Diagonaldi Very well executed

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

bheadher Back in the early 80's, no one really treated scifi as a money maker vehicle, so naturally we ended up with a slew of tiny budget, low quality flicks...the thinking tended to be, throw a bunch of well known stars at the audience and they will love it...of course it didn't work out that way, but at least BBTS made an attempt at being interesting, heh heh...The movie is played out as almost literally a video game, complete with the visuals and sound effects. You can't get away from the feel of an Atari coming to life, and it actually turns out to be a fun two hours...Don't expect a block buster, or an epic motion picture, because it definitely isn't that...but grab some poppy corn and sit back, to immerse yourself in a mix of different themes all jumbled together, heh heh...

RavenGlamDVDCollector Movie not my scene at all. My interest was because of tantalizing glimpses from this and STARCRASH in Early 80s magazines, of pretty girls in revealing outfits. It was somehow lodged in my mind that Sybil Danning was something extra-exciting. So, decades later, I acquired this title on DVD, very expensively as I had to have it imported, and it was ridiculously overpriced, something like more than a hundred $$$ and I had to face the dismal exchange rate. Only to be utterly disappointed by the oh-so-fake-looking plastic person. Believe me, she was not at all what I expected. She looks like she's years ahead of her time. In a bad way. She looks like the very epitome of the current never-ending plastic surgery trend. Implants. About as much fun as a blow- up doll. Well, to each their own. But there is a very lovely girl in this spaced-out saga, and it beats the hell out of me that nobody latched onto the real star way back then. Darlanne Fluegel, a sight worth traveling to the stars. And paying a hefty amount for an overpriced DVD.Suffice to say, I do not want my money back. I am more than satisfied with my purchase. Had it not been for Darlanne, though, it would have been a waste. Embarrassingly bad movie. To be avoided unless you wanna see a really pretty girl, the overlooked starlet.One thing, I must admit, I cannot really say in all certainty whether or not the whole Sybil Danning obsession was caused by getting confused with other images or whatever. I well remember the character's exotic name in the captions, so I might just have been naively influenced by her costume, but I sure as hell know better today than to fall for a fake nip/tucked creation with silicon bags or whatever. Look, that stuff is okay for accident victims, but man (with scalpel) cannot improve on Nature.So, for those of you judging whether to watch this on telly tonight, you sure as hell can't lose. You could die laughing at the unlikely- looking special effects, and overall have a fun time. Rent it, but only pay a tremendous sum for it if you're a Mad Collector in pursuit of All The Pretty Actresses like me. But don't fall for the unEarthly looking Sybil, I promise you she's not worth it. Darlanne IS, though.

Daryl_G_Morrissey The story concerns a young farmer, Shad (Richard Thomas), from the peaceful planet Akir (named for Akira Kurosawa), that is under threat from the warlord Sador (John Saxon), of the Malmori. Being a peace- loving people they have no way to defend themselves, so Shad takes an old spacecraft and goes looking for some mercenaries to help defend his planet. These include, Nanelia (Darlanne Fluegel); Space Cowboy (George Peppard); Nestor (Five Alien clones, who share a group consciousness); Gelt (Robert Vaughn); Saint-Exmin (Sybil Danning); Cayman (Morgan Woodward) and The Kelvin (Larry Meyers & Lara Cody).When Sador returns he is met by Shad, leading seven ships in a bid to safe his planet from destruction.The film is a remake of The Magnificent Seven (1960), which was a remake of Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai (1954), so there is no time wasted on in-depth character development or storytelling, as the story should be familiar. Everything we need to know about each character we learn in our first meeting with them. Space Cowboy is a space trucker, from Earth, looking for adventure. Saint-Exmin is from a female warrior race, who has a very fast ship, and wishes to have a glorious death. Gelt is the best assassin in the galaxy, but is alone and paranoid, only joining Shad for the reward of a safe and peaceful place to live.The effects aren't the best, but are by no means poor. This could be down to a number of reasons;While Star Wars (1977) had an estimated budget of $11 million, Battle Beyond the Stars had an estimated budget of just $2 million.The man who was in charge of the miniature design and construction, special photographic effects and was also the additional director of photography was none other than James Cameron. (It was while working on Battle Beyond the Stars that James Cameron met Gale Ann Hurd, the films assistant production manager, who he would team up with to make his 1984 classic, The Terminator.)Battle Beyond the Stars was filmed in just five weeks.The score was composed by James Horner and is very upbeat and full of brass instruments, fanfare and goes very well with the pace of the film. James Horner also scored the soundtracks to Star Trek II (1982) and Star Trek III (1984), the latter of which has pieces of score that sound as if they were simply 'lifted' from the Battle Beyond the Stars score.Each of the characters appears to have been given the same amount of screen time, which works in the movie's favour. John Saxon plays Sador with a particular ruthlessness, while George Peppard is almost playful as the Space Truckin' Cowboy. Meanwhile, Robert Vaughn's, Gelt, is so closely based on the character of Lee, from The Magnificent Seven (1960), that some of Gelt's dialogue is almost identical, to that of Lee's.

gavin6942 A young farmer (Richard Thomas) sets out to recruit mercenaries to defend his peaceful planet, which is under threat of invasion by an evil tyrant (John Saxon) and his armada.What happens if you take Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" and put it in space? Well, it might be something like this, because that was the direct inspiration behind this film. Is this as great a film as Kurosawa's? Of course not. Is it as good as the western remake, "Magnificent Seven"? No. But this is still a worthy film, and it has a very tongue-in-cheek temperament that strongly suggests they knew what they were doing was out of love but not necessarily top notch.Although I enjoyed the appearance of John Saxon as a space villain (in his pre-"Elm Street" days), the real praise must go to James Horner, whose score was quite good for a Corman production. Should we be surprised that we went on to great things? Allegedly, this is also the film that sparked the partnership between Gale Anne Hurd and James Cameron, too... so it can be indirectly responsible for such great films as "Aliens".