Star Crash 2

OK so this movie isn't the greatest, but it's still far from uninteresting. The only real connection it has to Luigi Cozzi's superior STAR CRASH is the use of certain special effects shots. They appear to use some of the same models & spacecraft, which would of course be cheaper than building new ones for this film, or better yet just recycle the same footage. Nobody will notice.

Most movies are about two or three things. First there is the story or plot -- this time out two mis-matched intergalactic lovers land on a planet populated by castoffs from "Buck Rogers In The 25th Century" and discover sex. This includes an eye-opening scene where the film's heroine/lead actress goes for a naked swim in some sort of erotic oasis. I say "eye opening" not just because she is a delightful little morsel, but because the content of the scene is so at odds with the form that the movie takes: It looks to have been made for kids, but has tits. Huh.

And that is the second thing that this movie is about: Mixing low octane erotics with Star Wars inspired (or maybe FLASH GORDON would be more likely considering Don Powell's Parliament/Funkadelic Space Tyrant costume: wow!!) juvenalia. It's an exploitation film taking on the appearance of a science fiction adventure to lure in the kids, plus some bared flesh -- kept to a minimum, just a tad beyond the tease level -- to keep their parents occupied. The film is also equal opportunity in parading about a little space strumpet for the guys to ogle as well as an astronomical Adonis for the ladies to swoon over. Or vice versa: you never can tell about some people these days.

The third thing this movie appears to be about is how the European cult genre film craze -- dating back to the Gladiator movies that much of the film resembles -- had pretty much worn itself out by 1981. The Italians always were the most imitative of the Euro filmmakers and by the time STAR CRASH 2 was made they were imitating their own forms. Like FLASH GORDON and YOR, HUNTER FROM THE FUTURE this is essentially an updated Peplum saga with laser guns instead of javelins, and illustrates how by 1981 Italian B cinema was finally forced to find it's own voice after stuff like this stopped working at the box office.

The Italians went from Peplums to Gothic horror to spy thrillers to Spaghetti Westerns to war movies to Gothic horror to crime thrillers to car racing movies to Star Wars ripoffs and then back to the horror genre again for the 3rd wave of Fulci, Argento, Lamberto Bava and Joe D'amato. STAR CRASH 2 was directed by the occasionally brilliant Bitto Albertini, who participated in all of those prior genres and was on the tail-end of his career, and while this certainly isn't his best film his name is the big draw here: Bert Albertino movies are rather hard to come by, but unlike his ZAMBO or THREE SUPERMEN films there isn't much to recommend this one, aside from the kitschy 80's sci fi production design and the sex.

I happen to like kitschy 80's sci fi production design and sex so I got a kick out of this one. You certainly won't find the likes of it made today, and for fans of the Alfonso Brescia Star Wars ripoff school of film-making this movie will be a welcomed addition. Anyone else be forewarned though: There be Italians in disco robes dancing in this movie, and unless you are used to stuff like that you will probably find it to be somewhat silly, and maybe even a little on the erotic side. Welcome to Italian cult genre film-making, we hope you enjoy your flight.

5/10

Italians have been notorious for churning out lots of bad sci-fi films in the late 70s in the wake of the success of STAR WARS. Who is this film supposed to appeal to? The special effects, costumes and dialog are childish and the sex scenes are so tame they could probably get a PG-rating in this country. Two aliens on a spaceship land on primitive Earth and learn how to have sex, while they're being chased by a big black dude with silver glitter in his beard. I fell asleep for awhile in the middle but I doubt I missed much.

ESCAPE FROM GALAXY 3 is yet another uproarious STAR WARS clone from Italy. With its disco-fueled sensibilities and ultra-fab costumes, this is why God created cinema!

It seems that intergalactic meanie, Oraclon (Don Powell) is up to no good, causing havoc and astonishingly bad "special" effects! Now, only one explosion after another can possibly stop him!

Cue the continual, generic disco music.

The wonderful thing about these epics is that they don't have to make any sense. At all. Just watching Oraclon in his flower-like, aqua / pink outfit and glitter-beard is enough to satisfy any fan of these films.

