Enormously enjoyable science fiction film from New World - the most expensive they've ever made - which has perhaps the most likeable characters in a sci fi action film that I can think of off the top of my head. John Sayles wrote the script and he did a terrific job, helped by some good casting.
Richard Thomas is likeable in his regular sappy way the boy next door who goes around whipping up the mercenary force; Robert Vaughan is touching as the incredibly rich assassin who is living lonely on a planet because he's on the run from everywhere (sure, it's a reprise of his Magnificent Seven work but he's even better here because of his age and the fact he's on his own on a planet); George Peppard is winning as a lonely smuggler from Earth (hooray) who likes Westerns and has a Confederate flag on his ship; Darlanne Fluegel is achingly pretty and most winning as the naive girl who has grown up without androids and whose father (Sam Jaffe, in a performance that is surely a nod to Lost Horizon) wants Thomas to breed with her (tough gig!); Sybil Danning is spectacular as the well-dowed Viking woman. I loved the other creatures in make up, too - the Nestor, who all share the same sensations; the little guys without ears; the lizard desperate for payback.
It's a tribute to Sayles that all these characters are conveyed so well so quickly. There's more too: Thomas' sister Julia Duffy (I was never quite sure what happened to her in the film after she got kidnapped) and mentor Jeff Corey, the voice of his space ship (who has a touching quasi-Alzheimers death scene), Marta Kristen as a leading woman on Thomas' planet, John Saxon as the megalomaniac villain. Every race has a different religion - it's a really clever, rich script.
There is plenty of action and cheesy special effects, which haven't aged too well, but it fairly spanks along - by minute eight Thomas is off on his mission. No wonder this film is so well loved.
No comments:
Post a Comment