Star Oddysey!!(1978)

[peter johnson]

This film was mentioned a few times a year ago on one of our "Worst Film Ever" threads --
Now, some found this film boring, but the wife and I started watching it last night and simply couldn't stop laughing!!
Friends, if you've not seen nor heard of this thing, I really think this film might be what some of you come here looking for --
For one thing, the release date of 1978 is simply dumbfounding, given the 1965 look and feel of the whole project.  The spaceships, for another thing, are all pure cardboard -- not even plastic and garbage like the spaceships in "Starcrash".  The music and sound effects are all done on a state-of-the-art 1963 Moog Synthesizer, complimented by the occasional Theremin riff.  I covet the soundtrack to this, should it exist anywhere.
There is a character who struts around literally like a Bantam Cock -- he cannot hold his arms at his side, but must thrust them backwards like chicken wings.  He also has an alarmingly sculpted mustache.
The acting is from the "Stand and Declaim" school.  It also helps that it's mostly dubbed English onto Italian.
Let's talk about robots a bit:  The first robot character that is introduced is literally made from an oil drum.  You can easily see the striations and structural gradations of the drum itself through the white paint.  This robot appears to play with its breasts a lot.  We re-ran the initial scene several times to be sure, but this is what it looks like:  The robot fondles its own chestal area for quite some time.
We meet another robot in a boxing ring, fighting a human who reminds one of Roberto Bergenini.  One can easily and plainly see the face of the human actor through the eyes of the robot-costume mask.  This robot is a very poor boxer, though the voiceover tells us he has killed lots of people in the ring.  One guesses these were invalids and small children, as the skinny Italian actor he's fighting in this scene beats him rather badly.
There are some truly awful -- and I mean worse than zero-budget Japanese awful -- aliens who stand around and do nothing at an "auction" of planets.  I guess the polite thing to do when going to an auction is not do any noisy bidding on anything.  Seriously, I can sit here and describe the ghastly, 3rd-rate, Kindergarten-level construction-paper level of these "aliens" until my fingers drop off, and I probably wouldn't have been adequate to the task.  One looks exactly like a giant Troll doll.  Remember those?  Once upon a time, everyone's sister in High School collected Troll Dolls.  Those things . . .
This film takes place in The Future, yet some of our protagonists, with very 1960's hair on the women, go to a very ordinary 1970's scrap yard to piece a suicidal robot back together.  Cue lots of stock footage of crushing cars.
Stock Footage!!!  The film depends upon it for all the destruction being leveled against the Earth by the villianous villian, who has a face like an alligator handbag.  The film is in colour, but all the Stock Footage of explosions is from black and white Italian newsreel footage of WW2.
Another nice touch is that when the Futurstic people from The Future all talk to one another on their modern video phones, the pictures are all also in Black and White TV.
No, the film was not/is not an intentional comedy.  You can tell by the serious way in which the villians and heroes Stand and Declare their lines.
Sadly, we had to leave the house before completing it, but we intend to do so very soon.  Maybe you won't find this one the same laugh-fest that we do, but if you like your cheese thick and rancid, this one is bound to put you in a good mood --
peter johnson/denny crane

[Kester Pelagius]

Ah yes Alfonso Brescia's 4th entry in his spaghetti space opera quintology!  I know it well.  Even reviewed it.  Take gander and my take on it here.  Should that link not work for some reason the review has been archived here.  There's screen caps of the robots and aliens, in case anyone was wondering why they should bother to click the link.  :)

As for whether or not Star Odyssey was intended as a serious sci-fi effort or as comedia is debatable.  The movie has suicidal robots and an R2D2 knock-off that, IIRC, was a beverage dispenser!

Most of Brescia's flicks seem to have been genre send-ups.  (Amazons Against Supermen was one of his.)  There is elements of farce here but it's hard to tell what the director's original intent was from these video hack jobs of poorly dubbed edits released by U.S. distributors.  Yet, you're right, it's hilarious.  Of course not for any reason the director may have originally intended but then. . .

It was followed up by BEAST IN SPACE.