The Ice Pirates (1984)

Starring Robert Urich, Mary Crosby and Michael D. Roberts; other notable featured actors are Anjelica Huston, Ron Perlman, Bruce Vilanch, John Carradine, and former football player John Matuszak.  The following review was first posted at Fanfare.

This movie has for the last few years gotten a lot of play on TCM of all channels. Late night, but still, TCM. Of course, it is is now almost 35 years old and from the MGM library, so I suppose. Still, I really was surprised when I first saw it in the TV guide a few years ago.

As for the movie itself, it is one of those movies I was exposed to as a little kid who for one reason or another watched a lot of cable in the 80s. As a kid, I enjoyed it though a lot of it went over my head. I wasn't looking for super cool effects or superb acting, just some funny robots and some action while the characters went in search of Mary Crosby's father.

I sat down to watch the movie last night for the first time in probably thirty years. It was definitely everything one might expect from an early 80s movie that wasn't trying to be anything special. (Keep that in mind if you see this and are easily offended.) According to Wiki, the production was troubled by MGM's financial woes at the time. It definitely shows, especially the space effects looking like they came out of Battlestar Galactica rather than Star Wars. Putting the emphasis on humor and character though worked as Urich and Crosby have chemistry and the supporting characters all have interesting things to say and do. I found myself laughing quite a bit, even at the robots they implausibly relied upon to do most of their fighting. (The sex scene [near the end] was actually an interesting concept, a holodeckish sim before TNG came up with the idea. Urich's character put the tape "Passion Storm" in and then made out with the princess while they were surrounded by waves and clouds, wind blew and rain fell, soaking both characters.) And the final fight in the time warp was definitely interesting to watch how they stitched it all together.

All in all, it was worth sitting down for and the movie holds up incredibly well against what I remember.