Pacionsbo
Absolutely Fantastic
Hayden Kane
There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes
Kien Navarro
Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.
brando647
While one of the most generically titled movies I've seen, STAR PILOT is also one of the most delightfully stupid. The plot is nonsensical, the effects are wonderfully low budget, and most of the characters are indistinguishable from each other. I was excited to revisit the world of '60s era Italian space adventure, and it was an added bonus when the opening credits listed Gordon Mitchell (the hilariously over-theatrical star of THE GIANT OF METROPOLIS) as a cast member. Unfortunately, Mitchell's role in the film turned out to be nothing more than a short cameo but at least the space adventure was a wicked fun time. It starts with an alien spacecraft landing in Sardinia (an island in the Mediterranean off the eastern coast of Italy) and the world immediately forgetting about it. Three months later, Professor Solmi (Roland Lesaffre) is informed of a plot of land in Sardinia that shows signs of radioactivity and he, along with his daughter Luisa (Leontine May) and associate Paolo (Mario Novelli), fly out to investigate. Upon arrival, they're plagued with strange occurrences, including an earthquake that opens a cavern into the ground. The group descend into the cavern and discover the alien spacecraft but, before they can report their findings, they're attacked by a trio of Asian men who insist the professor show them the underground rocket, believing it to be a secretly developed weapon. Violence erupts and soon they're all taken captive by the aliens within the vessel who demand the humans repair their engines and assist in piloting the craft into space. Under the command of Kaena (Leonora Ruffo), the aliens promise to leave the humans on Earth once the craft is functional…but can they be trusted?I could spend an hour chatting someone's ear off about everything I found hilarious about this movie. I did my best to give a succinct understanding of the basic premise but I know I haven't done it justice. The plot is both way more and way less complicated than that. It wants to come across as epic in scope with an environmental message behind it; the aliens explain at one point that the whole reason they were on Earth in the first place was to observe and determine whether all the nuclear experimentation our race was performing would have any dangerous effects on the rest of the galaxy. That's right, an advanced race of space-faring aliens are concerned that the nuclear effects on a single small world will put the entire rest of the galaxy at risk. Science! These advanced aliens are also in such a bind that they need the relatively primitive humans to repair their engines for them. And fly the ship. All without any sort of preexisting knowledge and instruction. And they do it! The humans are so much smarter than the aliens that they master use of the alien spacecraft and stage a mutiny to gain control of the craft. So the aliens from the constellation Hydra aren't all they're cracked up to be; how do the humans fare?Worse. Aside from the professor and maybe Paolo, the human characters are either faceless (the Asian men as well as two of the professor's own crew) or annoying and unnecessary (Luisa). Let's start with the Asian men who are, to be honest, completely pointless to the plot. They're some sort of agents for yet another vague operation and, whatever you do, don't mistake them for Chinese agents."Make no mistake. We are Oriental, not Chinese. We do not represent the People's Republic."One of them throws out that little disclaimer first and foremost when confronting the professor and his people. It felt more like a message from the filmmakers than the characters, wanting to ensure they didn't upset an entire viewing demographic. Regardless, they have no use here. I guess they add a slight element of intrigue, with the whole (laughable) spy operation element in the beginning of the film. Once we're with the aliens, the Asian men serve no purpose other than to provide a little tension before unceremoniously hauled off and presumably eaten by killer space gorillas. I'm so happy to say that's not an exaggeration. Killer. Space. Gorillas.But hold on, let's shift over to Luisa. Why is Luisa here? She's a young woman who still acts like a teenager and tags along with her father on his work outing to Sardinia. She's disruptive, ignorant, and I'm pretty sure at one point she was tripping on acid (during the initial cavern investigation). She has no sense of self-preservation and seems to have no concerns when taken as a hostage by aliens. In fact, her first response to captivity is to lust over one of the alien men. From the perspective of the filmmakers, I'm assuming Luisa's role in the movie was to move through a progressively skimpier wardrobe. But the funniest part of Luisa's character is how the men treat her. I know that sounds horrible, but let me explain. Every man in this movie is incredibly dismissive of Luisa, but not for the reasons I've already mentioned. They don't tease her because she's an idiot. They tease her because she's a woman. Come on, guys. If you want to hate on Luisa, don't do it because she's a woman. Do it because she thought it'd be fun to wrestle the helicopter pilot on the flight to the worksite, nearly killing you all.STAR PILOT is a must for fans of crazy old school space adventures. Zero-G is simulated with trampolines. No one uses space helmets (not even the humans). The alien's robots look like giant yellow Oompa Loompas in ribbed condom jumpsuits. That Shyamalan-ian twist ending. And did I mention the killer space gorillas?
