Space Odyssey (1979)

[Scott]

SPACE ODYSSEY (1979) - This film seems to be the better of a bunch of Italian films that try to immitate STAR WARS (1976). It is only better in an entertainment sense than WAR OF THE PLANETS (1977) and WAR OF THE ROBOTS (1978) . This film has Gianni Garko of Spaghetti Western fame and an odd assortment of human characters that take on alien invaders who plan on enslaving the earth. An Obi-Wan type brings this group together as he is interupted by some kind of mind melt from the distant alien leader. When this happens our Obi-Wan character looks like he's having a bowel movement. You also have a oil barrel droid with flashing lights and little arms and the blonde robots return from WAR OF THE ROBOTS (1978) to capture our heros. You must see the male and female robots and the glowing light swords with bad sound effect.

  (5 out of 10 Stars) This is being kind, but there is some entertainment value here. 

[Him]

Never heard of it or seen it. Is it available on DVD?

[trekgeezer]

Hey I recently bought this on a $1 DVD at Target. On the same disk there were three cartoons and an episode of Rocky Jones: Space Ranger. On my copy it's called Star Odyssey, it's made by the same guys who made Cosmos: War of the Planets. In fact a lot of the costumes and  effects are from that movie.

Scott, did your copy insert the planetary auction into the middle of the movie instead of at the beginning?

Mine started when Lord Kess was first attacking Earth, then when Irene is gathering up the team later (she was at the fight ring) all of sudden the auction part pops up.

I really hated Tilt and Tilley, the in love robots with the suicide pact.

I guess being in Space Command means you have to have a cheesy moustache.

[Scott]

Trek Geezer, My copy has the auction at the very end of the film ! This means someone has created a film with a single 4 minute scene which places this scene in three different parts of the film. Three versions....amazing. The female human gets 50% of the auction deal and says something about buying her own planet.

By the way I picked up SPACE ODYSSEY on a Strange Tales 20 multipack distributed by Mill Creek Entertainment. WARRIORS OF THE WASTELAND is also on the set. They don't list the Strange Tales Pack, but you can see they have a Apocalypse 20 Movie Pack.

SPACE ODYSSEY and WARRIORS OF THE WASTERLAND would be very good films for Andrew to review here at badmovies.org. Both are definately worthy material in a very entertaining way. A lot to write about in a review. Almost endless bad movie material. Both are worth seeking out for those who like STAR CRASH type 80's Italian Sci-Fi material.

[Andrew]

If you want "Starcrash," but not really "Starcrash" goodness, then check out "Escape from Galaxy 3" sometime.  The film does something that I consider quite amazing, which is using footage from "Starcrash."  For the plot, it is something like "Starcrash" and "The Blue Lagoon" mixed together.  The characters are adult, but I remember them finding their sexuality after fleeing to and settling on a planet.

This thread reminded me that I had "Star Odyssey"  in a set, but the set went missing (it was the set with the Doom or Halo-inspired spaceman on the cover).  I went ahead and picked it up in a new Brentwood set.  Just wish that the Brentwood releases were not so poor in quality, though complaining over movies that cost less than $1 each is a bit silly.

[trekgeezer]

I loved Gianni Garko jumping around all over the place and the way he beat the robot-human tag team . First time I ever saw a pot-bellied robot.

The cheapo light sabers were a sight to behold also.

By the way, the copy I have has an auction at the end, but it was Lord Kess getting rid of Earth because it turned out to be such a pain in the ass.

[Flangepart]

 Ah, yessss...from the Vino sloshed yokels what gave us WAR OF THE ROBOTS!
Ah, there be riffing HERE! This sounds like a pain parade, all right.
But, most of us are into cinema masochisim, ain't we?

[Evan]

My favorite thing about Star Odyssey is the music. It was done by Marcello Giombini of Anthropophagus fame.