Starcrash (1978/Shout! Factory Blu-ray + DVD)

 

Picture: B-/C+     Sound: B-/C+     Extras: C     Film: C

 

 

Of the many bad and endless Star Wars rip-offs, Starcrash managed to do some business by simply being there before many others, having a John Barry score, having an interesting marketing campaign (one that included showing of the Dolby System logo George Lucas made famous with his blockbuster) and offering the appealing Caroline Monro at her international star peak after doing films like the James Bond hit The Spy Who Loved Me, Dracula A.D. 1972, The Golden Voyage Of Sinbad, At The Earth’s Core and Brian Clemens’ underrated Captain Kronos – Vampire Hunter.  She played the heroine Stella Star and wow, no actress had such revealing space outfit designs since Jane Fonda did Barbarella, another Italian co-production.

 

The plot (if you can call it that) to this Italian co-production with Roger Corman as Star and company try to stop an evil count (Joe Spinell) from taking over the universe.  Helping her are her male friend Akton (Marjoe Gortner) and eventually Simon (David Hasselhoff in his first feature film; you’ll see why he was sent to TV!) in a story whose script stole many pre-Star Wars films in the same vein and genre, making it even seem older and more dated than other imitators.  Luigi Cozzi may have had fun shooting this, but I was never as impressed, even with Christopher Plummer showing up, this was always forgettable and unimpressive, but is so wacky that it has a cult following and is finally out on Blu-ray and DVD in copies that fans can appreciate, imperfections and all.

 

The result is an acquired taste and a reminder than even with its oldest special effects, the original 1977 Star Wars still looked better than this.  Monro even talks like Carrie Fisher’s Princess Leia at one point, part of what makes this a curio worth seeing once.  Just make sure you have some patience in case you get bored.

 

 

The 1080p 1.85 X 1 digital High Definition image on the Blu-ray does have its good moments of color not unlike Galaxina (which we covered on the now defunct HD-DVD, though that was a 2.35 X 1 scope film) which also was a fancy Sci-Fi knock-off with a sexy female lead, but a mix of dated effects and dated footage along with more softness and other minor flaws hold the transfer back a bit.  This is still better than many of the Corman Blu-rays to date, but its limited budget has come back to haunt it.  The anamorphically enhanced DVD is even softer, though the lower definition hides some flaws.

 

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on the Blu-ray tries to take the old, tired Dolby A-type analog theatrical sound and make is sound good, but even a score by John Barry (who did better a year later on the James Bond film Moonraker) cannot save this from sounding distorted and showing its age.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 on the DVD is weaker.

 

Extras in both formats include a 12-page booklet, feature-length audio commentary tracks by Starcrash scholar Stephen Romano, trailer (with alternate commentaries by its editor Joe Dante and torture porn director Eli Roth), DVD-ROM PDF of the original screenplay, Deleted & Extended Scenes including foreign footage and how the various edits of the film affected its outcome, Behind The Scenes footage with commentary, making of visual effects featurette with its supervisor Armando Valcauda, new Caroline Monro interview, radio spots and an extensive stills section.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo