Piratas do Espaço

Right, well I had the opportunity to sit down and watch the 1996 movie "Space Truckers" for the first time ever here in 2021. I didn't even know about the movie prior to now.

So of course, I was somewhat surprised to see the likes of Dennis Hopper and Charles Dance in a movie such as this. Needless to say, of course, that I just had to sit down and watch it.

And yeah, "Space Truckers" was every bit as corny and campy as the title suggest. But it was actually an enjoyable and watchable movie. I found the movie, as written by Stuart Gordon and Ted Mann, to actually be rather entertaining. There was just something truly unique about the whole cheesy feel of the movie.

"Space Truckers" is a lean-back-and-munch-on-popcorn kind of movie. It is not a movie that you should take overly serious, though it does provide good entertainment.

Visually then "Space Truckers" was actually rather interesting. There were lots of nice designs and concept ideas. Sure, the effects weren't always up there to match the ideas, but they worked as intended. And I do love the scenes where you see the harnesses suspending the actors floating around. It seemed like the post-production people didn't even bother to cut them out of the scenes.

This 1996 sci-fi adventure comedy has a pretty interesting cast ensemble, with the likes of Dennis Hopper, Charles Dance, Debi Mazar, Sean Lawlor, George Wendt and Barbara Crampton.

I can warmly recommend that you sit down to watch "Space Truckers", should you get the chance to do so. Especially if you enjoy light sci-fi movies that don't really take themselves overly serious.

My rating of director Stuart Gordon's 1996 "Space Truckers" lands on a six out of ten stars. You haven't seen everything before you've seen a square pig.

OK, this is not the best movie in the world, but it's pretty funny. It's clearly tongue in cheek and doesn't take itself seriously at all. You just have to watch it and enjoy its cheesiness. I mean, before this, Stuart Gordon wrote Body Snatchers, Castle Freak and The Dentist. You would probably expect some sort of body horror extravaganza, not the pastel colored corporate world of space transportation in the near future. But the thing is fun. It's like Super Mario Brothers mixed with Hardware.

Bottom line: it's not good, but it's not bad either. And it's silly fun.

The plot: Space truckers run into problems with space pirates, space politicians, and killer robots (who, technically, are not space robots).

Space Truckers is essentially a low budget, B movie space opera that's a parody of low budget, B movie space operas. It's full of cheesy lines, cheesy set design, and cheesy special effects. In fact, it's such a cheesy movie that it sometimes makes The Rocky Horror Picture Show look like The Godfather. At its heart, this movie is stupid, pointless, mindless, and has nothing to say about the human condition, except that it's funny to laugh at bad movies. If you're a Stuart Gordon fan, that's probably enough for you to enjoy this. As an added bonus, it's got a great cast, including many B movie veterans.

It can be enjoyed as either a so-bad-it's-good B movie or a clever parody. Like most Stuart Gordon films, it has rather narrow demographic appeal, and people who are not genre fans (or Stuart Gordon fans) are likely to hate it. I love Stanley Kubrick as much as the next film snob, but the world also needs ridiculous movies like Space Truckers and The Toxic Avenger. In fact, this movie is something of a marriage between Troma and New World Pictures. If you're unfamiliar with those studios -- or you dislike their copious output -- I'd strongly warn you away from this film. Space Truckers was reviled by the critics, rejected by audiences, and thought to be unintentionally funny by B movie fans. Well, for the true believers, this is an awesome movie, and nothing will ever convince us otherwise. Such is the cult of Stuart Gordon!

This is a good B-Grade film, and there are many reasons to watch it.

First, and the reason I watched it: Debi Mazar is gorgeous and gets plenty of quality screen time.

Second: the story line is interesting and imaginative.

Third: the special effects are more than decent when one considers the mid-range success this film's creators would have been aiming for.

Fourth: the acting from the main pair (Charles Dance & Dennis Hopper) was spot on - considering this film was meant to be a space adventure/comedy.

Fifth: the design of ships and cargo carriers was very good.

Sixth: almost all of the dialogue was well written.

Seventh: the film should provide many laughs all the way through.

So why the terrible 4.9 rating? Is the film badly edited and hard to follow? Absolutely not. On the contrary this side of things was very well handled, and the film is very easy to follow with no errors of continuance.

Did the film suffer from bad casting? Definitely not, and both Charles and Dennis would be irreplaceable in my opinion. Remember Dennis Hopper's terrific one liners in Water World? Well, he repeats that performance here in Space Truckers. Besides, we get to see Dennis play a heroic character for a change!

Does the film suffer from a lack of character development like some reviewers have said? Utter rubbish! I can't say much here that would not give elements of the outcome of the story away, but I will say that if you miss character development in this movie then you didn't watch it properly.

And one last thing; this movie is close to the mark as far as the reality of our world is concerned. Technology has created power for some people that we should all be very concerned about, and while Space Truckers is a comedy, I felt it hit very close to home on a few fronts.

I have to respect movies which promise something and deliver exactly that. When I rented this (I was bored tonight) I had absolutely no expectations for some great piece of art, another Star Wars or Aliens. It was, however, a very cute and often amusing piece of sci-fi satire. (probably my favorite bit was how the truck's voice was a redneck woman, instead of the usual authoritative british guy) If you try to take it seriously, of course you'll hate it. But if you rent it because you want to see a beer & popcorn B-movie, then it's a REALLY good B-movie. I may have lost 90 minutes of my life and gained no new insights on the meaning of the universe, but I did have a good time.