Rating: 
Summary: I've been Waiting...
Review: ...for this film to come back out in *any* video medium.And it's reissue in DVD was the major reason (aside from price) that we finally got a DVD player for ourselves this Christmas. This was the most expensive film Corman had made up until then, but i understand it paid off quite well for him -- partially because he built his own special effects unit (instead of conracting out to others) and then made his money back doing special effects for *other* low budget film makers. Sayles's script, Horner's score, Cameron's art direction -- all have been mentioned, and all are/were top-notch, lifting this film well above the level one might expect it to reach. I *almost* gave this five stars, but i have to agree with an earlier reviewer who mentioned the less-than-pristine print used for this disk; it's acceptable, but i could wish for better. Sound is good, though, and Horner's score is still as stirring as ever. (By the way -- is Dick Miller in here somewhere?)
Rating: 
Summary: I hate to disagree, but...
Review: Actually, I don't disagree with most of the comments. The extras are great (especially the commentary, although Gale Anne Hurd has a tendency, at least in the beginning, to drop little nuggets of information without any context), and it's great to have this film in widescreen HOWEVER, whomever was raving about the transfer need to wipe the dust off of their TV! It's not that it's bad, it's too good. So good that you can see every scratch and fleck of dust on whatever lousy 21-year-old print they used to master this puppy. If they were going to put in the time to make this disc, at least they could have struck a new print for the transfer.
Rating:
Summary: Fun knock off!
Review: Admittedly this is one of a slew of "Star Wars" knock-offs. So it is a historical piece. It is a nice B-Move, and one that you can give your kids who want to see the Matrix or Kill Bill.
Rating:
Summary: Fun knock off!
Review: Admittedly this is one of a slew of "Star Wars" knock-offs. So it is a historical piece. It is a nice B-Move, and one that you can give your kids who want to see the Matrix or Kill Bill.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting Battle...
Review: BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS comprises too much talent not to be worth a look. The cast...Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard and John Saxon...is solid. John Sayles (Yes: the director of "indie/existential" hits like LIMBO; LONE STAR; EIGHT MEN OUT)drafted a decent Space opera-update of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN.
John Cameron of the TITANIC and ALIENS epics grafted adequate FX over budget-constrained(King Corman's signum)sets to produce a parody of STAR WARS' epic. Yet, because the principals play it straight...there's little smirking into or behind the camera...what we have is a movie that would once have shamelessly played as DRIVE-IN classic. Robert Vaughn is unselfconsciously fine as Gelt...the M-7 "Lee" clone...out to redeem himself by "saving the universe" from the nefarious MING-the-MERCILESS machinations of Sador essayed with expected "verve" by Saxon. Shad's played with John-Boy guilessness by Richard Thomas who does a good job rounding-up his Space Age 7 Samurai for the final show down.
Sybil Danning provides good,not quite-over-the-top (of her ample decolletage)humor as a Wild-Woman, Space-Age Valkyire. The pacing of BATTLE is fast and action-oriented. George Peppard's droll,low key role of space COWBOY is indicative of the project's lack of pretentiousness,other than to cash-in on STAR WARS raging across Hollywood's financial galaxy. BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS is okay...not even close to great. But if you're a movie buff ...viewing for technical; acting; or production/art direction riffs...it's genuinely interesting.
Rating:
Summary: The Magnificent Space Seven
Review: BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS is a forgotten, but one of the better Star Wars clones. A B-Movie that came out in 1980 during the influx of terrible S.W. clones of the period. The story is based on THE SEVEN SAMARAI & THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN. Most notable is that it involved future movie directors/writers John Sayles (EIGHT MEN OUT) and James Cameron (TITANIC), produced by legendary independent film mogul Roger Corman, and boasting an impressive cast including George Peppard, Robert Vaugn (practically playing the same character he did in Mag. 7),John Saxon, Sam Jaffe,and Richard Thomas. A planet is being harassed by an evil space warlord, Sador (John Saxon) with the ultimate space weapon "The Stellar Converter". The inhabitants pick one of their own, Shad (Richard Thomas) to find and recruit help to fend off the menace. The film has lots of humor, some camp, dated but decent special effects, "memorable" spaceship designs, and great space alien character creations (such as the alien ally-recruit called "NESTOR"), and Richard Thomas' relationship with his female-voiced talking spaceship, to make this an enjoyable film to watch. The DVD has some added features such as the widescreen format, and the best is the audio commentary by Roger Corman and John Sayles. Overall, a pretty good movie to watch if your hankering for some sci-fi fantasy and you've seen Star Wars fifty-million times.
