Uchu kara no messeji

So, ah, imagine "Star Wars," only with as much Japanese-brand weirdness as is at all possible, dubbed by chimps and involving not only the wackiest costumes I've ever seen but magic, glowing walnuts. I don't have to tell you this is the best movie ever made. There's a witty robot, a wormy guy in a glittery jacket and very orange shirt, two guys in disco spacesuits, a plucky girl, some people who wear leaf-wreaths and lucky Vic Morrow in a kind of Captain Harlock get-up. The bad guys seem to be the children of Stormtroopers and the Wicked Witch of the West's soldiers. Oh... and there's a scene where the protagonists swim around on ropes catching SPACE FIREFLIES. In all sincerity, "Uchuu Kara no Message" is more fun than a barrel full of magic walnuts. If you're into that, I mean.

This certainly isn't a masterpiece, however it's something that shouldn't be overlooked. It's Japan's attempt to make Star Wars and is a complete failure. That doesn't mean it's terrible. It's history. These types of movies are so cool to look back on and watch. We shouldn't forget or overlook them.

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!...

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!

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!