Matrixston Wow! Such a good movie.

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

bheadher Back in the early 80's, no one really treated scifi as a money maker vehicle, so naturally we ended up with a slew of tiny budget, low quality flicks...the thinking tended to be, throw a bunch of well known stars at the audience and they will love it...of course it didn't work out that way, but at least BBTS made an attempt at being interesting, heh heh...The movie is played out as almost literally a video game, complete with the visuals and sound effects. You can't get away from the feel of an Atari coming to life, and it actually turns out to be a fun two hours...Don't expect a block buster, or an epic motion picture, because it definitely isn't that...but grab some poppy corn and sit back, to immerse yourself in a mix of different themes all jumbled together, heh heh...

Daryl_G_Morrissey The story concerns a young farmer, Shad (Richard Thomas), from the peaceful planet Akir (named for Akira Kurosawa), that is under threat from the warlord Sador (John Saxon), of the Malmori. Being a peace- loving people they have no way to defend themselves, so Shad takes an old spacecraft and goes looking for some mercenaries to help defend his planet. These include, Nanelia (Darlanne Fluegel); Space Cowboy (George Peppard); Nestor (Five Alien clones, who share a group consciousness); Gelt (Robert Vaughn); Saint-Exmin (Sybil Danning); Cayman (Morgan Woodward) and The Kelvin (Larry Meyers & Lara Cody).When Sador returns he is met by Shad, leading seven ships in a bid to safe his planet from destruction.The film is a remake of The Magnificent Seven (1960), which was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai (1954), so there is no time wasted on in-depth character development or storytelling, as the story should be familiar. Everything we need to know about each character we learn in our first meeting with them. Space Cowboy is a space trucker, from Earth, looking for adventure. Saint-Exmin is from a female warrior race, who has a very fast ship, and wishes to have a glorious death. Gelt is the best assassin in the galaxy, but is alone and paranoid, only joining Shad for the reward of a safe and peaceful place to live.The effects aren't the best, but are by no means poor. This could be down to a number of reasons;While Star Wars (1977) had an estimated budget of $11 million, Battle Beyond the Stars had an estimated budget of just $2 million.The man who was in charge of the miniature design and construction, special photographic effects and was also the additional director of photography was none other than James Cameron. (It was while working on Battle Beyond the Stars that James Cameron met Gale Ann Hurd, the films assistant production manager, who he would team up with to make his 1984 classic, The Terminator.)Battle Beyond the Stars was filmed in just five weeks.The score was composed by James Horner and is very upbeat and full of brass instruments, fanfare and goes very well with the pace of the film. James Horner also scored the soundtracks to Star Trek II (1982) and Star Trek III (1984), the latter of which has pieces of score that sound as if they were simply 'lifted' from the Battle Beyond the Stars score.Each of the characters appears to have been given the same amount of screen time, which works in the movie's favour. John Saxon plays Sador with a particular ruthlessness, while George Peppard is almost playful as the Space Truckin' Cowboy. Meanwhile, Robert Vaughn's, Gelt, is so closely based on the character of Lee, from The Magnificent Seven (1960), that some of Gelt's dialogue is almost identical, to that of Lee's.

Tweekums When the evil tyrant Sador arrives at the planet Akir he announces that that if the people don't surrender when he returns in seven days he will use his 'stellar converter' to destroy the planet. Being a peaceful populace they have no chance of defeating him but one elderly man, Zed; who was their last warrior, says he has a fighting ship; he is too old to use it himself but another man, named Shad, offers to leave Akir in the ship and go and recruit mercenaries to fight the battle for them. He then sets about securing the services of a varied group that includes a wealthy assassin; the Nestor, a group of five clones that share a consciousness; a voluptuous Valkyrie warrior; Cowboy, a space-trucker from Earth; Nanelia, the daughter of an old friend of Zed. By the time they return to Akir they have seven ships ready to fight Sador; they are severely outgunned and many of them won't make it but they will fight him anyway!This film's low budget shows; the special effects look distinctly ropey when compared to big budget films of the time; for the most part they aren't terrible though and it is interesting to know that James Cameron; master of mega-budget special effects learnt his craft on a film like this. The story is solid enough; which one would expect given that is basically the plot of 'Magnificent Seven'... which itself is based on 'The Seven Samurai'. When the action starts it pretty good and there are plenty of comic moments that should raise a smile. The cast to a decent enough with Richard 'John-boy Walton' Thomas playing protagonist Shad and John Saxon hamming it up as the evil Sador, also present are two better known actors; Robert Vaughn and George Peppard... it isn't their best work by a long way but they do add to the proceedings. This is hardly a must see film but if you like moderately camp low budget sci-fi it is worth watching on television.

jocajosh I can't claim there are spoilers in my review because after 10 seconds of watching this film, you know you're in for a rough and spoiled ride. Are all the reviewers here on crack?? Better than Star Wars?? This makes "Plan 9 From Outer Space" look professional - it's bad acting, make-up, sets, dialog.... Space Marines (a truly terrible film) is so much better. John Boy Walton, who still acts like that's where he is, a huge Valkyrie warrioress who is there for titillation (and not acting), extras from Strange Encounters all add to make a sad melange of awfulness. Who made the models - a blind man from Blake 7 who was rejected because he had no concept of reality? Words fail me. Get a life people - I mean a real one