Science Fiction Movies: Reviews & Discussions

Starcrash (1978) or Saving Private Hoff



The original Guardians of the Galaxy



I’m not sure who’s wearing more make-up


Starcrash is an Italian Star Wars knockoff starring 70’s sex symbol Caroline Munro as Stella Star, an intergalactic smuggler tasked with rescuing a Prince (a pre-fame David Hasselhoff) and stopping the bad guys from deploying a planet destroying weapon. She’s Han Solo with tits. I ain’t complaining. The movie is infamously bad, but it’s also charmingly bad. If you gave a 13-year-old $4 million to make a space opera it would be this movie.

Starcrash is a textbook example of a producer cranking out a cheap knock-off for the sole purpose of cashing in on a popular trend.  They built the "plot" around costumes and sets they already had readily available.  I love the shameless recycling of the control room of the badguy's ship as the prison.  They put almost no effort at all into trying to make it look different.  The heroine's costume loses bits off it from one shot to the next.  The big space battle at the end of the movie makes no sense whatsoever.  Most of the movie is just a series of random events loosely tied together.  Despite the cynical cash grab behind the production, the people working on it are mostly giving it their all, which makes Starcrash a fun ride, despite how silly it is.  It's biggest weakness is the villain, who is blandly generic, along the lines of Ming the Merciless, rather than Darth Vader.

Of all the various Star Wars knock-offs, Starcrash is probably my favorite.  Battle Beyond the Stars is a better made movie, but I'd rather watch Starcrash or Message From Space.  

Roger Corman and James Horner worked a lot together, and when Roger got a piece of music he was particularly fond of, he'd use it over and over again.  Corman got some music recycled from Star Trek III off of Horner, which he put into Space Raiders and Wizards of the Lost Kingdom.

Not so fast China. It stinks.

Someone was paid to do this

Dolby is kind of an over-rated format. The picture quality on Dolby does look moderately better than usual but AMC's theaters tend to have a lot of light pollution in them which kind of dilutes the advantages and their projection on their larger normal screens isn't exactly terrible and is usually matted better.

Yes, I've gone into this before. Dolby Cinema is literally the only format that is consistent across all theaters. At least by comparison anyway... XD, RPX, and even IMAX can vary greatly from theater to theater. Some are pretty good, some are average, while some are piss poor. You won't know until you actually visit them. I've yet to go to a Dolby Cinema that doesn't satisfy across the board for the most part. From it's dual laser projection, to its comparable IMAX audio, and of course comfortable seating, it's one of the better ways to go see a movie that you don't have to wonder whether or not it's going to be good or bad. Every other theater is more of a coin toss on what you're going to get if you haven't been there yet.

In THAT sense, I would say it's rather fairly rated. Maybe overrated compared to some of the best theaters out there, sure. There are IMAX and independent big format screens that I find to be a better movie going experience, but I appreciate the consistency among Dolby Cinema theaters.

As for The Matrix 20th rerelease, it's a new remaster and word out is that it looks pretty great. You can't tell from this trailer, though:

That's all well and good, but considering that this is a screen that they charge extra for people to get into I feel like it should offer more than, like, reason to believe it won't be ass.  I'm an A-List member so it doesn't make that much of a difference but if I was paying extra for it expecting something super special I'd be disappointed. The seating is fine but pretty much every AMC screen I know of has recliner seating by now, so that isn't too special, and there are tons of theaters out there with some sort of fancy audio to offer.  As for the projection, it certainly is sharp but at least at the theater I go to they sort of fuck it up by leaving a bunch of floor lighting on which sort of gets reflected on the screen in a way that kind of ruins it.  In general, I don't really experience the same kind of inconsistency you do out of AMC, to me they seem to be a pretty standardized chain (for better or worse) but then I don't travel that much and the four theaters near me might be outliers.

My AMC does not have all recliners. Some vip areas but the recliners are exclusive to Dolby at this time. If all theaters had recliners I'd prob be more inclined to agree with drac. But doesn't their dual laser double the liemax 2k?

In Minnesota, no less. It's definitely surprising to hear.



Either that or I'm more picky than you are and happen to notice the problems in general that frequently occur. Knowing the ins and outs of working at a variety of movie theaters for 15 years can do that to you, I guess. Although I really was only comparing premium theaters. XD, RPX, IMAX and Dolby. Dolby Cinema is the only consistent one among them. Audio especially, I cannot disagree more. It is easily one of the biggest inconsistencies among theaters, and one of my biggest pet peeves when it comes to theaters and theater upkeep and volume discrepancy/incomplete surround sound/bass. IMAX and Dolby Cinema are far above and beyond all the rest and are always the preferred way I see a movie, when it comes to audio alone. However I realize I'm in the minority to hearing and noticing these things. I can be bothered by all this while watching a movie and no one else in the audience seems any the wiser.

I don't know how bad your Dolby Cinemas unfortunately are, or possibly how good your normal theaters fortunately are, but for me, the laser projection and audio alone is worth the up price. Laser projection is fantastic compared to normal bulb projectors.

If you haven't yet, I would definitely mention the lighting in the theater. They can probably dim them. Usually an email to the company in general will more likely get things done than just speaking with a manager, though. Especially for an A-List member, where you would think something like Dolby Cinema should be your preferred choice wherever/whenever it's an option. Something's wrong with that picture.



I was comparing the consistency of premium offerings of the big three, not just AMC. Yes, you might just be lucky that you have generally good theaters in your area, as surprising as that might be. I'm assuming since you use A-List you don't visit any other theaters in the area that much, unless AMC has a monopoly there. But yes, that's definitely not true everywhere else. I've been to several major cities that have great theaters and crap theaters all close to one another.

Emagine is a pretty solid indie theater chain. How is the one(s) near you? I believe it's one of their locations in Michigan that's supposed to have the second largest screen in the nation, so they like messing around with new features and upgrades.

Whaaat?!