anrenaud1
I truly believe this is a great movie. I remember the love scene under the oh-so-precious water shower. I remember a gonzo, well-intentioned feel. And a nice plot idea. I may be disappointed when I see it again. But I believe I'll be wrong, then.
JLRVancouver
Humour often dates poorly and "The Ice Pirates" is a case in point: the future as an 'extension of the eighties' generates more laughs at the film than with the film. Having not watched the movie when it came out, I couldn't filter it through fond memories, so I was stuck watching, de novo, 90 minutes of goofy slapstick and silly, predictable gags. Given what they have to work with, the acting is OK (they all seem to be having fun in the roles). If the Academy ever does a tribute to Angelica Huston, I hope they include some of the iconic images of her in her space pirate outfit
Scott LeBrun
"The Ice Pirates" is a pretty engaging off kilter comedy spoofing both space adventures and swashbucklers, with enough verbal and visual gags to make it pleasant, and impossible to truly dislike. It's clearly not aiming to be something particularly memorable or special, just an irreverent diversion on lazy afternoons. It's played enthusiastically by an interestingly chosen cast that helps it to have a cult-film sort of appeal. The script, co-written by director Stewart Raffill ("The Philadelphia Experiment", "Mac and Me"), has a muddled story but a disarming sense of humour. Not all of its scenes work that well, but it's sure to have its viewers smiling if not laughing out loud.TV stars Robert Urich ('Vega$') and Mary Crosby ('Dallas') headline a cast also featuring Michael D. Roberts, Ron Perlman, Anjelica Huston, John Matuszak, Bruce Vilanch, and a too briefly seen John Carradine. Urich plays Jason, the leader of the title characters in a galaxy where water is the most precious commodity. After their latest escapades, they're captured by the baddies - dubbed Templars - and then acquired by princess Karina (Crosby) so they can help in a quest to find her father.Reasonably good visuals and a decent score by Bruce Broughton help in the enjoyment of this little bit of escapism, as well as a fairly clever finale taking place inside a time warp where our heroes steadily age while fighting the bad guys. There are also a variety of interesting and likable characters, human, robot, and otherwise, with actors and actresses such as Natalie Core, Jeremy West, Alan Caillou, Marcia Lewis, Robert Symonds, Rockne Tarkington, Ian Abercrombie, Hank Worden, and Carmen Filpi in various small roles. Perlman is particularly funny as one of Jasons' comrades, while Huston gets to be a total badass.This would make a decent double feature with another off the wall cult genre effort from the same year, "The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension".Six out of 10.
JoeB131
And this really wasn't. I think they tried to find jokes that reminded you of Star Wars and Alien, but they just didn't work. Most of the jokes fell flat, like the "Space Herpe". (Remember in the 1980's when were were all afraid of Herpes?) The plot is that water is a rare commodity in the future. (Again, if you want to write GOOD science fiction, you have to understand science!) So this Evil Empire called the Templars controls all the water, except for Ice Pirates who steal it, (probably inspired by some hack California screenwriter who was told he couldn't turn on his sprinkler during a drought.) You had a bunch of actors essentially committing career suicide here. Mary Crosby, fresh off her stint on "Dallas", was never heard from again. Neither were most of the cast, except for Ron Perlman and Robert Urich, who got new chances to crash their careers...The special effects were cheesy looking, which is probably the movie's main problem.
AD
