10 Films For May the 4th

Posted on May 4, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

If you want to celebrate the 4th of May but you really don’t feel like sitting through any of the Star Wars films (especially now that you know that Leia, Luke, and Han’s struggle was pretty much for naught), here are ten other sci-films that will keep you entertained without ruinng your childhood memories!

Starcrash (1978, dir by Luigi Cozzi) is not only the best of the so-called Star Wars rip-offs, it’s also one of the best space adventures ever made. In fact, I would argue that Cozzi’s film is actually more entertaining than Star Wars, just because of Cozzi’s unabashed love of the genre and the fact that Starcrash had a bit more deliberate wit than George Lucas’s film. Starcrash also had a once-in-a-lifetime cast of Caroline Munro, Marjoe Gortner, Joe Spinell, Christopher Plummer, and David Hasselhoff. Starcrash is a true pop art masterpiece.
Laserblast (1978, dir by Charles Band) — Fresh from menacing Mark Hamill in Corvette Summer, Kim Milford plays a totally 70s dude who finds a discarded alien weapon and turns into a green monster. At one point, Milford blows up a Star Wars billboard. Roddy McDowall is a small-town doctor. Eddie Deezen and Dennis Burkley are bullies. The Claymation aliens are adorable, especially when they start arguing with each other.
Moonraker (1979, dir by Lewis Gilbert) –– James Bond in space! I’m well aware that Moonraker does not have a great reputation as far as Bond films are concerned but actually, it’s one of Roger Moore’s most enjoyably ludicrous outings. Daniel Craig’s Bond could never go into space but Roger Moore could. That’s why Moore will always be the superior Bond.
The Humanoid (1979, dir by Aldo Lado) — After playing Jaws in both The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, Richard Kiel got to play a leading role. “I believe that jacket belongs to Mr. Gilmore….” No, this was before Happy Gilmore! In The Humanoid, Kiel plays the kindly Golob who is transformed into a hulking, evil warrior. Good Golob has a beard. Evil Golob doesn’t. This movie is a bit long but Kiel is always a delight to watch and it also features a cute dog robot. Barbara Bach is the evil Lady Agatha, who is kept young by space virgin blood. Ivan Rassimov, owner of the best hair in Italian exploitation, is Lord Graal.
The Visitor (1979, dir by Giulio Paradisi) — What happens when you mix The Omen, The Exorcist, and Star Wars with a bunch of basketball stock footage? You end up with one of the greatest Italian films ever! John Huston is the alien/angel! Lance Henriksen is the devil worshipper who owns a basketball team! Franco Nero is Jesus, who lives on the Moon with a bunch of bald children! Shelley Winters is Shelley Winters! The Visitor is a film that simply has to be seen.
Battle Beyond The Stars (1980, dir by Jimmy T. Murakami) — This Roger Corman-produced film never would have been made if not for the success of Star Wars. That said, it’s actually a science fiction version of The Magnificent Seven, featuring the type of cast that only Corman could put together. Richard Thomas, Robert Vaughn, George Peppard, Darlanne Fluegel, John Saxon, and Sybil Danning, they’re all in this terrifically entertaining space opera.
Flash Gordon (1980, dir by Mike Hodges) — How many people have been driven mad after getting the theme song stuck in their head? At every watch party that I host, Flash Gordon is always at the top of the list of films that people want me to select. (Unfortunately, it’s not streaming anywhere for free right now.) Like Starcrash and The Visitor, it’s a pop art masterpiece. All together now: “Godon’s alive!”
Space Raiders (1983, dir by Howard Cohen) — Roger Corman produced this film about a dumbass kid (David Mendenhall, who also played Stallone’s son in Over The Top) who stows away with a bunch of lovable space pirates and basically gets everyone killed. This is worth seeing for Thom Christopher as Flightplan. This film also features a scene where the kid tries to shout across space. “HAWK!”
Spaceballs (1987, dir by Mel Brooks) — Mel Brooks sends up the Star Wars saga as only he can. It’s not totally successful but there are plenty of funny lines and Rick Moranis and John Candy are a delight. Bill Pullman wisely plays his role straight and allows the supporting crew to get most of the laughs.
Space Mutiny (1988, dir by Neal Sundstrom and David Winters) — “GO! GO! GO!” Reb Brown yells as Dave Ryder, the new head of security for Cameron Mitchell’s space fleet. And Brown has a lot to yell about because John Phillip Law is leading a mutiny in plain sight. Space Mutiny has a reputation for being one of the worst films ever made. It may be. But I still enjoy it. Every space ship needs a disco.

