Powerful

Load of rubbish!!

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

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.

While the budget of this Roger Corman production is greater than his usual, it it still far less than a big-time sci-fi production of the era. For example, if you watch any of the three original "Star Wars" films, they are light years ahead of "Battle Beyond the Stars" when it comes to special effects. Clearly, it cannot keep up with these top-notch movies. But, if you accept that its effects are a bit cheesy and this doesn't bother you, the film is surprisingly enjoyable.Richard Thomas stars as an alien living on a very peaceful planet. They are so peaceful when an intergalactic baddie threatens to destroy them, his people don't have the first idea about how to fight back and protect themselves. So, he goes on a mission to hire fighters who will protect them....and he comes up with a rag-tag group of heroes. Can these assorted heroes somehow fight back against this baddie and ignore, at least temporarily, Sybil Danning and her ever-present and very noticeable cleavage?!The film offers quite a few B-list actors--a surprising number. In fact, apparently that is where they spent most of the money for the film hiring the likes of George Peppard, Robert Vaughn and the like. Overall, this is probably a film more for kids and die-hard sci-fi fans but it's reasonably entertaining and offers a few interesting characters.

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.

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.