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Awix (3310 KP) rated Starcrash (1979) in Movies

Apr 25, 2019

Starcrash (1979)

1979 | Sci-Fi

6.0

(5 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Frankly astounding Star Wars rip-off featuring the likes of Christopher Plummer, Caroline Munro, and David Hasselhoff; none of them talk about it much these days, funnily enough. The plot concerns an oddly familiar mixture of inter-galactic royalty, space smugglers, evil space stations, vaguely-explained mysticism and laser-sword fights; none of it makes a great deal of sense, naturally.

Much to enjoy here, obviously: my favourite bit is possibly Elle the robot sheriff, who is basically a hillbilly with a bucket on his head, although Zarth Arn and his Doom Planet are also highly entertaining. Impossible to take remotely seriously, of course, but in a sensible world you would say the same thing about many film and TV series which people take very seriously indeed. When asked why he made this film, Christopher Plummer explained it was because the studio was in Rome - 'I'll do porno, as long as it's in Rome,' he said. I suppose making Starcrash was a reasonable silver medal if there was no porno available.

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Show all 4 comments.

Andy K (10823 KP) Apr 25, 2019

i know what you mean. I have a few films on my watch list like this.

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Andy Walker (4885 KP) Apr 26, 2019

I saw this on Amazon Prime a few days ago. It is awful.

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Sarah (7800 KP) rated The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle in Books

Sep 4, 2018

The Seven Deaths Of Evelyn Hardcastle

Stuart Turton | 2018 | Mystery, Science Fiction/Fantasy

7.9

(24 Ratings)

Book Rating

A mindbending mystery thriller

I'll be honest this books is completely bonkers, but bonkers in a good way. The central murder mystery time travelling plot is a tad convoluted, but it's still ridiculously enjoyable and I really struggled to put this down. It is a little difficult to keep up with at some parts and you do have to pause to collect your thoughts, however the writing style does help as it's fairly straight forward and doesn't try and overcomplicate things with over the top prose.

All of the 8 hosts are well rounded and well developed, and you care about the main character inhabiting them. The ending was truly a surprise, I hadn't been able to figure out the main murderer (plus all of the other sub plots too), and was pleasantly surprised with the explanation behind why the main character was in Blackheath in the first place.

This is a great entertaining read and one I'd love to see made into a 8-10 part tv series.

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David McK (3734 KP) rated Excalibur: The Legend of King Arthur in Books

Jan 30, 2019

If I'm honest, I'm not really that much of a graphic novel/comic book kinda guy: I usually prefer to let my imagination do the work rather than have it 'shown' to me (which is also why I don't always like TV/movie adaptations).

Having said that, I thought I would give this one a go anyway. A retelling of the Arthurian legend, this takes in pretty much all the main characters and events of that legend, but not necessarily all how I was familiar with them (it involves the seelie/unseelie (i.e. faeries) which I don't remember ever having been part of the legend before).

Starting with Arthur's conception and ending with his 'death' at Badon Hill, the novel also glosses over some of the less savory actions that Arthur is supposed to have carried out (ref Tristan and Isolde).

An OK read, and while yes, I may pick up some of the others in the series, this failed to really change my perception of graphic novels as a whole.

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Russell Evans (179 KP) rated Enemy of God in Books

Feb 27, 2020

Enemy of God

Bernard Cornwell | 1998 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics

7.5

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

Continues the gripping Warlord Chronicles trilogy (1 more)

Great characters, compelling story.

As with The Winter King, violence can be graphic - but if you've read the first part and it was a negative for you... what are you doing here? (0 more)

See my review for the first book in the trilogy – The Winter King. If you’ve read that, I’m positive that you won’t need much convincing about this part – I will reassure you though – it’s just as good and gripping.
Enemy of God continues to tell the story of Arthur begun in The Winter King, showing Arthur’s efforts to unite the Britons against the Saxon invaders. Derfel’s tale continues and he becomes a champion of Arthur’s, finds love and embarks on a perilous quest to recover an ancient British treasure. There’s a lot of darkness and conspiracy thrown in too.
As a Lord of the Rings fan, this is my next favourite ‘fantasy’ trilogy. If you liked ‘The Vikings’ or ‘The Last Kingdoms’ series on TV, I would highly recommend that you give this trilogy a read – starting with The Winter King.