Starship Invasions

The film studio responsible for the old "OUR GANG" serials cranked out this science fiction film in 1977. The film, STARSHIP INVASIONS drew inspirations off of the wave of space warfare films coming out at that time. The film tells the tale of a ufo menace to earth that is combated by friendly aliens who ask humans for help. A fun point in the plot is the ERIC VON DRAKEN plot point involving hidden ufo bases and ancient astronauts. I don't believe this in real life it was as I said fun. The film was a good family movie and a great "pop corn and coke" film. The special effects at times were creative and others dreadful yet the film is worth viewing. I if you are into UFO lore you will like this film. The film plays like a modren incarnation of a old BUSTER CRABBE serial.

I remember seeing this during Passover Holidays (easter) at my local cinema. It was marketed as a 'Star Wars' knock-off. I picked it up 20 years later in a 2nd hand bin on VHS. THIS FILM IS HILARIOUS DRECK!! Basically this race of aliens try to take over the Earth by mind control by causing earthlings to commit suicide!! Mixing UFO nonsense with ludicrous 'Star Wars' mythology and some demented ideas, I will never forget sitting in a cinema full of teens and pre-teens, and watching in horror as the main actress has her mind controlled, and she proceeds to slash her wrists! Kids were screaming in horror, and the projectionist had to stop the film!! It was truly one of those classic cinema experiences that people just don't experience in today's disgusting cineplex wasteland!

I have to agree with the people who say this movie's bad, but disagree with the ones who say it isn't so bad it's good. This movie is completely hilarious! I can only hope warner pulled SI out of distribution because they're working on a 30th anniversary DVD edition with lots of making-of featurettes where the director details how much crack he was on while he was making it. (It's out of circulation now and amazingly it's going for 150 bucks on amazon, this movie. Fortunately my video store happens to have an old copy.) Wait till you see the part with the pocket calculator! In this movie a guy uses a 70s style pocket calculator to compute flightpaths for a flying saucer. I rather would have thought that interplanetary trajectories would be a bit complicated for a pocket calculator, but what do I know? I remember when SI came out pocket calculators were a huge fad, along with digital watches. Everybody was all, now we can finally achieve world peace, because there are pocket calculators.

And the overacting family in the huge car! "look! it's a flying saucer! For god's sake DON'T MAKE THEM ANGRY!!" And the robots who look like trash cans...

And the sadistic kid who squashes the tomato...

Believe it or not I remember seeing this thing 29 years ago when it came out. I was all, wow, that really sucked, mommy. And my mom was like, yeah, I don't know what to tell you. So hilariously stupid and trashy. it's got goofy flying saucers, lots and lots of cheesecake, christopher lee losing every scrap of his dignity, tons of mind-controlled people acting really zombified and stupid, space battles that look like they were lifted straight out of "mars attacks!", possibly the most ridiculous costumes of all time, and the real coup de grace -- one actually extraordinarily talented actress (Helen Shaver, the wife of the UFO researcher guy) caught in the middle of it all, trying valiantly to salvage this whole mess. oh, and the soundtrack kicks. and yet is completely inappropriate for the subject matter.

I know, I know, you probably didn't find this review helpful.

For years I had hoped to run across this film again as I find that certain images of the flying saucers have stuck in my imagination throughout my adult life. Actual recollections of storyline are nil as it seemed to be crude in its storytelling but my impression is that for whatever reason I believe this to be an important film in terms of its longterm effect on the impressionable minds (like mine at the time) who watched it on its release. Robert Vaughn who so memorably appeared in other low budget films (notably Teenage Caveman, a Corman classic), adds to the overall impression that here was something to be enjoyed throughout ones life. Despite its obvious flaws, you should overlook the films limitations and enjoy the fact that here is a film that at its core is about flying saucers. Apart from Forbidden Planet, no other film has remained with me with such a powerful grip on my imagination.

"Oh boy, a real flying saucer!" is what a little boys shouts when he and his parents are confronted with a mysterious space ship circling above their car on a secluded countryside road. I definitely shared his enthusiasm, because I truly worship cinematic B-trash like this, and my only regret was that I wasn't yet drunk enough when I watched "Starship Invasions". Although a low-keyed crossover between the hugely successful "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", this piece of junk has quite a lot to offer. For example, it stars Christopher Lee in the most ridiculous and embarrassing outfit of his long and respectable career, hypnotizing aliens speaking without moving their lips, alien base camps underneath sea level, loads of sexy space wenches, authentic R2D2 robots (oh no, they're not men in suits AT ALL) and goofy intelligent beings with gigantic bald heads and miniature ears. I'm not at all sure what the plot is about, but it sure is incoherent and totally messed up. There are alien invaders trying to overtake planet earth, but at the same time these crazy beings are at war with other extraterrestrial species. I can't really say why because I always got distracted by random alien babes in too tight spandex costumes. Presumably the big bald aliens are here to protect us humans from the nefarious Christopher Lee and his posse. Meanwhile, Robert Vaughn stars as a professor who takes himself deadly serious and appears on TV talk shows in order to persuade the world about the existence of interstellar civilizations. Okay, "Starship Invasions" comes across as cheesy and campy, but admittedly it's also dark and sinister at times, especially when it turns out that the evil aliens are able to make earthlings commit ritual suicide through their telekinetic powers. Once you're done laughing with Vaughn's nihilistic facial expressions and Lee's stoic voiceovers the film does become very boring, though. The special effects are astonishingly decent for a low- budget Canadian exploitation flick like this. Particularly the UFO models are nifty, albeit prototypic, and even when floating around they don't look that stupid. With a slightly more coherent script and competent direction, and maybe also with less urge to imitate other and more successful Sci-Fi titles, I'm convinced that "Starship Invasions" could have been a better movie. Now it's merely a curious footnote in the genre and a reasonably interesting flick for cult-collectors. Writer/director Ed Hunt was also responsible for two favorite 80s guilty pleasure of mine, namely "Bloody Birthday" and "The Brain".