STARCRASH (1978) — the greatest Star Wars rip-off in the universe
May 4 : 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
“A headfirst dive into pulp serial lala land. A genre kaleidoscope, a sci-fi lava lamp, gorgeous people giving fractured performances, weird looking people giving weird performances, and various other analog magicks. Only an Italian could lack the self-consciousness to make something so silly and pure.” – laird, Letterboxd
A long time ago (the late 1970s) in a nation far, far away (Italy)…schlockmaestro Luigi Cozzi created the greatest Star Wars knockoff in the universe! STARCRASH may take George Lucas’s international mega-hit as its jumping off point, but the film soon finds its way to the far reaches of sci-fi psychedelia. A Flash Gordon serial trapped inside a groovy lava lamp, this wacked-out space opera features insane stop-motion monsters, sword-fighting clockwork machines, and an endless array of devastating intergalactic gibberish. And then there’s the cast! former Bond girl Caroline Munro leads a motley crew that includes child evangelical/scam artist/hippie icon Marjoe Gortner as a perma-permed Luke Skywalker clone, Oscar winner Christopher Plummer as The Emperor of the Galaxy, Baywatch hunk David Hasselhoff, and the Maniac himself, Joe Spinell. PLUS! Holograms! Bikini-clad Amazons! A robot with a Texas accent! We’ve known you’ve seen all the legit Star Wars movies a million times—why not check out the movie George Lucas would’ve made if he was a certifiably insane Italian genre merchant. May the Fourth be with you!
LETTERBOXD TAKES
“the best genre of movie is ‘completely indistinguishable from a group of 7 year olds playing with action figures'” —sydney
“You can’t accuse the Starcrash team of underdoing it, that’s for sure. I mean, here you have yourself a wholesale Star Wars cash-in featuring toy spaceships, redneck robots, angry amazons, space cavemen, dollar-store lightsabers, green traitors, busty metal golems, skinny swordfighting droids, super-powers ex machina, Marjoe Gortner in a giant perm, Joe Spinell in a cape, Christopher Plummer in a hologram, and Caroline Munro in like 25 different plastic-based sort-of outfits. This movie tries to do absolutely everything at once and doesn’t do a single thing remotely well and becomes a near-perfect artifact of pure entertainment in the process. And David Hasselhoff.” —Ira Booker
“One star. But also, in its own way, five stars.” —Keith Phipps
Theater Policies
- All seats are first-come, first-served.
- The theater opens 30 minutes prior to showtime, except for “Happy Hour” events and pre-shows when the theater opens at the listed start time.
- All ages are welcome at Arkadin except for Drinkolas Cage events, which are restricted to 21+. We follow the MPAA rating guidelines for all other films.
- Tickets can be purchased using the BUY TICKETS link above. Upon ordering, you will receive a confirmation email from Square. Tickets may also be purchased on the day of the show at the concession counter.
- If you’ve purchased advance tickets, when you arrive, please give your name at the concession counter to check in.
- Tickets are returnable by sending a request through the contact form located on our About Us page prior to showtime.
- When an event is sold out, we reserve the right to release open seats to customers on the waitlist. If you have a pre-purchased ticket and arrive late and there is no seat for you, your ticket will be refunded.
- All screenings are held in our indoor theater unless indicated otherwise in the event description above.
- Please respect your fellow movie-goers by remaining quiet and refraining from using your cell phone throughout the screening.