Load of rubbish!!

Captivating movie !

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

It's just over an hour long, watchable and kinda fun. Is it good? Yes and No, it depends on how much you like Buck Rogers and silly "B" Sci-Fi flicks. It's a classic example of older, fun "B" Sci-Fi that fans of the genre might enjoy. It is not what you call a good movie just silly fun.This was originally a 1939 Buck Rogers Serial. In 1953, it was re-edited and put together to create this short feature film. I have not seen the original serial, so I'm unsure just how much was cut out for this movie but I'm sure it was all the unnecessary extra stuff.Buck Rogers fans the film should delight, Sci-Fi fans might enjoy it while others might want to pass on this one.3.5/10

Let me say right off the bat that at least for me, there were two things working in this film's favour even before I started it (as 2 nifty percent of my infamous Mill Creek 50-pack, 'Nightmare Worlds'): a) I love the old-time serials, a part a week at the theatres, each with a cliffhanger ending; and b) I'm a fan of Buster Crabbe, from seeing him previously both as Tarzan and in a Flash Gordon serial. Directors Beebe and Goodkind were masters at the format, and this is no exception (although since it's from the 30's, and with B-movie budgetary restrictions at that, I readily dismiss all negative comments from people complaining that for the 1950's, it's really crappy filmmaking--it's NOT from the 50's, but simply edited then into a feature-length film the company could then sell, most probably to television stations).I enjoyed it, though I wish that instead of seeing this, I was watching the unedited, undiluted full serial that was originally made. I have read that the best and most exciting parts were edited out.

Have watched many times and also the serial it came from... Love the old science fiction movies... Especially in black and white... Yet I wonder if any one has really watched this oldie... Every time I have seen it, one thing keeps bugging me about the character of Buck Rogers... Here on the IMDb site for "Planet Outlaws" the military rank of Buck is Colonel... Yet every single time I have seen this movie I distinctly hear Buck Rogers being referred to as Lieutenant ( excuse the spelling )... Not once in the movie have I ever heard Buck being referred to as Colonel Buck Rogers... Probably not the best review posted to this site but it is my first and thought I would put this to you all... I give it 5 out of 10... cheers

This film is a condensed version of the 1939 serial starring Larry 'Buster' Crabbe as 'Buck Rogers'. I assume that when television came along, studios often edited down the serials into a movie-length version for viewing at home. I know they did that with one of Bela Lugosi's serials, "The Phantom Creeps". Unfortunately, this is NOT a super-successful idea, as the resulting film seems a bit choppy and episodic. Plus, by 1953, the special effects and stories of Buck Rogers seemed incredibly dated! In fact, you just have to see how incredibly awful the space ships are--they're so bad they are tough to describe in mere words--and you might find yourself laughing at it! As for the story, in many ways it's just "Flash Gordon" (also a Crabbe serial) all over again but with a few changes in the plot. Here with Buck Rogers, he arrives in the future instead of the present day like Flash Gordon. It seems that Rogers and his sidekick were in a dirigible accident and got frozen--and just happened to successfully unfreeze 500 years in the future. Oddly, despite having no idea about this ultra-modern world, Rogers magically could out-fly and out-do everyone of the 25th century!! What a guy! Once he's no longer in Popsicle form, he joins the resistance--a group trying to overthrow the gangsters running the planet. So, for help, Rogers and his pal try appealing to the residents of Saturn--and this backfires so badly, the Saturnians offer the gangster boss (Killer Kane) their help! Oooops! Will Buck manage to fix things or will his 'help' result in the complete obliteration of the opposition?! Tune in and see for yourself.Overall, the film is incredibly dated and manages to both be interesting as a curiosity AND dreadful and boring at the same time. I think the longer you watch it, the more dreadful it becomes, so in hindsight I think it might be good that they did distill the serial after all. A curiosity and interesting for some, but amazingly hard viewing otherwise.