Kyrsten Brad
Senior HTF Member
The Movie Itself: A Roger Corman Cult Classic. Talk about a hokey pokey Sci-Fi film. Almost as hokey, well maybe more hokey than Barbarella, the 1968 Jane Fonda Sci-Fi/Sex Fantasy film. OK so there was no nudity in Starcrash but oh did Caroline Munro (deadly beauty "Naomi" from the 1977 James Bond classic The Spy Who Loved Me) ever shine, even in this laughable so-bad-its-good film. She didn't get nude but I'll take Caroline over Jane Fonda any day. Worth the price of admission just to see Caroline Munro in that outfit for a big chunk of the movie (and like Raquel Welch, she still looks good well into her 60s). Suffice to say, Caroline was pretty much the whole film (and she still can set male hearts aflutter) Also featured a early appearance by then-unknown David Hasselhoff (as the Emperor's Son) and some brief appearances by Christopher Plummer.
The Technical Aspects:
Picture Quality: I have to rate the PQ about a 1.5, maybe a 2 3 to 3.5 (on RAH's scale of 5). Looks like they used a older transfer used for VHS and early DVDs. (Correction, according to Walter Olsen, there was no DVD released and any VHS releases date back to the 1980s. My mistake. Grain is very noticeable; in fact some DNR in moderation might have benefited this film (I don't mind DNR in moderation, in fact I kinda like it but I now know when too much DNR is used, re: Disney's The Jungle Book (1968). I'd say that the PQ of this film was similar to the PQ of the blu-ray for another 1979 film, Wanda Nevada (1979 featuring Brooke Shields), though Wanda Nevada was a little better PQ.
From IMDB:
Runtime 1 hr 32 min (92 min) (USA)
1 hr 34 min (94 min) (Italy) Sound Mix Dolby Color Color (Technicolor) Aspect Ratio 1.85 : 1 Laboratory Rank Film Laboratories, Denham, UK Negative Format 35 mm Printed Film Format 35 mm
Sound Quality: About a 2.5 out of 5. I don't yet have a real sound system with my home theater (that comes this Christmas with a new Denon AVR and Boston Acoustics Speaker System). But I could tell on my current setup they really went for big sound, though the quality left something to be desired.
In Summary: Unless Roger Corman ponies up to get a new 4K scan done from the OCNs or a decent print, this sub-par Blu looks to be the best we'll get of this 1979 cult classic.
Doesn't really compare to something like Star Wars or the original Battlestar Galactica but a fun diversion, especially for Caroline Munro fans...like me.
WARNING to our younger readers, your Mother (or even Grandmother) might be in this film as one of Roger Corman's sci-fi beauties.