Starcrash (1979 Italy) (Spaced Invaders)
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Starcrash (1979 Italy) (Spaced Invaders)
STARCRASH aka The Adventures of Stella Star aka Female Space Invaders
starring MARJOE GORTNER * CAROLINE MUNRO * DAVID HASSELHOFF
co-starring JOE SPINELL * ROBERT TESSIER * NADIA CASSINI * HAMILTON CAMP (voice of Elle)
and CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER as the Emperor * Directed by LUIGI COZZI
Due to the central female protagonist,
this also recalls Barbarella (1968), though Stella remains quite chaste during the film.
This does have a quick pace in spots: early on, Stella is sentenced to life in prison and a couple of minutes later she's already staging an escape. She goes on a mission to find a hidden weapon and the Emperor's son (Hasselhoff) with space policemen Thor (Tessier) and robotman Elle (like the letter 'L'). Yes, Thor... some of this suggests mythological components (remember, Harryhausen): besides some of the FX creations (like a cheap female version of the giant Talos from Jason and the Argonauts), when we first see a hologram of the Emperor, he comes across as some Greek god, like Zeus, towering about 10 feet tall (how'd Plummer get involved in this? They must've made him an offer he couldn't refuse, eh).
The location work on a snow planet was OK; this moves to different locales quite a bit. There's a lot of stuff here - Amazons, creepy cavemen - and some of it actually is fun, with Stella showing off some martial arts; there's no lack of action, resembling a frenetic sixties Italian sci-fi goof-fest.
STE-E-L-L-A-A-A-A
Last edited by BoG on Sat Mar 28, 2015 2:47 pm; edited 5 times in total
Stella Star!
THE IMDb Message Boards wrote:I have always felt THE BEST WORST LINE in cinema history is this one from STARCRASH -- Stella Star looking at an oncoming spaceship: "Look! It's a SPACE SHIP!"; You have to see it to believe it. Thanks for the report Captain Obvious!
I have two DVDs of STARCRASH, both of which were purchased at Amazon.com almost 3 years ago. Neither of the DVDs are high quality. The first one is from some company called Substance and actually looks like a DVD-R, with smudgy photos on the cover (you can see a couple of these above and below). The film picture is slightly widescreen and seems to have been copied from an Italian print (or video) because the titles are in Italian, as well as an intro scrawl (copying Star Wars) which I can't read.
The 2nd DVD is from Smore Entertainment (what, you never heard of them?). It's a slightly better picture, 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The film on this DVD is titled FEMALE SPACE INVADERS. It actually looks like a professional DVD.
A word on Caroline Munro: she was just a lady who 'had' it - that star quality and that appeal, which translated well on the movie screens. I've been surprised for the past 30 years that she didn't have a bigger career; maybe she herself wasn't too interested in getting too big in films, with all the attendant headaches.
Here's a rundown at MovieFanfare.com (click image):
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