Prison Ship

OK. So the line above is kinda silly, but so is this film.

Fred Olen ray is a master at spending no money, and somehow always having a film to show for it. Granted, most of his films end up being very static due to lack of monies for alternate takes and complex editing.

OK. So Ray isn't what you'd call Speilberg. His films concentrate on borrowed sets and costumes(this one's got them), has-been actors( Sid Haig, John Carradine, Aldo Ray, ect.), and some of the most stiff and lifeless dialogue this side of Ray Dennis Steckler.

PRISON SHIP( I saw this as STAR SLAMMER) is a piece of junk, filled with borrowed effects from BATTLESTAR GALLACTICA and BUCK RODGERS. There is some skin, but not enough. Mostly, there is talk, and as many a reviewer likes to point out, Fred Olen Ray makes very chatty pictures. That's because he either doesn't have the creativity, or the perspective, to realize that you don't need a ton of money to make a good film. You just need talent.

Why should I continue? PRISON SHIP is cheesy, and painful. Don't watch this unless you must see every film that John Carradine is in (or you really like train wrecks).

My review was written in May 1987 after a Cannes Film Festival Market screening.

A thorough knowledge of sci-fi B-movies pervades "Prison Ship" (alternatively titled "Star Slammer" and subtitled "The Adventures of Taura Part I"), an affectionate camp effort made in 1984 by prolific indie helmer Fred Olen Ray. Target audience is buffs who will catch the various in-jokes and elements of spoof.

Pic is styled as a serial with four chapters. First segment is set on Planet Arous (a nod to the John Agar '50s classic) and has the look of a B-Western shot in some canyon. Sandy Brooke is Taura, a tough gal miner who runs afoul of Magistrate Bantor (Ross Hagen), who represents the hated Sovereign. She brutally burns Bantor's hand in a fight and is framed and set to Star Slammer (that's Chapter 2's title), the prison ship Vehemence.

Remainder of pic, recycling sets from such films as "2010", "Galaxy of Terror" and "Android", takes place in this Outer Space women's prison, with spirited mocking of the cliches of women-in-chains features. Brooke is thrown in with some very tough babes, but quickly establishes her own fighting prowess and trustworthiness. Teaming up with the gal's leader Mike (Susan Stokey) and a beautiful doctor who is working for the underground (Jade Barrett), she helps engineer a successful jailbreak, setting up a promised sequel titled "Chain Gang Planet".

On a minuscule budget, "Prison Ship" provides okay modelwork for space battles, cute little monsters called Jagger Rats and lots of assorted silliness. Acting is way over the top, with Marya Gant as the grotesque Rubenesque warden and Dawn Wildsmith as her right hand momma taking home hambone honors. Director Ray has gone on to bigger projects since making this one so the sequel is anything but certain. Film's cheapo production values are part of its charm but certainly will limit its marketability.

Although I enjoy watching drive-in style movies, I have to confess that there is a genre in this genre I have never particularly enjoyed, and that is the women-in-prison genre. I like the *sound* of what the genre promises to offer, but I have always found the actual execution to be dull and boring. And all of these movies seem the same after a while. When I heard about PRISON SHIP (better known as STAR SLAMMER), I was intrigued. A women-in-prison movie taking place in the future, and in space? I decided to give it a chance.

The fact that Fred Olen Ray directed this movie should have warned me. In fairness, not everything in the movie is bad. The sets and spaceship models, while definitely low budget, are not as bad to the eye as you may think. There is the occasional in-joke that made me smile (a planet is called "Arous", there's an alien that looks like one of the aliens from the movie THE DEADLY SPAWN). And there are a few unintentional laughs, like when the musical score sounds very much like the musical score for RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK.

Aside from those bright moments, I found the movie tough to sit through. It's incredibly slow-moving - there is simply no plot advance for long stretches of time. The female heroine is poorly sketched, with a lot of the focus surprisingly not on her. And while you may expect the movie to be sleazy, it feels more like a PG-rated movie - there's almost no nudity, no real sex, and light violence.

Thank goodness they didn't make the sequel that's announced at the end of the movie.

The space fighting scenes are right out of Roger Cormens classic "Battle Beyond the Stars". (Like cut and paste out of it that is)Then for those of us who actually survive this epic to the end and make it to the credits, we seem to be misled, because at the beginning of the credits we are told to look for the next adventure of Tara in "Chain Gang Planet". What happened??? I realize this movie is bad, but hey, just for a good laugh I would pick up the next one on DVD. If you are a serious sci-fi fan, you might be better off to look to something else for your collection. If you are into low budget c-movies (I don't think of this as even a B movie) and are looking for a good laugh then look no further.

As a fan of Fred Olen Ray films i have to say prison ship is quite entertaining.i know it has a shoestring budget.John Carridine in one of his next to last films as a space magistrate who sends a beautiful sexy fiery blonde babe(Sandy Brooke)to a prison ship full of babes.run by a busty tough warden played by Marya Gant,and her sadistic one eyed trustee played by Dawn Wildsmith(a olen ray regular)of course there's a twisted sadistic lunatic(Ross Hagen)who wants revenge.because he lost his hand in a fight with the heroine.also on hand is Johnny Legend as a space rabbi,the great Aldo Ray as the a master of torture,and cameo by the beautiful Bobbie Bresee.there's aliens robots,Jagger rats(don't ask)and a space battle lifted from Roger Cormans;battle beyond the stars.and a good opening score that sounds like raiders of the lost ark.granted i saw this movie on ancient VHS so the picture quality is not very good.some critics will think I'm crazy for liking this and giving it 7 out of 10,but remember the critics Siskell and Ebert admitting they enjoyed;invasion of the bee girls and infra man.I'm hoping to see prison ship on a good quality DVD.prison ship is a killer-b movie,i found it enjoyable.