Blueghost George Lucas commented on dealing with studio heads, and what it was like to deal with someone who is not as smart and imaginative as you are; i.e. a studio head. He made Star Wars, a "spaceship movie", so the studios made a series of spaceships movies, and they were all awful.The concept being that since people liked a movie about spaceships fighting in space, that that's what was going to be made. Battle Beyond the Stars was made in that spirit, and it shows. Boy does it show.Is it tongue-in-cheek? Eh, you could argue it as such, but it's more or less just a low budget attempt to cash in on the scifi spaceship "market trend" in the film industry at the time.Adopting Kurosawa's script for a scifi setting sounds plausible and even exciting, but unless you're willing to put the time, care, money and effort into making the thing you're going to get, well, this.What's even more embarrassing is that I paid money to see this thing at a theatre that doesn't exist anymore. Seeing the poor special effects, a heavy reliance on medium focal length master shots, little in the way of any character development (Richard "John Boy" Thomas is no Toshiro Mifune), and a support cast that comes from TV land B-list, it's a wonder anyone heaps praises on this thing.It was not meant nor shot to be a send up "so bad it's good" cult classic. It was shot on the cheap, pure and simple, hoping that enough acne-pimpled pre-teens would shell out mommy and daddy's dollars to see it. Well, I was told not to, but I went and saw it anyway. and yes, I do regret seeing it. Even again on HBO during a summer late night TV session.There's a real lack of care, lack of inspiration, lack of energy put into this piece. Sybil Danning has been cast with A-material, yet probably did this for the paycheque (that and her Teutonic origins). Robert Vaughn comes from an age with actors did both film and TV, and so likewise did not have an issue with doing this, though probably regretted it afterwards.Everything from what I call the "moose ship" design to the pathetic or hackneyed UFO people, to even miss Danning's character (no matter how alluring she physically could be), just spells "I don't care" all over this production.There are worse movies. Truly there are. This is not the worst film, but it ranks down there with a lot of bottom feeders trying to ride the coat tails of other market trends in the film industry at that time.In simple language; don't watch this film. Spare your mind. It's not even good popcorn entertainment. It's really a cheap Star Wars wannabe, and given Coreman's involvement, I'm not surprised it intentionally turned out the way it did.Avoid, or watch at your own risk. Either way don't say I didn't warn you.

Claudio Carvalho The evil tyrant Sador (John Saxon) and his army of the mutants Malmori threatens the peaceful Akira farmers of the planet Akir with his Stellar Converter weapon and tells that he will return to collect their harvest. The former Akira warrior Zed (Jeff Corey) advises that they should hire mercenaries to protect them from Sador and offers his spaceship to seek them out. However, the Akira can only pay with food and lodging. The young Shad (Richard Thomas) offers to pilot the ship with the computer Nell to look for mercenaries. He meets Dr. Hephaestus (Sam Jaffe) and his beautiful daughter Nanelia (Darlanne Fluegel) in a space station where he unsuccessfully tries to find weapon. Nanelia comes with Shad and he teams up with the earthling Cowboy (George Peppard), who was going to deliver weapons to a planet that was destroyed by Sador and offers to give them to Shad. Then he meets five clones that share the mind of one entity called Nestor that join him. Shad also recruits the lonely and wealthy assassin Gelt (Robert Vaughn) that accepts the proposed payment. Then the sexy and annoying Valkyrie warrior St. Exmin (Sybil Danning) joins the group since she wants to battle. Shad also recruits Cayman (Morgan Woodward) that wants to kill Sador and does not require any payment. They return to Akir and Sador also returns to attack the planet. Who will win the battle?"Battle Beyond the Stars" is an enjoyable cult movie with a story based on "Seven Samurai" and its remake "The Magnificent Seven" but in space. Inclusive the Akira is a tribute to Akira Kurosawa. "Battle Beyond the Stars" reuses material from other films ("Space Raiders", "Starquest II", "Dead Space" and "Bachelor Party"); the acting is only reasonable; and the special effects, sets and costumes are poor. But who cares? My vote is six.Title (Brazil): "Mercenários das Galáxias" ("Mercenaries of the Galaxies")

bbickley13-921-58664 Yeah it's a pretty good movie. A nice early temp from filmmaking Juggernaut, James Cameron whose talents got him promoted to head of visual effects. His crowning achievement being a really cool looking ship that looks like it has a set of boobs. Thanks Jim! Not the only set of boobs in the flick, it also features B-Queen icon, Sybill Danning in strange battle armor made out of foam. I recognized George Papard and Robert Vaughn, who were big stars to my childhood thanks to their run on the A-Team. I'm sure it brought people into the box-Office,despite their performance being so-so. Also great about the movie is the film composing of James Horner that somehow made the cheap effects look a little better. But it is worth seeing just to check out what Mr. Avatar was able to do with so little.

utgard14 John Boy from the Waltons goes out and recruits mercenaries to help fight off an evil space warlord. Among those he gets to help are the A-Team's Hannibal, the bad guy from Superman III, and Stirba the werewolf bitch. It's a fun cast. Roger Corman's sci-fi remake of Seven Samurai/Magnificent Seven is also the best Star Wars knockoff of the many that came out in the late '70s and early '80s. While many have called this movie cheap-looking, it's actually fairly impressive for a Corman production. He would reuse these sets and some footage for future crappier low-budgeters. This is a fun sci-fi adventure movie that should entertain you if you don't take it all so seriously.