
One of the most trippy animations ever to make it to the big screen is back - with La Planete Sauvage (Fantastic Planet) set to be even more trippy when it lands in high definition on Blu-ray disc.
René Laloux's mesmerising psychedelic sci-fi feature is a landmark animation, especially when couple with the much-sampled soundtrack by Alain Goraguer. What's it about? Well...
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Over 40 years since it first appeared on the big screen and Fahrenheit 451 is perhaps more relevant today than at any other time in its history.
Adapted from a Ray Bradbury novel, directed by François Truffaut and starring Julie Christie, it was almost impossible for Fahrenheit 451 to fail - but with a lukewarm reception on its launch and modest box office business, it wasn't exactly a roaring success for Universal. Don't let that put you off, it's a great film.
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Beautiful Caroline Munro as space-bikini babe, Stella Star! Gold-clad Christopher Plummer using mystical powers to "halt the flow of time"! Kung fu fighting Amazons, acrobatic Troglodytes, and lightsaber battles with stop-motion robots! The Hoff firing frickin' laser beams from his eyes! Is Starcrash the greatest movie ever made? Probably not, but it's awfully good fun. Second best of the late seventies Star Wars rip-offs, behind Kinji Fukasaku's mind-blowing Message from Space (1978).
Italian writer-director and sci-fi buff Luigi Cozzi weaves a wild yarn full of in-jokes and genre references. The magnificent super-spaceship "Murray Leinster" (named after the s-f writer/magazine editor) goes missing and is sought by the Emperor of the Stars (Christopher Plummer) and his cape-swishing arch-enemy, Count Zarth Arn (erstwhile Maniac (1980) Joe Spinell). Fleeing the Galactic Police, interstellar rogue Stella Star and her bubble-permed, mystical sidekick Akton (faith healer-turned-trash film star (yes, really) Marjoe Gortner) stumble on some survivors who babble about "red monsters."
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