The Ice Pirates

Ice Pirates is a B-movie, it's campy, trashy and it is most of the time hilariously funny.

To me it probably is the funniest sf movie I ever watched. Sure, Galaxy Quest is funny, but it is also totally selfconcious, the whole humour comes from making fun of Star Trek.

Ice Pirates also makes fun of sf tropes, but it never takes itself seriously. While the story might be less strange than Buckaroo Banzai, the former is as quirky as the latter.

On the other hand, some of the visuals still look great to me.

This is one of the few films, I loved as a child, that stood up to the test of time and entertained the adult me as well as the young peg.

This movie is generally underrated, which may be because people expected it to be something it's not. It's a comedy, a spoof, and an excellent one. It is not a serious sci-fi action adventure.

Who knew Robert Urich could be this funny? The scene where the captured ice pirates are being prepared for slave duty alone is worth the price of admission!

Then there's the robot that was purchased for an inexplicably good price. That particular scene is so dark that it may be necessary to play it back a couple of times to see what's going on.

You find a beautiful woman in suspended animation. What would you do?

The biggest shortcoming of this film is the ending, where there's a rather silly chase through a wormhole or some such. It doesn't really work, and since it's right at the end of the film may help explain why so many review the film so poorly.

This movie clearly has a small budget, looks cheap, and isn't very serious. Fortunately, that is exactly what the film makers were going for. I enjoy this one, though it is apparent by its score that most people don't. I just find it funny and I love the cast which includes Ron Pearlman and even Angelica Houston. Heck, John Carradine even has a small role in it, though his scene is absolutely pointless and adds nothing to the flick. In fact it is a rather serious scene especially considering the rest of the movie. This one doesn't look great, kind of like Space Mutiny, but unlike Space Mutiny this one isn't trying to be serious so the effects can be forgiven. This one has a band of space pirates that go after, you guessed it, ice. They do this at the beginning and get immediately captured and this sets up the rest of the movie. No work of art, but it is entertaining to me.

I found a very used copy at a yard sale and boy does it bring back memories. It is funny, romantic, provocative, even sexy. Comedy is hard and the actors in this film make it look easy, and when your willing to put up with a worn out tape; that's when you know it's good. Someday I hope to see it on DVD.

I saw this movie as a kid and just watched it again. Some may think it's a sci-fi action flick that hit well below the mark. Others view as a comedy that hit pretty much dead-on. I don't really care ... it's got men being men, women kicking a**, lots of aliens and space battles that make a shoestring budget look appealing, but work anyway. It's lowdown, dirty, often vulgar, and succeeds in making just about every character in the bunch the butt of at least one joke. The only thing is, I can't remember any other movie that made Ron Perlman out to be the small, weaselly guy. Score one more for the Ice Pirates!