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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.
- When a screening is sold out, we open a waitlist 30 minutes before showtime. You must physically come to the lobby to get your name on the waitlist. Seats are released as they become available. All remaining seats are released at showtime.
- 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.