Star Crash/Review
From The Grindhouse Cinema Database
< Star Crash
The late 70's was a time when space-themed movies flooded theaters thanks to the original Star Wars (which is the best one in the saga and one of my favorite films of all time). Of course, the Italians tried to cash-in this success by releasing their cheaply-made films. Besides the abomination Star Odyssey, the one that most people remember is Starcrash.
Stella Star, a space smuggler, and Akton, her sidekick, are recruited by the Emperor to rescue his son and kill Count Zarth Arn, the evil villain in this film. Although it was released to cash-in on Star Wars, it has elements from Star Trek too. There are scenes that have Stella, Akton and a companion robot traveling to weird planets and fight against creatures.
Speaking of Star Wars, this film has many scenes that make you think of it. Like the spaceship in the opening scene or the light saber. Yes! There are light saber fights in this film except that it's not as good as Star Wars and it looks hilarious.
Unfortunately, there are many reasons why Starcrash is hated by film-goers (and loved by cult movie fans). First, the acting. Caroline Munro is the hottest and sexiest girl from the 70's era but her acting is horrible. In fact, almost everyone's acting in this is bad...so bad that you can't stop laughing at them. Next, the special effects. The spaceship effects are pretty good, while other effects in this film are very very cheap, like the stop-motion giant robot that reminds me of "Planet of Dinosaurs" for some reason. Finally, the dialogue. It's not that bad but if you haven't seen Italian exploitation films before, you might hate it.
Overall, I think this film is very entertaining, has a lot of unintentional comedy, and has the sexiest space girl of all time.
Nuttawut Permpithak hails from Thailand. He spends his free time watching exploitation films (or any films from the past) writing articles, taking photos and reviewing films for GCDb.
