Film Year: 1978
Genre: Science Fiction
Director: Luigi Cozzi
Starring: Caroline Munroe, Caroline Munroe's lady parts, Marjoe Gortner, Judd Hamilton, David Hasselhoff, Christopher Plummer, Joe Spinell, Robert Tessier, Nadia Cassini
MST Season: 11
The Movie
Ever wonder what Star Wars would have been like if it had a tenth of the budget and Han Solo were a chick in a latex bikini? Italian films to the rescue!
Starcrash was directed by Luigi Cozzi, who bad film lovers will note is the director of the Lou Ferrigno Hercules films and Godzilla fans will recognize as the guy who re-edited the first movie and "colorized" it (for the lack of a better word). The film stars Caroline Munroe and David Hasselhoff, which doesn't surprise anyone, but also features Christopher Plummer for some reason. Munroe plays a space smuggler who is enlisted by a galactic emperor (played by Plummer) to find a super weapon of a villainous rival. She is aided by a robot, a dude that can pull any random power out of his ass, and Prince Baywatch himself, David Hasselhoff. The group encounters many challenges, such as giant robots, space Amazons who are jealous that her clothing is skimpier than theirs, cave men, and a giant space station shaped like a hand.
Starcrash is a rushed film hurried to cash in off the Star Wars craze, made by people who didn't understand it nor desired to put the effort necessary into it. All things considered the film does have some neat spaceship models, though the execution of the special effects doesn't flatter them. There are also points where it feels like a blatant copy of Star Wars, up to and including igniting a lightsaber of its own.
But, credit where credit is due, there's something about Starcrash that I like, and it's not necessarily the skin it shows. It can be said that the film is something of more direct copy of serial filmmaking than Star Wars was, often coming off as theatrical, cheap, and cheesy, but providing fun for the undemanding viewer. It's spirited in a Buck Rogers kind of way, and adapts it to a trashier sort of filmmaking without losing that campy soul.
Starcrash in general is very much a Saturday Morning Cartoon genre style, only with a lot of cleavage to keep daddy's attention. It feels like a movie kids would watch and love as it tries to play at their level, yet it's made by people who feel as if a movie like this needs sex appeal. Because of this Starcrash can seem a little confused as to who it's catering toward at times, but winds up catering to a cult fanbase instead.
The Episode
"I feel like I'm watching a community theater production of Guardians of the Galaxy."
Starcrash is something of a heavenly SCORE for the new Mystery Science Theater season, as it has echos of Rocky Jones, Space Mutiny, with a little bit of Viking Women in that Roger Corman style. This movie is fun by itself, but adding the sarcastic commentary on top of it just makes for an incredibly good time. The riffing has a constant stream of laughs as the movie hugs every sort of trope the best MSTed movies deliver and keeps them on screen for Jonah and the Bot's viewing pleasure. The one downside is that the movie probably would have benefited from a more precision style of the original series a bit more than the speedy delivery of the new cast, though it's a tiny nitpick about us settling for a good episode instead of a great one.
One thing to note about this episode is that they experiment a bit with the riffing format. There is a fun point early on featuring Caroline Munroe boarding a space ship which is lengthy and silent, to which Jonah pulls out a guitar and jam out an original song in the theater. It's a creative way of making monotonous dead air fun. They would take this idea to the next level in the following season's episode Killer Fish.
WE HAVE CELEBRITY GUEST STAR SIGN! I think it's funny that in the years of being a part of the online community, I've heard a lot of slams on Jerry Seinfeld from my fellow fans, claiming his show Seinfeld was some sort of nadir of television (I've always enjoyed it myself). Little did most seem to know that the creators of both Joel Hodgson and Jerry Seinfeld were actually good friends in real life which actually lead to Seinfeld guest starring on our favorite show. Seinfeld has a brief role that he's pretty good in as he visits the Mads as Freak Masterstroke, a capitalist idea man who listens to the pitches of Kinga and Max and turns them into something profitable. I liked it! What a masterstroke!
