a5c7b9f00b Shad, a young farmer, assembles a band of diverse mercenaries in outer space to defend his peaceful planet from the evil tyrant Sador and his armada of aggressors. Among the mercenaries are Space Cowboy, a spacegoing truck driver from Earth; Gelt, a wealthy but experienced assassin looking for a place to hide; and Saint-Exmin, a Valkyrie warrior looking to prove herself in battle. A young farmer sets out to recruit mercenaries to defend his peaceful planet, which is under threat of invasion by the evil tyrant Sador and his armada of aggressors. In the wake of Star Wars a lot of movies were produced trying to score on the popularity of sci-fi at the time. Eager studios surprised by the success of the George Lucas movies were all too glad to pour money into these productions for the hope of some fast bucks.<br/><br/>"Battle Beyond the Stars" even goes so far to mimic the title of it's role model, along with several spaceship designs. To mix up the stars'n'lasers-theme they throw in a "seven samurai"-plot, several known actors and a playmate sex bomb as the cherry on top. Alas, the special effects pale in comparison, the design is visibly inferior and the story barely scrapes the surface.<br/><br/>Yet to say that the movie is a plain ripoff wouldn't do it right. There are some funny ideas, interesting characters and some humorous scenes, that can surely be enjoyed. So if you refrain from comparing it with the Star Wars series, you surely can have a fun time here. A young farmer (Richard Thomas) sets out to recruit mercenaries to defend his peaceful planet, which is under threat of invasion by an evil tyrant (John Saxon) and his armada.<br/><br/>What happens if you take Akira Kurosawa's "Seven Samurai" and put it in space? Well, it might be something like this, because that was the direct inspiration behind this film. Is this as great a film as Kurosawa's? Of course not. Is it as good as the western remake, "Magnificent Seven"? No. But this is still a worthy film, and it has a very tongue-in-cheek temperament that strongly suggests they knew what they were doing was out of love but not necessarily top notch.<br/><br/>Although I enjoyed the appearance of John Saxon as a space villain (in his pre-"Elm Street" days), the real praise must go to James Horner, whose score was quite good for a Corman production. Should we be surprised that we went on to great things? Allegedly, this is also the film that sparked the partnership between Gale Anne Hurd and James Cameron, too… so it can be indirectly responsible for such great films as "Aliens".
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