KnotMissPriceless Why so much hype?

CommentsXp Best movie ever!

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Kien Navarro Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

MARIO GAUCI Apart from his stint among the ensemble of AIRPORT '77, 1977 was truly Annus Horribilis for Christopher Lee: his three genre efforts were easily among the worst exploitation outings of their vintage that I have come across! For the film under review, I sure hope that he did not accept it without even bothering to read the script – in the vain hope of matching the enormous success enjoyed by his frequent colleague Peter Cushing with the same year's STAR WARS (for the record, he would himself eventually join that most auspicious franchise – albeit with a quarter century's delay)! Well, where to begin with this lamentable Canadian attempt at a space opera – which, more than actively ripping off the George Lucas blockbuster, takes a leaf (or two) from yet another 1977 sci-fi landmark, i.e. Steven Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND! In fact, here we have two sets of aliens, one which is evil and intent on destroying our planet (shades of Lee's own END OF THE WORLD, one of his afore-mentioned contemporaneous duds) and the other benign and seeking to thwart their plan (though, yet again, they still need to kidnap humans in order to have THEIR computer system fixed – WTF?!). To be fair to this one, it is not as deadly dull as the others – in fact, I ended up laughing out loud a number of times throughout! Indeed, its unintentionally hilarious moments are perhaps too many to catalogue or remember even at a mere day's juncture, but I will try regardless: a dim-witted, middle-aged farmer is abducted and conditioned to engage in sexual intercourse with a voluptuous alien (which he cannot quite believe is happening to him!); the costume of the invaders looks like a full-body black condom (which Christopher Lee looks understandably miserable inhabiting – what is more, all the actors playing extraterrestrials have had to loop their lines in post-production, since the writer-producer-director apparently thought it cool to allow them to only voice their thoughts!); equally incomprehensible is the redundant presence of what can only be described as space escorts forever waiting in the wings – maybe they should have called the film STAR WHORES?!; a couple of inept intergalactic goons realize too late that their protective force-field was not switched on, so that they are blown to bits by the typically impulsive and paranoid U.S. military; hero Robert Vaughn (displaying a fixed baffled countenance throughout) is supposed to be an expert on UFOs, yet when one flies over his car he does not immediately notice it and has to be alerted to its presence by his kid daughter and, on realizing that he missed the all-important sighting, he just shrugs and keeps on driving; to recruit his computer whiz pal to the aliens' cause, he visits him one evening at home, yet this guy is still wearing his coat and tie as if they were his casual attire; the world's end comes by way of a suicide epidemic (not in itself a bad idea, but would it not just take too long to achieve?) triggered by a laser beam fired from way out in space; Vaughn's wife, depressed over his absence from home (she had already voiced her concern about how he was being unfaithful to her with UFOs!), goes from peeling onions for dinner to slashing her wrists in a split second; though supposedly emanating from outside our atmosphere, the spaceships are inexplicably seen emerging from the sea several times; Lee does very little here except press random buttons off a keyboard and aimlessly fiddle with knobs to feign his authority, check his wristwatch every now and again to God knows what ostensibly vital purpose, and operate the occasional flimsy ray gun (also worn on his wrist), etc. Apparently, Lee himself though of STARSHIP INVASIONS as the nadir of his career…but, while I beg to differ (relatively speaking), it was certainly not a fluke of a low point! In ant case, it was shown under various titles to no effect: ALIEN ENCOUNTERS, ALIEN WARS and PROJECT GENOCIDE!

Kenneth Johnson Saw this turkey in the theater when it came out, not long after "Star Wars", and it quickly became a "MST3" with audience participation. The tag line for this bomb was "Why did they come"? When a cast member said that line in the film, my buddy stood up and shouted "Why did WE come?" which had the whole theater doubled over with laughter. The only redeeming factors for this film were the sexy female aliens in skimpy costumes and the unintentional laughs. Well, that and the theater was still offering real butter (not butter-flavored vegetable oil) on the popcorn. If you intend to watch this movie, gather some like-minded friends and prepare them for making snippy comments about it. Adult beverages will probably help.

teledyn Some trivia: Parts of Starship Invasions was filmed on the campus of the University of Toronto, in particular some of the UFO scenes were shot on the grounds of the then-new Robarts Library, facing the also very new Innis College (where Marshall McLuhan was teaching) In this film, Robert Vaughn basically plays the part of Dr. Ernie Seaquist, dean of Astrophysics at the U of T, and who, at that time, had pinned to the cork board outside his office a double page spread from the National Enquirer with an article quoting Prof. Seaquist and sporting the banner title with something like, "U of T Professor says there IS life in outer space" -- he said a journalist had called one day, asked him that question, so he explained the Drake Equation and how space was so unimaginably large, he'd be very surprised if we were alone.Sure enough, his quote does appear in the two-page article. As the last line. We were told in the Astrophysics dept that our projects could be on any subject, "Except astrology and UFOs."

gazzo-2 It was poopoo then, it Has to be poo poo now. Christopher Lee as a RamaTut Alien, bad F/X saucers, stuff right outta those goofy 'The Outer Space Connection/Chariots of the Gods' '70s UFO crap flix, etc. Even has Helen Shaver, a fat guy on a tractor, a cute brunette Alien nude chick and the Man from Uncle w/ his 9 buck Calculator saving the day. Def. one for the ages. Where were Tom Servo and Cro when ya needed them?* maybe. Real bad.