This is a highly energetic and enjoyable film combining a blend of "Star Wars" and "The Magnificent Seven". After finding it on YouTube, I found it had not lost any of its charm or entertainment value since I last saw it years ago. The film still radiates a certain irresistibly sweet and dynamic good-natured quality to this very day. Yes in looks dated against films today but still I like the blue peter/old Doctor Who style of set design, crap.
Richard Thomas, John ‘Boy’ Walton, plays the young man Shad who leaves his besieged home world to find mercenaries to fight against planet-conquering Evil space commander Sador (John Saxon) who threatens to kill all the peace-loving people on the planet of Akir.
Shad sets out to round up mercenaries to help his planet, why is it always seven, with Nell his talking computer who acts more of a girlfriend than a standard run of the mill computer in order to fight back against Sador and his hordes on spacecraft’s.
The magnificent seven mercenaries include the delectably busty'n'lusty Sybil Danning as a sexy Amazonian warrior woman, the reason for visiting this Syfy Fy masterpiece. I was looking for space chicks earlier to blog for an upcoming article when I remembered this space sexpot and sort her out. Another mercenary is George Peppard a space trucker a hilariously booze-sodden Space Cowboy in a crap looking space ship.
Then there is Morgan Woodward as vengeful reptilian humanoid lizard Cayman, the lovely Darlanne Fluegel, Nanelia as the obligatory hot babe love interest for Shad, and Robert Vaughn doing a deft reprise of his weary, twitchy gunslinger role from "The Magnificent Seven”. Shad meets a set of five alien clones who share a group consciousness named Nestor who want to join the fight.
The Mercenaries fight Sador's superior numbers in a great, climatic battle. Now, the following will contain a spoiler, so don't read any further, if you haven't seen this movie... Sador’s evil group kills off, the mercenaries’ one by one. Peppard's Space Cowboy was the last of the mercenaries to die. Shad's ship Nell crashes into the Sador’s Hammerhead spaceship destroying it but he and Nanelia survived and Planet Akir was free. The dialogue at the end that Shad and Nanelia have was great. OK so, summing up, the main reason I loved the movie was the characters. From Peppard's hammy performance as Space Cowboy to Vaughn's deadly serious Gelt, each character is unique, and has something to prove... Oh, did I mention Sybil Danning's boobs?
Jimmy T. Murakami's spirited direction keeps the movie cheery and lively throughout while John Sayles' witty script, the extremely iffy special effects, James Horner's rousing score and the enthusiastic acting from a tip-top cast. Moreover, there's a real purity and innocence to this picture, a complete dearth of smugness, irony and cynicism, which is both very refreshing and genuinely endearing. A real treat.
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