Uchu kara no messeji

This was one the first of the many Star Wars knockoffs and it does borrow certain key elements (the bad guys operate from a mobile planet which blows up real good at the climax, the spoiled rich girl rides around in a ship that is basically a rectangular version of The Millineum Falcon). Okay, so the effects and art direction are a throwback to the sixties, but it does have some original ideas-the heroes are a motly bunch; all seeking redemption for their wasted lives-, Kinji Fukusaku keeps it belting along at good pace, and once Sonny Chiba starts beating up on the bad guys in the final, there is just no stopping him!

I first saw this movie when I was 8 and it just gets better every year. Sure, it's a Star Wars ripoff, but so what? Message From Space has better swordfights and Vic Morrow in a funny hat. Plus Sonny Chiba kills a lot of silver-skinned aliens, Peggy Lee Brennan demonstrates that in the future, people will still have Long Island accents. There aren't two minutes of this film that aren't filled with laser gunfights, spaceships, monsters, explosions, giant holograms, or major satellite destruction, and the original script is by Shotaro Ishinomori, who is Japan's #2 all-time manga genius. In short, this movie rocks. Somebody get off your butt and give me my DVD release!!!

MESSAGE FROM SPACE answers the question: "What if, just prior to creating STAR WARS, George Lucas had removed his brain and replaced it with lint?".

Packed with groovy music, flashing lights, explosions, and insane characters, this is in the running for the most uber-ridiculous of the STAR WARS clones.

See! Vic Morrow dressed in intergalactic pimp clothes! Watch! Grown adults as they hunt for "space fireflies"! Witness! Sonny Chiba in the single most embarrassing role of his career!

If you're expecting a serious science fiction adventure, then you might want to drive an icepick through your pelvis before viewing. That way, you'll already be in agony going in.

Plot? Actually, it's better to simply watch agog and not worry about any trivialities such as a "story line". However, if you must know, it has something to do with a handful of flying, glowing, mystical nuts.

Visuals just happen randomly throughout: Look! Seagulls!

BOTTOM LINE: This movie is a riot! There's no need for any intoxicants or hallucinogens. It's all done for you!...

Now of course, Message From Space is a Star Wars rip-off, but the Japanese have been doing space operas for a very long time anyway. But still, there are some direct steals from Star Wars, but hey isn't that part of the fun?

This isn't quite as enjoyable as Starcrash as far as bad Star Wars rip-offs, but it's still a blast. Everyone is over the top, except for Vic Morrow, who pretty much sleepwalks through the entire thing and acts as if someone has a gun to his head the whole time, forcing him to appear in this flick. The FX are interesting and fun to watch, and as bad as they are, I'd still rather see these FX than today's crappy computer-generated cartoons.

The TIE-Fighter type enemy ships are cool, especially the way they fire their lasers, and so is the rip-off of the Star Wars trench battle scene. Notice in this scene near the end, in the trench, the ships fly down trenches that actually curve away, so the FX people wouldn't have to worry about making "distance" shots appear realistic as in the Star Wars trench sequence.

This definitely has "Japanese B-flick" all over it, and you gotta figure a DVD release would be a decent seller (as far as these kind of films go). This film proves that the only thing as enjoyable as a decent Star Wars rip-off, is a bad one!

Okay, few people could do justice in reviewing this film. It's a horrible film. It's badly made. The story is full of cliches. The acting is bad, and most of the special effects, barring some neat explosions, are pitiful. But the movie is not something that you should avoid -- rather, the worst features of this blatant Star Wars rip-off are the reasons you should see it! It's HILARIOUS!

This movie is the kind of film that the Mystery Science Theater 3000 crowd would have a field day with. The dialog in the movie is so idiotic at times, and so blatantly ripped off of star wars at others, that plenty of Star Wars jokes will be in order during the viewing of this film.

Imagine Vic Morrow in a thick, fluffy fur coat, getting drunk in a bar with his little Robot sidekick, then raising his glass to discover a glowing walnut in it, and exclaiming "I've been selected by the Gods!" Then there's a electric-samurai-sword fight near the end where the dialog is almost verbatum what it was between Darth Vader and Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. Even if you're not a big fan of MST3K, you gotta at least admire the explosions in this film. All the explosions are well done, including a mock atomic mushroom cloud that's quite spectacular.

Yes, it's a bad film -- but it's such a bad film that it's good!