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Battle Beyond the Stars
Battle Beyond the Stars
Actors: George Peppard, Robert Vaughn, Richard Thomas, John Saxon, Darlanne Fluegel
Directors: Jimmy T. Murakami, Roger Corman
Genres: Action & Adventure, Comedy, Horror, Science Fiction & Fantasy
PG     2001     1hr 44min

Seven mercenaries are recruited from throughout the galaxy to save a peaceful planet from the threat of an evil tyrant bent on dominating and enslaving the entire universe.

     

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Movie Details

Actors: George Peppard, Robert Vaughn, Richard Thomas, John Saxon, Darlanne Fluegel
Directors: Jimmy T. Murakami, Roger Corman
Creators: Daniel Lacambre, Roger Corman, Ed Carlin, Mary Ann Fisher, Anne Dyer, John Sayles
Genres: Action & Adventure, Comedy, Horror, Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sub-Genres: Action & Adventure, Comedy, Horror, Aliens
Studio: New Concorde
Format: DVD - Color,Widescreen,Letterboxed
DVD Release Date: 02/06/2001
Original Release Date: 01/01/1980
Theatrical Release Date: 01/01/1980
Release Year: 2001
Run Time: 1hr 44min
Screens: Color,Widescreen,Letterboxed
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaDVD Credits: 1
Total Copies: 0
Members Wishing: 14
MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Languages: English

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Member Movie Reviews

Samuel K. (Solvanda)
Reviewed on 11/25/2018...
Message from Space, Starcrash, The Black Hole, Starchaser, Krull, Spacehunter, H.G. Wells The Shape of Things to Come, The Last Starfighter, Laserblast, Galaxina, Star Odyssey, The Man Who Saved the World, and then we have...Battle Beyond the Stars. Another in a long line of Star Wars rip-offs during the 70's and 80's. Actually a rather quality, fun watch. A good smattering of classic acting talent. One of the better films which Corman made, IMO. Seen it about 5 times. Launched the career of James Cameron. Give it a shot!
1 of 1 member(s) found this review helpful.

Movie Reviews

Star Wars on a budget!
Bill W. Dalton | Santa Ana, CA USA | 02/13/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Would you believe a spaceship with breasts? There's one in this 1980 Roger Corman space opera! The spaceship has a female computer personality named Nell and a decidedly feminine shape, which includes two enormous breast-like mounds on its underside. Since there is no nudity in this movie, which is unusual in a Corman film, he had to get the breasts in somewhere, so model designer/builder/art director James Cameron put them on the space craft! Very amusing indeed! Cameron went on to design bigger and better things, like the Titanic.Battle Beyond the Stars was the biggest-budgeted movie Corman had ever made up to that time, about 2 million dollars, and his money is up there on the screen, with good sets, good props, good special effects, and a good cast. In typical Corman fashion everything except the cast was used over and over again in other space sagas he made. Waste not, want not! is his credo, and he boasts that he's never lost a dime on any of his movies. I believe it.The plot of this movie was stolen shamelessly from Akira Kurosawa's classic Seven Samurai, so if you liked that Japanese epic and its American remake, The Magnificent Seven, you should like Battle Beyond the Stars, too. It just goes to show that if you have to steal a story, you might as well steal a great one!The cast includes Richard Thomas, just out of his John-Boy of The Waltons role, as a poor man's Luke Skywalker recruiting mercenaries George Peppard, Robert Vaughn, Marta Kristen, and Sybil Danning, among others, to fight the evil conqueror Sador, played by John Saxon, always a good villain.Never one to miss a trend, or start one, Corman cashed in on the phenomenal success of Star Wars with Battle Beyond the Stars. It's a fun film and I recommend this DVD widescreen edition. There's interesting commentaries by Gale Anne Hurd, John Sayles and Roger Corman, movie trailers, biographies, trivia game, scene index -- but the usual Corman filmography booklet is absent here."
Zowie, the fun of Star Wars on a small budget
Darren Harrison | Washington D.C. | 02/19/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Great memories accompany this movie for me, thankfully the producers of this DVD have honored this production with a jam-packed feature full of special features. I was not even a teenager when this movie was released back in 1980 yet a group of friends and I made the pilgrimage to a local cinema to see it. With an interesting set of diverse characters the movie plays as a science fiction version of the Seven Samurai. A "Magnificent Seven in Space" as it were, it even features Robert Vaughn of that 60s gem. The real pleasure of the DVD however is the wealth of special features. We not only have one optional audio commentary, but two very informative pieces. There are preview trailers for other Corman productions such as "Piranha". We even get a trivia game. I certainly recommend this movie."
Don't laugh: This is a grass-roots classic.
D. Mok | Los Angeles, CA | 04/30/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)

"What allows Battle Beyond the Stars to transcend its low budget, simple special effects and infinitely recycled plot? The most important aspect of filmmaking: Ideas.This was one [heck] of a smart script. No surprise, since the writer is John Sayles, a screenwriter of impeccable literary sense. The dialogue of this film crackles better than most big-budget films I've seen, and as a result Darlanne Fluegel (as innocent maiden Nanelia), Robert Vaughn (ice-cool mercenary Gelt), Sybil Danning (who steals the show as dashing, comically busty Valkyr warrior Saint-Exmin), Earl Boen (as lead drone Nestor) and George Peppard (as Space Cowboy) all shine, having a field day with the incredibly brisk pace and economical character interactions. And there's great comic material here, which is like an amplification of the gently sardonic tone of Seven Samurai, the obvious ancestor of this film.The richness of Sayles' conception of this world just draws you in -- even more so, I would argue, than Star Wars, because the depth of the philosophical implications behind the details is phenomenal. The "Facets" of Nestor, the on-the-run nihilism of Gelt the mercenary, and the communicative dilemma of the Kelvin -- it all points to very real human needs and psychological desires, hidden behind the comic-book action and tongue-in-cheek tone. Revel, as well, in the amount of attention paid to the design: Talking spaceship "Nell" is in the shape of a giant woman's body; the stingray menace of Gelt's ship; the different kinds of "hum" that each character's vehicle produces. Shows what you can do even with little money if you put some thought into it.Though it doesn't have the mystique of Star Wars -- whose amalgamation of chivalric romance and science fiction created a new sub-culture -- Battle Beyond the Stars deserves applause for overcoming its humble origins. And for all of the rich background, it's one of the fastest-moving science-fiction films I've ever seen. Dig in if you've never seen it; celebrate it again if you have."