This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

Crappy film

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Plot; A ruthless tyrant threatens to destroy a peaceful planet unless they submit to him. With no army to resist the threat, a young man is sent out among the stars to recruit mercenaries to their cause.The name Roger Corman conjures up images of low-budget B-movies, and that's certainly the case with 1980's Battle Beyond the Stars. The difference here is in the soon to be megastar talent behind the scenes. When the original special f/x guy was fired, Corman promoted a little known model maker named James Cameron to the job. You may have heard of him. The score was composed by a guy named James Horner. His second feature film score. Together with an occasionally witty script by John Sayles (The Howling, Eight Men Out) and a cast of seasoned used-to-bes (sounds so much better than has beens, doesn't it?) like Robert Vaughn, George Peppard and John Saxon, BBTS is a fun, jaunty little space opera that's essentially The Magnificent Seven in space (the planet in jeopardy is even called Akir, and its people the Akira to put a fine point on the Magnificent Seven/Seven Samurai connection). Not high art, but worth a revisit for 80s kids and for any fan of the genre.

George Lucas commented on dealing with studio heads, and what it was like to deal with someone who is not as smart and imaginative as you are; i.e. a studio head. He made Star Wars, a "spaceship movie", so the studios made a series of spaceships movies, and they were all awful.The concept being that since people liked a movie about spaceships fighting in space, that that's what was going to be made. Battle Beyond the Stars was made in that spirit, and it shows. Boy does it show.Is it tongue-in-cheek? Eh, you could argue it as such, but it's more or less just a low budget attempt to cash in on the scifi spaceship "market trend" in the film industry at the time.Adopting Kurosawa's script for a scifi setting sounds plausible and even exciting, but unless you're willing to put the time, care, money and effort into making the thing you're going to get, well, this.What's even more embarrassing is that I paid money to see this thing at a theatre that doesn't exist anymore. Seeing the poor special effects, a heavy reliance on medium focal length master shots, little in the way of any character development (Richard "John Boy" Thomas is no Toshiro Mifune), and a support cast that comes from TV land B-list, it's a wonder anyone heaps praises on this thing.It was not meant nor shot to be a send up "so bad it's good" cult classic. It was shot on the cheap, pure and simple, hoping that enough acne-pimpled pre-teens would shell out mommy and daddy's dollars to see it. Well, I was told not to, but I went and saw it anyway. and yes, I do regret seeing it. Even again on HBO during a summer late night TV session.There's a real lack of care, lack of inspiration, lack of energy put into this piece. Sybil Danning has been cast with A-material, yet probably did this for the paycheque (that and her Teutonic origins). Robert Vaughn comes from an age with actors did both film and TV, and so likewise did not have an issue with doing this, though probably regretted it afterwards.Everything from what I call the "moose ship" design to the pathetic or hackneyed UFO people, to even miss Danning's character (no matter how alluring she physically could be), just spells "I don't care" all over this production.There are worse movies. Truly there are. This is not the worst film, but it ranks down there with a lot of bottom feeders trying to ride the coat tails of other market trends in the film industry at that time.In simple language; don't watch this film. Spare your mind. It's not even good popcorn entertainment. It's really a cheap Star Wars wannabe, and given Coreman's involvement, I'm not surprised it intentionally turned out the way it did.Avoid, or watch at your own risk. Either way don't say I didn't warn you.

From time to time i really enjoy to watch cheesy and trashy movies especially set in space, i always feel good and happy after watching that kind of movies, but this is even not a funny it is bad very bad, from plot, characters, actors, costumes, space fighters, everything looks terrible. You can compensate with good story and atmosphere but there is nothing there. The most terrible acting comes from main character Shad (Played by Richard Thomas), he is unconvincing, dull, half of the crew looks like they are totally bored, also there is a cowboy yes cowboy he is not funny at all. Only reason why i gave this movie 3 is great soundtrack by James Horner and sex Valkyrie warrior played by Austrian Sybil Danning. My recommendation is not to watch this, better watch Space Raiders which is also produced by Corman this movie use space scenes and music from this film but it is better and has more heart and story. If you want hard to laugh just watch Italian Starcrash or Turkish Star Wars, avoid this.

Movie not my scene at all. My interest was because of tantalizing glimpses from this and STARCRASH in Early 80s magazines, of pretty girls in revealing outfits. It was somehow lodged in my mind that Sybil Danning was something extra-exciting. So, decades later, I acquired this title on DVD, very expensively as I had to have it imported, and it was ridiculously overpriced, something like more than a hundred $$$ and I had to face the dismal exchange rate. Only to be utterly disappointed by the oh-so-fake-looking plastic person. Believe me, she was not at all what I expected. She looks like she's years ahead of her time. In a bad way. She looks like the very epitome of the current never-ending plastic surgery trend. Implants. About as much fun as a blow- up doll. Well, to each their own. But there is a very lovely girl in this spaced-out saga, and it beats the hell out of me that nobody latched onto the real star way back then. Darlanne Fluegel, a sight worth traveling to the stars. And paying a hefty amount for an overpriced DVD.Suffice to say, I do not want my money back. I am more than satisfied with my purchase. Had it not been for Darlanne, though, it would have been a waste. Embarrassingly bad movie. To be avoided unless you wanna see a really pretty girl, the overlooked starlet.One thing, I must admit, I cannot really say in all certainty whether or not the whole Sybil Danning obsession was caused by getting confused with other images or whatever. I well remember the character's exotic name in the captions, so I might just have been naively influenced by her costume, but I sure as hell know better today than to fall for a fake nip/tucked creation with silicon bags or whatever. Look, that stuff is okay for accident victims, but man (with scalpel) cannot improve on Nature.So, for those of you judging whether to watch this on telly tonight, you sure as hell can't lose. You could die laughing at the unlikely- looking special effects, and overall have a fun time. Rent it, but only pay a tremendous sum for it if you're a Mad Collector in pursuit of All The Pretty Actresses like me. But don't fall for the unEarthly looking Sybil, I promise you she's not worth it. Darlanne IS, though.