Rating:
Summary: A very fun "Star Wars" clone
Review: Every Sci-Fi fan needs this movie in their collection. It's not perfect, but it deserves an "A" for effort. The special effects are pretty darn good for being realtivly low budget. I wish the DVD transfer was a little more pristine, but it looks light years better than your old copies on video. Although, the film is pretty cliche driven, it still does it well with charm. The story is pretty exciting and noticiably more sexual in nature than Star Wars ever was. Too bad this film wasn't a big smash, I would have liked the same team to have done an Empire Strikes Back clone.... Or I would love to have seen a bunch of movies about Zed's leagacy.
Rating:
Summary: Zowie, the fun of Star Wars on a small budget
Review: Great memories accompany this movie for me, thankfully the producers of this DVD have honored this production with a jam-packed feature full of special features. I was not even a teenager when this movie was released back in 1980 yet a group of friends and I made the pilgrimage to a local cinema to see it. With an interesting set of diverse characters the movie plays as a science fiction version of the Seven Samurai. A "Magnificent Seven in Space" as it were, it even features Robert Vaughn of that 60s gem. The real pleasure of the DVD however is the wealth of special features. We not only have one optional audio commentary, but two very informative pieces. There are preview trailers for other Corman productions such as "Piranha". We even get a trivia game. I certainly recommend this movie.
Rating:
Summary: A very fun "Star Wars" clone
Review: I'm not sure why so many reviwers like Roger Corman movies. Maybe they are so bad, it's good kind of thing. It's very curious. This movie like all of Corman's pictures, was cheap. It would useually star big name actors, have very cheeesy effects work and animation done, and would useually collapse in on itself from the cheapness of the production. The art direction on these movies was so poor that by comparsion, the sets and costumes and scripts and acting you see on the daytime soaps look so much better then this. Corman productions are sometimes compared with other production companies that did movies on low or moderate budgets like Hammer Films in England or Toho Studios in Japan, but comparing these companies together is a bit of a misconception. Hammer and Toho generally took their movies more seriously and treated them only as what they were. Corman pictures tried to pretent they were making great movies when in fact the finished films were anything but the promises that Corman Pictures made.
Given a choice I would much rather watch soap operas, or a Hammer Film, or a Toho Movie. and leave Corman films to be shown on the Sci-fi channel where all the other junk films are shown.
Rating: 
Summary: Low budget always equals poor quality....
Review: I'm not sure why so many reviwers like Roger Corman movies. Maybe they are so bad, it's good kind of thing. It's very curious. This movie like all of Corman's pictures, was cheap. It would useually star big name actors, have very cheeesy effects work and animation done, and would useually collapse in on itself from the cheapness of the production. The art direction on these movies was so poor that by comparsion, the sets and costumes and scripts and acting you see on the daytime soaps look so much better then this. Corman productions are sometimes compared with other production companies that did movies on low or moderate budgets like Hammer Films in England or Toho Studios in Japan, but comparing these companies together is a bit of a misconception. Hammer and Toho generally took their movies more seriously and treated them only as what they were. Corman pictures tried to pretent they were making great movies when in fact the finished films were anything but the promises that Corman Pictures made.
Given a choice I would much rather watch soap operas, or a Hammer Film, or a Toho Movie. and leave Corman films to be shown on the Sci-fi channel where all the other junk films are shown.
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