It's Star Wars Knock-off Time again...
We love a good Star Wars knock-offs. These are films that, regardless of their creative integrity, were clearly funded, made and/or released in an attempt to cash in on the juggernaut that was 1977’s Star Wars. Last year, we watched 1979’s The Humanoid as part of this exercise (also see Message from Space) and this time we discuss the Roger Corman-produced 1980 space opera Battle Beyond the Stars, which was DEFINITELY an attempt by Corman to get a slice of that Star Wars money, but there’s a lot of authentic creativity going on in this film as well.
Plus the cast is pretty great! George Peppard, Robert Vaughn, Richard Thomas Sybil Danning and John Saxon! You also have acclaimed screenwriter John Sayles on the screenplay and James Cameron doing some of the special effects. The result is an uneven but highly watchable space opera that was a heck of a lot of fun to chat about.
Of course we have a lot of fun in the episode discussing Robert Vaughn and his various legal commercials, so let's have a taste of those as well:
Up next on Weirdhouse Cinema? We're going to immerse ourselves in the "triple-distilled horror" that is 1970's Scream and Scream Again. In the mean time, remember that we've got MERCH, including the new RUB THE FUR shirt. Check out our Letterboxd page as well.
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