The Eighties Sci-Fi Thread.

[iank]

Saw it a long time ago (20 years or more), thought it was decent IIRC. I have the Blu and will no doubt watch it at some point.

[Inspector Abberline]

Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

Battle Beyond the Stars Has some rather good credits to its name,Produced by Roger Corman,Screenplay and story by John Sayles. , Music by James Horner ,director of photography and special photographic effects - Jim Cameron and a rather starry B-list of character actors ,not only this but a proven well worn story based on good old Seven Samurai aka The Magnificent Seven . The special effects are on the whole very good to perfunctory,They reminded me allot of the kind of effects you get in the TV shows like Buck Rogers and BattleStar Galactica,which in it self is not a bad thing,but compared to its major bigger budgeted counter parts which were at the cinema at the time (and I first saw this at cinema) it was then and is now a little under whelming. Hey im no fan of those big budgeted movies,but trying telling that to my my 12 year old self back then,of course now I can appreciate how good it is given its budgetary restrictions and lets be honest some of the effects are a little bit on the dodgy side. On the plus side you get some rather great if over the top performances from Robert Vaughn playing not to dissimilar role as he played in The Magnificent Seven.George Peppard as Space Cowboy some what similar to the Steve McQueen role.Sybil Danning as Saint-Exmin a larger breasted warrior,I only mention her breasts because there better than her acting And of course John Saxon as the head Mexican bandit,er I mean Sador not forgetting Richard Thomas more famous for the Waltons as Shad,a low budget Luke Skywalker. It's a fun entertaining low budget science fiction film ( apparently this was Corman's highest budget film thus far $2,000,000 allegedly),Trouble is the 12 year old me was a little disappointed at the time. still there is always Sybil's breasts.

[The Reaper Man@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

Ditto.

OUTLAND is great.
I watch it on BD regularly.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Inspector Abberline

Battle Beyond the Stars (1980)

Trouble is the 12 year old me was a little disappointed at the time. still there is always Sybil's breasts.

Had you waited a couple of years the 14 year old you would have been very happy.

[Inspector Abberline]

The Blob (1988)
Ever since John Carpenters The Thing,every monster or alien substance pretty much ooozes,mutates,slimes and just basically does nasty things to the human anatomy,The Blob being no different,dissolves bodies,and slimes it's way around Arborville, California.Throw in a government conspiracy about biological warfare experiments and you get a rather entertaining remake of a rather entertaining original monster flick from the 50's.Of course audience back in the 80's just wanted to see the next gory special effects movie,in an era chock full of em. From the start where the tramp finds the meteor,the blob makes a bee lone for his hand,unfortunately not even chopping his hand with an axe can not get rid of the slimey bugger. Unfortunately for the tramp even when he was rescued and taken to the hospital by bad boy Kevin Dillon as Brian Flagg , cheerleader Shawnee Smith as Meg Penny and high school jock Donovan Leitch as Paul Taylor,the Blob manages to dissolve the tramp in halve and turn Paul into triffle. Limbs are severed bodies are dissolved and flesh is melted in what could be seen as a classier and more well made Troma styled movie.You gotta love any film that has Ricky Paull Goldin as Scott Jeske take Erika Eleniak as Vicki De Soto to some sort of lovers lane where Scott tries to get his hand down her blouse ( check out the chat up line nice blouse) only for Vicki to turn into some blobbly style Thing and end any amorous feelings Scott may have had for Vicki. Director Chuck Russell of A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors fame is competent workman like director but the true star of the film is The Blob whether shooting out of sinks or just eating phone booths that get in its path,The Blob is an enjoyable 80's example of high school teens vs er Blob,make a cool double bill with Larry Cohen (Director) The Stuff.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

I've never seen either version of The Blob.

[bizarre_eye@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

I've never seen either version of The Blob.

Yet you've just reviewed a prequel to the Outpost films!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by bizarre_eye@Cult Labs

Yet you've just reviewed a prequel to the Outpost films!

I don't know what cursed thing your mother ****ed under a full moon, but she owes us all an apology.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

See, i did gain something from the Outpost prequel. An wonderful insult.

What did the Inspector gain from The Blob remake? Oh i know, a chat up line. 'Nice blouse', sir. Sounds more like Richard Richard than anything Steve McQueen might say in the original.

[Inspector Abberline]

Saturn 3 (1980)

Its an hard life for good old Kirk Douglas as Adam,alone on a planet with only Farrah Fawcett as company.especially when she's usually wearing very little. Then along comes Harvey Keitel as Captain Benson (minus his voice and dubbed by Roy Dotrice),Keitel has also brought along a friend in the shape of Hector, an eight foot tall metallic robot who has the hots for Farrah.In a bout of robot revolt Hector decides to kill Captain Benson,he also manages to cut his hand off,and go on the rampage.A game of cat and mouse ensues with Hector after Kirk and Farrah,so lots of shots of those two running through ventilation tunnels and peering up through floor grates. Based on a story by Martin Amis,you would of thought this film plot would of been a lot more interesting than it really is.Instead of the pedestrian and rather plodding space opera it turned out to be. Harvey Keitel performance is pretty hard to judge,but he looks bored and having his voice dubbed doesn't help much either.That said the film is not a complete disaster,I did like the set design of the main spaceship with all the blue lighting in the corridors,and the robot Hector is a pretty formidable robot and does look quite menacing in several scenes.Also Elmer Bernstein musical score is a damn site better than the film deserves.Apparently there are a couple of scenes Sir Lew Grade had snipped before release,both involving the death of Harvey Keitel's character,one scene has him being mutilated by Hector.Of course when a film has more than one directed credited to it,both Stanley Donen and John Barry are listed as director,plus rumour has it Kirk Douglas shot the odd scene then in the words of Monty Python "There's trouble at t'mill. Definitely a missed opportunity at what could of been at least a fun bit of sci- fi hokum.