6 Trailers For May 4th

Posted on May 4, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Star Wars not only launched an entire expanded universe. It also launched a few thousand rip-offs. For this weeks edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers, we’ve got six trailers that might seem just a little familiar….

Battle Beyond The Stars (1980)

From Roger Corman comes this film, which is as much a rip-off of The Magnificent Seven as it is of Star Wars. Battle Beyond The Stars was a surprise box office success when it was first released.

2. Space Raiders (1983)

Also from executive producer Roger Corman, Space Raiders tells the story of what happens when a quirky band of intergalactic outlaws pick up an annoying (and frankly, rather stupid) kid.

3. The Humanoid (1979)

From director Aldo Lado, The Humanoid features the great Richard Kiel as the title character. There’s also a cute robot, an older mystic, and an evil Empire.

4. Message From Space (1978)

Do you remember another film that had a message from space?

5. Flash Gordon (1980)

Interestingly enough, Star Wars was as inspired by the original Flash Gordon as the Flash Gordon reboot was inspired by Star Wars.

6. Starcrash (1978)

And finally, we have Starcrash, the Star Wars rip-off that is actually better than Star Wars!

Guilty Pleasure No. 22: Battle Beyond the Stars (dir. by Jimmy T. Murakami)

Posted on August 13, 2014 by Arleigh

Two of my favorite films of all-time happen to be very similar. In fact, one could say that they’re pretty much the same films. I’m talking about Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai and it’s Western-remake by John Sturges, The Magnificent Seven. Kurosawa’s film is one of the greatest films of all-time and it’s no wonder that many have taken the film’s story of the downtrodden hiring a band of misfits, rogues, but still honorable men to help them fight against huge odds.

One such film that tries to add onto Kurosawa film’s legacy was the Roger Corman-produced scifi-adventure film Battle Beyond the Stars. This 1980 film was one of Corman’s many attempts to cash-in on the Star Wars phenomena, but in his usual low-budget style.

For a low-budget scifi film, Battle Beyond the Stars happened to have quite a cast one doesn’t usually see in such productions. While it had such grindhouse and exploitation regulars as John Saxon and Sybil Danning, it also starred the wholesome Richard Thomas from The Waltons and George Peppard (who would later become famous with a new generation as Hannibal Smith of The A-Team). The film would be directed by Jimmy T. Murakami, but from watching the film one could see Corman’s fingerprints all over the production from the script which was pretty lean and cut to the basic outline of Kurosawa’s original film. There’s not much fluff to bog down the pacing of the film.

This film has always been a guilty pleasure of mine because it so resemble Seven Samurai and The Magificent Seven, but adds in it’s own unique style and look to a well-worn and well-trodden plot. It was much later that I found out that James Cameron had a major hand in the special effects work in the film. Think about that for a moment. The self-proclaimed “King of the World” who literally breaks film budget records every time he begins work on a film did FX work on battle Beyond the Stars whose effects budget probably wouldn’t buy a day’s worth of crafts table eating for his most modestly budgeted films.

Lisa Marie always loved to say that grindhouse and exploitation films are some of most honest films out there. There’s no bullshit to what we see on the screen. It’s filmmakers forced to be daring and inventive because the lack of resources forces them to think outside the box. Battle Beyond the Stars might be seen as a mediocre attempt to cash-in on a scifi cultural phenomena, but it does so with a go for broke mentality that makes it such a fun film to watch. It’s not the greatest thing Corman has ever produced and some would even call it a very bad film, but once one looked past it’s rough and flawed surface then one could see a gem in the rough hidden beneath.

Oh, this remake of the remake of the original also happened to star one Robert Vaughn who was one of original Magnificent Seven.