Enter Belle Star (Sherry Buchanan) in her dancing queen pantsuit, complete with a missing pant leg! As a bonus, her suit is also missing one upper side, compensated by a strategically-placed breast star!

This movie even has a Marjoe Gortner lookalike, wearing the latest in spandex ballet uniforms! Annnd, don't forget the entire civilization of men in miniskirts!

This is entertainment sent straight from the gods!

The quotable lines of dreadful dialogue are nonstop! The soft-soft core "love" scenes are painful! The endless dancing will twirl your brain in your skull!

WARNING: If you are sickened by the sight of pasty man-legs, stay away! This will only be traumatic for you!...

Star Wars certainly has a lot to answer for. Its massive success perhaps unsurprisingly led to the Italians producing their own sci-fi adventures. Except, of course, they made them very cheaply and the results look absolutely ridiculous now and I daresay they didn't appear all that impressive back in the day either. Escape from Galaxy 3 is a pretty good example of this type of thing. It's a committedly ridiculous film from start to finish. It tells the story of a couple of aliens on the run from an evil tyrant who wind up landing on Earth and learning about love and sex in the process.

This one starts out with great potential, with a first half hour ram-packed with sci-fi idiocy of the most promising kind. We have a kindly space ruler who sports a crown and his evil nemesis who wears an elaborate costume and has a glittery beard; there are a couple of male/female heroes who have laser rings and supersonic powers, the male of which sports a bubble perm; we have space battles and intergalactic chases; and all of this is scored to an insistent disco soundtrack. All of this bodes well and it still seems like it's going in a good direction when our heroes land on Earth of the future, where the population has evolved into what looks like extras from the Buck Rogers TV show. But unfortunately, all the good work is soon to be undone when events here pan out in a most tedious of fashions. For what seems like an eternity, we witness our alien beings learn about love. This entails all manner of tiresome scenes and an alarming abundance of abysmal humour. It also ensures that there is nudity in what otherwise would be a movie for children. Towards the end the evil tyrant returns and things do pick up a bit but the damage has really been done unfortunately and the over-riding feeling is of a missed opportunity at an entertaining cheese-fest.

Escape From Galaxy 3 is also known as Starcrash II, which—if you've seen Luigi Cozzi's disco-era Italian sci-fi—should give you a pretty good idea of just what to expect from this film by director Bitto Albertini: multicoloured starscapes, funky music with laser sounds, some of the dumbest dialogue in the history of cinema, amazingly stupid outfits, a pitiful villain, dodgy special effects, unconvincing space battles, and a major space babe in a revealing outfit. Like Luigi Cozzi's film, Galaxy 3's sheer awfulness is the key to much of its appeal.

However, what gives this particular piece of Euro-garbage the slight edge over Cozzi's film is its beautiful female star Sherry Buchanan. Not that she is sexier than Starcrash's Caroline Munro (who would be very hard to beat in the sexy stakes) but simply due to the fact that unlike Ms Munro, Sherry gets her kit off and experiments with sex in what is otherwise a PG-rated space fantasy, something that proves hilarious and hot in equal measures!

Sherry plays Princess Belle Star, who escapes the destruction of her home planet by evil baddie Oraclon (Don Powell in an outfit that would embarrass Ming the Merciless) on a spacecraft piloted by curly-haired hero Lithan (Fausto Di Bella). The fleeing couple eventually find refuge on a strange blue planet (no prizes for guessing that it is Earth) where they befriend the primitive people who live there. It is here that Belle and Lithan experience the pleasures of procreation (as well as the joy of food and the visual and aural delights of formation disco dance routines) with lovely Ms Buchanan stripping off for a series of close encounters with various men.

Princess Belle in the altogether is most definitely the highlight of this unintentionally hilarious film, although writer John Thomas (*snigger*) deserves a special mention for coming up with the movie's incredible technical space jargon, which includes such priceless gems as 'hyper solar missile systems', 'mega degrees', 'equitonic tangents', and my personal favourite, the 'megamethmic teleprobe'.