecraft shaped like a plucked turkey (sporting
a women's bosom, no less) John-Boy Walton scours
the galaxy in search of mercenaries to help
his people defend their planet against an evil
warlord. George Peppard, Robert Vaughn and Sybil
Danning battling John Saxon in a Roger Corman
Star
Wars
rip-off? Cult fans will certainly want to see
this one.
The plot is lifted straight
from
The Seven Samurai.
Ruthless space villain Lord Sador of the Malmori
(Saxon) is cruising the galaxy in his giant
aircraft carrier of a ship demanding fealty
to the New Order his Order or else.
He can back up this threat with his Stellar
Converter, "the most powerful weapon in
the universe", which can turn any resisting
world into a blazing sun. (Leaving exactly squat
left to conquer, we might add.) Now Sador has
targeted the peaceful planet of Ak'ir. Warning
of genocide if his demands are not met, Sador
gives the Ak'ira "seven risings of the
Red Giant" to surrender. He leaves a scout
ship to monitor the planet while his dreadnought
goes elsewhere to further the Malmori campaign.
There is but a single hope
for Ak'ir's salvation. Young Shad (Thomas) is
the one person among his people who can pilot
the planet's only space vessel. He is to
seek out fighters and try to convince them to
help Ak'ir make a stand. After evading Sador's
rear guard he heads out into the void to begin
his quest. In episodic fashion, Shad aided
by his ship's annoying female-voiced computer,
Nell encounters various aliens who for individual
reasons sign up to battle the Malmori. Cardboard
characters all, these include Nanelia (Darlanne
Fluegel), a computer expert and love interest
for Shad; Cowboy (Peppard, The
Blue Max),
a gunrunner and ex-military man from Earth who's
a fan of old Westerns; Gelt (Vaughn, The
Man from U.N.C.L.E.), deadly, enigmatic
soldier of fortune who tops the galaxy's 10
Most Wanted list; Nestor, a group of albino-skinned
clones who share a collective consciousness;
Cayman of the Lambda Zone (Cool
Hand Luke's Morgan
Woodward),
a gregarious reptilian being with two heat-generating
alien dwarves, the Kelvin, as sidekicks; and
Saint Exmin (bodacious Sybil Danning of Malibu
Express), an obviously Frazetta-inspired
woman warrior from the planet of the Valkryies.
Once assembled, the group's small flotilla of
ships heads for Ak'ir and the showdown with
Sador...
Clichιd, with TV-level production
values (you've seen sets and creature makeup
like this on the original Battlestar Galactica),
the movie nonetheless retains a sense of good
cheer and nostalgic, old fashioned fun. Taken
with tongue firmly in cheek one can overlook
the shortfalls of an obviously low budget
one
which skinflint producer Roger Corman and first-time
special effects supervisor James Cameron (yep,
the self-proclaimed "King of the World"
himself) manage to stretch well beyond its means.
Cheesy sets aside, the
models and miniatures all look pretty darn good
considering. The space battle laser and sound
effects are another story, however. (This movie
sounds a lot like an '80s video arcade.)
The majestic early score by James Horner
which he liberally cannibalized two years
later for his Star
Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan soundtrack
helps to keep things engaging and seem much
grander than they truly are.
Most of the recognizable
cast are clued to what's afoot and play accordingly.
'John-Boy' Thomas, as Luke Skywalker substitute
Shad, delivers an earnest performance that's
absolutely right for the film's Saturday afternoon
tone. Scenery chewing John Saxon (Cannibal
Apocalypse, Tenebre)
is in full Ming the Merciless mode as the villain
Sador. Morgan Woodward is obviously having a
blast with his part as the hammy alien gator
man; check out his loopy war cry just before
the character's immolation. The late George
Peppard seems to be having fun as well in a
trial run of his A-Team Hannibal Smith
character. B-movie queen Sybil Danning's space
Amazon is given the silliest lines not helped
by the fact that she can't act but her talent
for wearing a leather bustier and thigh-high
boots is beyond question. Of the well-known
actors present only Vaughn seems a bit disappointed
to be working in a Corman picture (again, 20+
years after Teenage
Caveman). He overcompensates when playing
the aloof, saturnine mercenary Gelt. His cold,
distant demeanor comes off less Gelt's personality
than a bored, phoned-in performance. And why
does he spend most of his screen time staring
at the ceiling? (At least his spaceship has
the coolest looking dashboard.)
Battle
Beyond The Stars
is undeniably cheesy and derivative sci-fi schlock.
Still, the flick can be an enjoyable time waster
in the right frame of mind i.e., low expectations.
Just be glad that the mimes (playing androids)
are only in the movie for about 10 minutes.
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Shot
in 5 weeks for about 2 million dollars, this represented
the priciest Corman budget to date (he put up
half) yet well below what a major studio would've
pumped into such a project. Cameron and his fellow
novices did a pretty good effects job with what
they had to work with. In fact, the ever economizing
Corman has gone on to re-use its spaceship footage
over and over again in other movies ever since.
These tidbits of trivia, and a great deal more,
are covered in the two audio commentaries that
are the best features of New Concord's Battle
Beyond The Stars
DVD. While the commentary by Corman production
assistant (and later Terminator
producer)
Gale Ann Hurd is informative, it's the track with
screenwriter John Sayles and Corman himself that's
certainly the more interesting though they spend
relatively little time on the actual film at hand.
Sayles discusses many of the challenges and processes
that go into crafting a sci-fi screenplay, while
Corman, through often amusing anecdotes, covers
numerous aspects of low budget indie filmmaking
from the vantage point of both producer and director.
Great stuff here for cult movie fans.
The disc also comes with the
film's trailer, a number of preview attractions
to other Corman pictures, and a production still
gallery that's accessible if you correctly answer
the questions in a short trivia quiz. (Scenes
from the movie of spacecraft exploding are shown
in response to incorrect answers.) These extras
are nice particularly the Sayles-Corman commentary
mentioned above but the handling of the film
itself is lackluster. Though letterboxed with
good color balance, dirt and grain abound in the
first half of the movie; the re-mixed 5.1 Dolby
track is surprisingly flat. If Corman was as proud
of this movie as he seems to be in the commentary,
you'd think he'd have had it touched up a bit.
The fact that the disk sells as a mid-budget title
(under $20) likely indicates that New Concord
thought it wasn't worth the expense. 6/16/01 |
| UPDATE
Out of print for some time now, the disc is currently
selling for $40 and up (used). It is not known
whether Buena Vista, which in 2005 began reissuing
Corman's New Concord titles (such as Big
Bad Mama and Death
Race 2000), may get around to this one
anytime soon. |
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