DVD Review: Starcrash (1978)

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."

La Planete Sauvage (Fantastic Planet) released on Blu-ray

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...

Fahrenheit 451 (1966)

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.

Coming to DVD: Gerry Anderson's Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun (1969)

For the first time in the UK, Gerry Anderson's cult sci-fi flick Journey To The Far Side Of The Sun (aka Doppelganger) is about to get a DVD release.

This real-life (as in, no puppets) movie is set one hundred years into the future (in a world looking very much like the early 1970s), when scientists discover an exact duplicate of Earth orbiting on the other side of the sun. Two astronauts are sent to uncover the secrets of this planet, but when their journey ends three weeks early they must embark on a life or death mission to determine whether they have arrived back home or on the strange mirror world.

It lands on September 8th 2008, priced officially at £9.99, although Amazon are already doing pre-orders for £6.98.

Find out more about the DVD at Amazon.co.uk

Battle Royale T-shirts

The London based design company Airside created these rather gory and terrific looking t-shirt designs inspired by Kinji Fukasaku's great Japanese film Battle Royale (Batoru Rowaiaru, 2000).

Each shirt cost around £24.99 and they come in many different sizes for males and females. Airside also offers shipping to to anywhere in the world.

For more information please see the official online Airside Shop