t_atzmueller Holy makerel, how did I end up on this page? Right, after cringing at the dismal career of director Roger Christian, many gleefully bad reviews for "Battlefield Earth" and realizing that Christian was actually responsible for one of my first cinematic epiphanies.See, as a wee lad, I was convinced that everything Science-Fiction was perfect. Didn't matter whether "2001", "Omega Man" or a Japanese Gozilla film. The good, the bad and the ugly where all good and wholesome to me; until my dad brought me a VHS-copy of "Starship" and for the first time in my long life, I reached for the controller and actually pressed STOP during the second half of a science fiction film! "Enough", reeled my young mind. "Why bother finishing this crap"? A realisation set in that there are films really not worth sitting through.Honestly, since I've spent many precious hours on utter garbage, b-films cheapos – sometimes regretting, sometimes not – but I've never finished watching the last half of "Starship". And I'm still kinda proud of that.Let's just hope that "Starship" will never be transferred from VHS, never makes it unto DVD or the internet and will just one day be forgotten in time and space … it's the best it deserves. No points from me although IMDb forces me to give at least one. A

cinemortal I admire Roger Christian enormously and rate this film at a 7 purely for creativity, fortitude and bravery because I dig the hugely ambitious nature of the concept he had at the time. I remember him rattling off all these fascinating ideas in interviews about a 'sci-fi western'. I also love the rawness of the young actors some of whom did a really good job.It was originally to be called '2084' (taking a cue from Orwell's 1948 novel '1984' was a hugely pompous mistake and luckily the fact that the film didn't come into fruition until 1985 must have helped seal the fate of that particular name). It was released under that name in Australia however.The original tag-line was "In 2084 all who oppose the system must die or become outlaws" The English language VHS versions I have seen both in the UK and USA releases are edited heavily, some key scenes and at least one character have been completely deleted, this leaves gaps in the plot and the continuity. Also both these VHS releases have been dubbed. Tony Bank's score being replaced with a dribbling, tawdry load of old giblets composed and performed by Craig Huxley. The droid character with the annoying voice was originally called 'KID' but for some reason every instance of his name has been clumsily dubbed over with the name 'GRID' It's annoying as the dubbed-in single word stands out a mile, sometimes I think it is another actor impersonating the right voice.I know that on a German TV channel they have aired the full version of the movie with no deleted scenes and with the original score although with a dubbed German soundtrack. I do not know if the foreign language VHS releases are edited versions or not.Donogh Rees was great despite the limits of her role and acted rings around everyone else, she really should have been the lead and indeed in many ways she ends up being the hero in the end. As for Lorca played by John Tarrant. He is unfairly hampered by the poor script (some of his lines are just awful) and no amount of 'acting' could make them convincing, but actually when you see him in less scripted scenes like scrambling over moving monster truck in the desert he is very compelling and during some of his weepy moments he shows a degree of talent for displaying emotion far beyond the sort of actor that you'd expect to find lurking in the murky sediment of Australian TV like 'A Country Practice'.As the only real women in the film are part of this mining community they all have no makeup on and wear boiler suits all the time which makes them look more like men... you get the impression that (even as a straight guy) if you were actually stuck on Planet Ordesa you'd probably find yourself casually dropping the soap in Tarrant's direction in no time at all. He single-handedly provides the eye candy as he was by far the prettiest thing in the cast besides Toyah Wilcox, who appears on a holographic video jukebox in the 'Miram Bar' (despite writing a very intriguing song with Tony Banks especially for the movie that was a whopping 7 minutes long she only appears for about 5 seconds! It is a shame as she probably spent about 5 hours on hair and makeup for the shot).I get the impression that Toyah's cameo appearance ended up being so small in order to make way for the Peter Gabriel cameo appearance (which was not part of the soundtrack or actually written for the film). The final song performed by Tony Banks and sung by Jim Diamond "You Call This Victory" is just a typical, unremarkable bit of eighties fluff, but if you enjoyed the eighties, as I did, you'll appreciate it.Everybody universally seems to hate the teacher droid midget played by Deep Roy. His crummy voice combined with a mouth that the budget didn't allow to move makes him very difficult to engage with. There is a scene in the desert where Lorca is doing all his scrambling over a moving truck macho action stuff and in the background the stupid droid is dangling from a cable and squeaking 'Lorca, help!' again and again and AGAIN!!! It's like a demented parakeet. Then when the truck crashes the little runt's head flies off and you feel two emotions: relief and joy. When Lorca walks towards the head you half expect and half hope he will kick it way off into the desert, but instead he (of course) repairs the droid who 'lives' on until the end.The other characters are pretty much one-dimensional and really not worth mentioning. I rather like the robot soldiers, in a way their human clothing and army boots makes them a bit more sinister than clunking metal bodies would.Some of the scenes like the church one are quite poignant and symbolic and very well done, (although this scene is shortened on the US and UK VHS releases) others like the death of Abbey and the death of Lorca's mother seem clumsy and untidy. Tony Banks wrote a great piece of music for the death of Abbey scene, (Original score not present on some VHS releases) but the scene itself just doesn't have any of the polish and poignancy it deserves. Not in this case due to a lack of props or effects, it is just badly shot.On the special effects side of things they are limited, but well done.Even accepting all its shortcomings I still have a big soft spot for this film, I am not sure what it is but there is something special about it that very few people seem to get!I am glad I am one though, even if I am the only one and I am glad Roger made it! Thanks RC!

Steve I've come up with a drinking game to play while you watch Starship. Here's what you do. Get a bottle of your favorite liquor and a shot glass for everyone who wants to play along. Fill up each shot glass to start off, and then slap Starship in the VCR. The rules are that everyone takes a shot whenever something interesting happens. Suitable for teetotalers. Unused liquor can be deposited back in the bottle utilizing a funnel.This is the absolute worst kind of movie: a boring one. I watch lots of terrible movies. In the right frame of mind, an onslaught of cheese and surprise 80s dance numbers and mullets can provide a fun evening like nothing else. Battlefield Earth, for instance (and by the same director), is wonderful because it aims for real emotional impact over and over again and achieves not an ounce of it. Starship, on the other hand, might just be aiming to put me to bed early.Action matters when we care about its outcome. Nothing we give the least little tiny crap about is ever really in jeopardy in Starship, and the one time something terrible happens to a main character it's filmed so poorly we're left for a minute wondering precisely what happened.This movie's a mess. But not, let me stress, a hilarious mess. It's not an interesting mess. It's not something to get drunk and make fun of. It's not a crappy, crappy, crappy movie; the situation is altogether more dire than that. It's boring.

_PAB_ Lorca and his friends are fighting against a Robot-Army that is controlled by the evil commander of their colony. They are in underground an are kidnapping and reprogramming some robots to have a better stand against the overwhelming forces of the "Empire". Last but not least there always has to be a little love-story ;=)