It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Hey! It had 785 muzzle flashes--that was enough for me!

How do you tell someone what a film "tastes" like? Well, wine-lovers, instead of giving you a list of ingredients, amply covered in other commentaries by those who are better than I at such things, . I'll simply try and describe the taste.I LOVED this film. I loved it because though it has enough schlock and splatter to have it rated an "18," it is nevertheless a film for young kids: kids who can't legally watch it. Not a recipe for box-office success, unfortunately. It IS great fun for adults who enjoy camp, over-acted larger than life drama as humour.In terms of taking itself seriously, this film sits just this side - but right on the line - of parody. Think of the A Team with a Thunderbirds plot played by Peter Pan pantomime characters with the look and feel of Unreal Tournament and you've got it summed up. Bluto, playing Pugwash, auditions for the part of a villain in Power Rangers.Any more to it than that?Not really. Not necessary in a film aimed at six year-olds. It's got: Bad guys who declare themselves to be Evil. Good guys who see the only way forward as gung-ho heroism. Diplomats who haven't got the common-sense of the heroes and basically get in the way. I'll contrast this with the diplomats and politicians in Battlestar Galactica who also keep thwarting the common-sense heroics of the good-guy military, but whereas in Battlestar, the diplomats are irredeemably stupid, weak and corrupt and keep getting in the way of the 100% right xenophobic all-action solution, here they vacillate with reasonable and clearly understandable cause and show an understanding, a view of the big picture which seems to escape the military mind. This gives the screenplay the only grown-up element and pretence at purpose. But it's only a pretence, and a McGuffin to bring in a Girl. The screenplay and this plot component has a token effort at making the hero(s) try very hard to be complex, but it doesn't come off.Hell, this film don't need no mamby-pamby plot or gratuitous human interest 'cuz it's got action.Lots of action; even more posturing. The Space Marines meet, er, Space Pirates.You'd know they were pirates even if their flag and (ahem!) pirate-flag insignia attached to their uniforms and props didn't spell it out for you. My favourite was the Evil Surgeon's white coat carrying its proud badge of the obsessively organised evil bunch. Just like it would be. Just like all the bad guys wear black hats, but this film hasn't got cowboys. If it did, their black hats would sit atop unshaven scowls and the white hats would keep the sun out of the eyes of ruggedly-handsome heroes wearing freshly-pressed shirts and ironed 'kerchiefs. Nooo, this film's got Pirates. They've all got costumes from the local futuristic fancy dress hire shop's "Pirate" rail and it's only the lack of wooden ships and a token attempt to keep it ostensibly "this" side of parody that eliminates the "Shiver me timbers, me hearties!!" and the random shouting of "Oooh Ahrrr, Jim lad!"Toned down a bit, and with a few dollars more, this could have been Starsip Troopers. the merest micron further over the top would turn it into Doctor Phibes meets Flash Gordon.The question is, would you then want to watch a film like this just for the sheer entertainment of it? It all depends on who you are. When I was a kid and watched the original Adam West Batman,, I didn't quite "get" it. The irony escaped me. I had to develop a slightly more mature outlook to appreciate the humour fully, and I suspect that many people might be a little too literal in their perspective to enjoy this truly amazing film.WE all know that spaceships don't "Woosh!" through outer space and that there is no sense at all in marking the go-faster widget in a space Viper cockpit "Turbo" or the in the huge amount of lip-gloss necessary to keep Earth's defences running through Buck Rogers' series, but we can still suspend disbelief enough to enjoy the stories and the action. In SM, grenades, bombs and standard military weaponry kill as cleanly as in any made-for- television film or pre Spaghetti Western Hollywood. The schlock is all sort of bolted on to show just how Bad the bad guys are and how "serious" things really are.Well, if you aren't too worried about a message, future "historical" or logical accuracy and you enjoyed Team America, Adam West's Batman and Plan 9 from Outer Space, you WILL enjoy this.

STAR RATING: ***** Unmissable **** Very Good *** Okay ** You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead * Avoid At All Costs In the future, all is kept fine and dandy by a group of men and women called The United Federation of Planets. But when some dastardly fellows take over a space-ship to enforce a gold deal, some fellows called the Space Marines are called in to sort them out.This is a far glossier presentation than Talaat Captan's earlier work such as Digital Man and A.P.E.X., but it's still glaringly low budget. It all basically just feels like Under Siege in outer space (even the spaceship is named the Missouri as in Under Siege!) In fact, there are weird scene references through-out to that particular film that left me with the impression that the writer had some special kind of liking towards it. Aside from that, it's just the usual collection of clichés that are typical of a straight-to-video work such as this. Not to mention some really bad acting, from the token black guy to the lead bad guy who seems to think he's in some production of Hamlet at the local rep as opposed to such a flimsy piece of work as this. Glossier and more violent, certainly, but definitely not as enjoyable as Captan's earlier work. **

The only reason to watch this cliché ridden piece of crap is to watch John Pyper-Ferguson chew up the scenery as the villain. He's great! The accent wobbles a bit from time to time though. It was the fashion when this movie was made that all the baddies in Hollywood movies had to have English accents. Charles Dance, Alan Rickman, and Jeremy Irons made a lot of money out of this sort of thing. John Pyper-Ferguson blows them all away.As I said up top there, the rest of it is cliché-ridden tosh with little or nothing going for it. The plot (such as it is) is a war movie and has clean shaven Gung-Ho Marines blasting vast numbers of evil-looking, scruffy, unshaven bad-guys (sometimes in slow motion*) and has just had SF element nailed onto it because... I dunno, maybe they got the SFX cheap.As soon as the Rookie is teamed up with the Beloved Old Sargeant at the start of the movie you know that a/. the BOS is going to be dead by the end of the reel and b/. the Rookie will have redeemed himself with a selfless act of valour by the end on the film.As soon as battle-hardened, sexy, young Marine is teamed up with innocent, Liberal, female diplomat (they obviously hate each other's guts on sight) you know that a/. they will end up in bed and b/. the innocent Liberal female diplomat will be blasting evil-looking, scruffy, unshaven bad guys by the end of the second act.The film ends weirdly. It's a very anti-climactic ending after all the pyrotechnics and mayhem that leads up to it. It just stops. Rookie shoots Evil guy dead and manages to get himself killed as well - somehow - it's not very clear quite what happens. Then there is a quick Marine and Diplomat in bed moment. Then suddenly a shot that was obviously done as a gag on set. Credits. Bizarre.So if you like watching men in uniform shoot scruffy biker types so stupid they stand up in plain sight while millions of people shoot at them This is the movie for you. Where do these megalomaniac villains get all their disposable goons from anyway? Is there some sort of Central Casting for Bad Guys. "Hi I'm a Megalamonic Villain set on Global Domination, I'd like to hire 200 idiots who can't shoot fish in a barrel please".* By the way. How is it in crap like this, bullets make big, messy holes in people, whereas grenades just toss them up in the air to do nice, graceful somersaults? ...and why are all spaceships fitted with an 'Auto Destruct' button - even freighters, as in this movie? Trucks don't have an auto destruct button, cars don't, planes don't - so why do spaceships? (Answers on a postcard please).