Message from Space

[Caleb]

I did a double feature that day, Superman The Movie and Message From Space when they came out, $4.50 total for both movies.  I am glad to see that someone agrees about Lucas stealing scenes to make Return of the Jedi.  When it came on TBS I video taped it, so I have my full copy. Yes, I liked it despite the bad acting and effects.  Also did you know that scenes were taking from it and Star Trek II to make the first laser disc video game.  I played it a lot until made it to the end.  Forgot the name of the game.  By the way the seeds were golden in color, not green. =)

[Michael]

I saw this a few times about 25 years ago (on HBO?) and have always had the image of that ship in my head.  None of my friends or relatives or any of the geeks that I know have any knowledge of this movie.  I have been searching for this movie for years.

Being that I was a little kid my favorite part about the movie was the two young guys in there really cool ships.  At least that is how a little kid thought about it.

I would be interested to see it again but think that the dialogue will probably be as bad as Napoleon Dynamite.

[Steve]

I saw this theater in the late 1970's in a second-run movie house in the San Fernando Valley in California. It was one of those decaying theaters that charged .49 cents (later .99 cents) for a double feature.  I was only 8 or 9 and went with my father, who was always a big sci fi fan, I remember being really bored by the movie until the glowing walnuts appeared. At that point, the half dozen people in the audience started laughing. Another half and hour in, we started having a great time, as we assumed this was *supposed* to be a funny movie. In all events, I've been dying to remember the name of the film ever since. On a whim, I typed in "70's sci fi movie walnuts" into Google and like magic, I've finally gotten the scoop on this silly little movie I remember watching so long ago. Now that I know what it's called, I've just got find a DVD of this movie and share it with my father!

[Bobby Gemmell]

The ultimate sci-fi headtrip. Imagine Star Wars on acid and it was made in Japan, then you'll know what i'm talking about. If any of you guys want to see this again without having to wait a long time for it to appear on tv, go to www.yesasia.com to get the japanese dvd. That is what i'm gonna do anyway. A must see B-Movie.

[Fran]

It's me again. Sorry folks, I forgot to mention one important thing: the english title of this movie won't respond on the French websites I've mentioned earlier. "Message from space" becomes in French: "Les évadés de l'espace" Type that, click on the search button, and the DVD showing deep space with this unbelievable white sail-space-ship on the cover.

[Carl Booth]

I am totally shocked and saddened by all of you who want to part with your hard-earned money to buy such an utterly bad movie. I only have one thing to say to you. If you really want to purchase this "turkey", go to `Monsters In Motion` (monstersinmotion.com). There you can get this work of art on DVD for $19.99 plus taxes. That's where I bought my copy. Enjoy.:)

[Fran]

I just read that some people on this forum would like to purchase an eventual copy of this movie. After all my searches, only a French edition with 2 DVDs including interviews and bonus is available at Amazon.fr, but costs € 33.00 ($ 42.00. However, there are some other websites wich sells it for € 17.99 -$ 22.85- at www.cdiscount.com or € 19.99 -$ 25.38- at www.discountmanga.com. But I think that this copy only presents the French Dubbed version (it only shows VF on the language description.) The three website don't give much technical information about the product, unfortunately. The copy is for zone 2 (Europe and Japan) players only but will play on a region free player anyway.

[chris conley]

Rarely seen film by battle royale director kinji fukasaku  who did not base this on star wars but on the hakkenden this was later remade as Legend of the eight samurai
now avaliable subbed on dvd it has the same plot as this film but takes place on the ground and involves samurai and ninjas a subbed version of message from space in the near future would be nice

[william]

I saw this film when it came out in the US. It was late 1970s probably 1979. I understood even then it was a Star Wars spoof but it was also addressing much deeper topics and the characters were much better developed than George Luca's 2 dimensional characters. Yes, I was a child but it was pretty easy to tell how much someone's character just isn't alive or kicking.

Anyway, I really thought the special effects were great and the imagination into the large sail ship was great. It was a mix of Japanese folklore exploring moral issues and ethics with a sci-fi spin. Much like many of the 1950s Japanese Sci-fi animations like Astroboy or the early 1970's Yamato which later came out in the US (1979) as Star Blazers.

[Flangepart]

In the words of the Foywonder, "I Paid to see MESSAGE FROM SPACE!"
Did not regret it. A nice slice of Japanese / American cheese.

[Anonymous]

Well at least this movie is better than the the trilogy of badness that was  Cosmos: War of the planets, War of the Robots and Space Odyssey. In fact those movies make this a masterpiece. But hell, these movies make Starcrash look like a masterpiece.

[Moviefan]

If you look on Ebay and Amazon you'll be able to buy Message from Space in its original Japanese language version as well as its English Dubbed version featuring Vic Morrow's voice all on the same disc. Its  from Eastern Star a Hong Kong DVD company, has subtitles in english, that although some of the names are translated wrong are pretty accurate and are not dubtitles. Plus its presented in its original aspect ratio and features trailers for the film(sorry no US trailer) and a Photo Gallery featuring Posters (Not the American one though), and stills from the movie.
Errors with names:
General Garuda= General Gulda
Jillucia= Jultia
Rockseia=Roxiah
Gavanas= Gabanas
I don't know if this actually how the names are, but its only a minor annoyance. The rest of disc is fantasic and the presentation is light years better than the bad beat up pan and scan print on the VHS tapes and the DVD-Rs, and is on par with the presenations of the movie on pay channels right now (Mabye a little bit better than those even).

[ralphyralph]

This movie kicks the crap out of Star Wars any day of the week.

[Blacklight]

Have you noticed that two of the main characters have prominent Brooklyn accents and Aaron even sounds exactly like John Travolta ?  Is it also a coincidence that Grease was released the same year and Travolta was hot at the time ?

[Pacman000]

I like this movie. Sure it's over-the-top, and yes, the FX vary in quality, but that's all part of the fun.

You can watch it on youtube (where I first saw it).  I also saw it on This (MGM's TV network) one Saturday morning, but they haven't played it again.