Clockwork-Avacado
Unusual mid-sixties science fiction story about three crash landed aliens who "recruit" a scientist and his team to make repairs on their ship, and pilot it back to their home planet. Reasonable effort, although slightly drawn out and uninteresting, still has moments of suspense and character drama. The usual Italian glamour is provided by the sexy wanna-be actress, who goes along with the team, and wears increasingly outrageous outfits, and flirts with one of the male aliens. The lead alien, a fire haired female begins to see the error of her emotionless ways, and at one point exhibits romantic inclinations towards Kirk Morris. Acting is fine, effects average, storyline meandering but rarely fatally dull, with a few good bits, such as a rather weird attack by a group of alien gorillas. Slightly lacking in traditional Italian high octane liveliness, but compelling, and not without a few interesting twists.Pros; -Interesting basic storyline-Most of the film's acting is consistently competent and believable-Good imagery – especially the pair of skeletons at the cockpit of the other spaceship Cons; -Ends rather abruptly -Some of the movie's logic is questionable-Quite a few characters are simply left as cardboard cut outs -The alien race appear completely human and aren't especially convincing as such -Main room of the spaceship set gets claustrophobic after a while -A very long sequence where the characters are in space, changing an arial, kills the pace for a bit and is un-necessarily tedious -A child-like robot is killed early on, and after only a minute's screen time, although its' design was not especially interesting -Plot stretches thin in some places, as it is a fairly basic idea with little deviation to carry the film along -A terrible voice over at the start
MARIO GAUCI
Perfectly awful, low-brow sci-fi - which, incredibly, has been released on R1 DVD by Retromedia as a double-feature with the Russian-made BATTLE BEYOND THE SUN (1960) - with the anonymous cast and ultra low-budget making involvement in an already unoriginal plot (THIS ISLAND EARTH [1955]) virtually impossible. Besides, the action scenes are restricted to some silly karate fights (the plot incorporates a couple of Chinese spies) and a very brief outer-space attack by a horde of (men dressed up as) apes! Likewise, the contribution of Euro-Cult favorite Gordon Mitchell barely registers and what's more he speaks in gibberish (standing in for the alien lingo)! For some reason, the comic relief was given to one of the female leads (Leontine May) but her antics are not only unfunny but obnoxious! The other female member of the cast - the alien leader - is played by Leonora Ruffo; she had earlier appeared in Fellini's I VITELLONI (1953) but, by this time, had been relegated to starring in peplums (even if by the likes of Vittorio Cottafavi and Mario Bava) and, here, is even featured in an in-joke when May, an aspiring actress, goes to an audition directed by Pietro Francisci himself and he's introduced as the man who discovered a good many stars of Italian cinema, among them Ruffo herself! Curiously enough, the ending is similar to that of PLANET OF THE APES (1968) but, needless to say, it has none of the impact of that unforgettable scene from the sci-fi classic! I haven't sampled that many Italian science-fiction movies (obviously, I would most like to catch up with Mario Bava's PLANET OF THE VAMPIRES [1965]) but did catch Antonio Margheriti's WAR OF THE PLANETS (1965) on TCM - which was better than Francisci's film, but not by much - while in Hollywood late last year.
Gorm
This movie was re-released to cash in on the original Star Wars mania. Filmed on a budget of maybe, 15,000 Lira, it is a tour-de-force of nearly every 50's SF cliche' from the greying Scientist father to his luscious, oh-so innocent raven haired daughter in her fishnet bodysuit (with strategically placed bits of fluff) being menaced by Ape creatures to Bruno the Martian "floating" across an expanse of space with the aid of a trampoline (no, I'm not kidding). SEE the mysterious ancient city model filmed resting on a chair! See the twinkling stars! (and try not to notice the wires, swaying in an apparent breeze from an off camera fan). If you love bad films, by all means check it out-it's a scream. I saw this as the bottom half of a double bill with "Spawn of the Slithis" and couldn't stop laughing....