Other segments skew more referential to the movie, as the mid-segment has Jonah dressing up as Akton and in the close they play with space torpedoes (the latter segment is much better than the former, honestly). Crow also lets his screenwriter persona take over for the first time in a while, as he writes another movie called "World War Space," in which he curiously rips off Candyland. The Invention Exchange involves a salsa sombrero, while curiously the idea of ripping on Star Wars seems to have infected Jonah and the Bots before they even get to the movie, as Jonah turns Servo into a clone of the droid BB-8. Hilariously this only lasts mere seconds, because after a cutaway Servo is back to normal and crying...
"I know, buddy, I know. Those LucasFilm lawyers move so fast."
Starcrash is something of a heavenly SCORE for the new Mystery Science Theater season, as it has echos of Rocky Jones, Space Mutiny, with a little bit of Viking Women in that Roger Corman style. This movie is fun by itself, but adding the sarcastic commentary on top of it just makes for an incredibly good time. The riffing has a constant stream of laughs as the movie hugs every sort of trope the best MSTed movies deliver and keeps them on screen for Jonah and the Bot's viewing pleasure. The one downside is that the movie probably would have benefited from a more precision style of the original series a bit more than the speedy delivery of the new cast, though it's a tiny nitpick about us settling for a good episode instead of a great one.
One thing to note about this episode is that they experiment a bit with the riffing format. There is a fun point early on featuring Caroline Munroe boarding a space ship which is lengthy and silent, to which Jonah pulls out a guitar and jam out an original song in the theater. It's a creative way of making monotonous dead air fun. They would take this idea to the next level in the following season's episode Killer Fish.
WE HAVE CELEBRITY GUEST STAR SIGN! I think it's funny that in the years of being a part of the online community, I've heard a lot of slams on Jerry Seinfeld from my fellow fans, claiming his show Seinfeld was some sort of nadir of television (I've always enjoyed it myself). Little did most seem to know that the creators of both Joel Hodgson and Jerry Seinfeld were actually good friends in real life which actually lead to Seinfeld guest starring on our favorite show. Seinfeld has a brief role that he's pretty good in as he visits the Mads as Freak Masterstroke, a capitalist idea man who listens to the pitches of Kinga and Max and turns them into something profitable. I liked it! What a masterstroke!
Other segments skew more referential to the movie, as the mid-segment has Jonah dressing up as Akton and in the close they play with space torpedoes (the latter segment is much better than the former, honestly). Crow also lets his screenwriter persona take over for the first time in a while, as he writes another movie called "World War Space," in which he curiously rips off Candyland. The Invention Exchange involves a salsa sombrero, while curiously the idea of ripping on Star Wars seems to have infected Jonah and the Bots before they even get to the movie, as Jonah turns Servo into a clone of the droid BB-8. Hilariously this only lasts mere seconds, because after a cutaway Servo is back to normal and crying...
"I know, buddy, I know. Those LucasFilm lawyers move so fast."
::weeps softly:: "They said they'd smash my globe!"
Regardless of whether or not this movie could have inspired a better commentary, I find myself loving Starcrash unconditionally. The movie is just dumb fun, the riffing enhances it quite well, and I have such a good time overall. This is one of my favorites of the season.
Regardless of whether or not this movie could have inspired a better commentary, I find myself loving Starcrash unconditionally. The movie is just dumb fun, the riffing enhances it quite well, and I have such a good time overall. This is one of my favorites of the season.
Good
The DVD and Blu-Ray
Starcrash hits DVD and blu-ray as a part of Shout Factory's Season 11 collection, of which mine is the #WeBroughtBackMST3K Collector's Edition blu-ray offered to Kickstarter backers. Video is crisp and audio is swell. Like all episodes in the eleventh season, the disc features no bonus features, though it shares it's space with the previous episode, The Beast of Hollow Mountain.
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