In a distant future where water is scarce a princess hires some space pirates to assist her on a dangerous quest.Director Stewart Raffill's Ice Pirates production has a Roger Corman Battle Beyond the Stars feel about it, with a hint of Starcrash, Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers rather than Star Wars. There's robots, time warps, aliens, spaceships, bike and Mad Max-like chases, along with lowbrow humour high jinks. Rafill and writer Stanford Sherman's comedy tonally is a mixed bag, going from witty to silly space herpes and ball cracking gags, yet, it has all swashbuckling shianigans you'd want from a title like Space Pirates.
It's at times clunky, the setups, sleazy lines and editing is a little loose, nevertheless, it doesn't detract too much from the over the top fun. The on location scenes, optical, practical and model effects hold up for the most part. Bruce Broughton's score play at times with gusto echoing the old pirate films.
The cast are first rate; lead Robert Urich is likeable as loveable rogue Jason, Mary Crosby is delightful as Princess Karina but Michael D. Roberts steals even scene he's in as Roscoe. The supporting cast surprisingly also include Anjelica Huston and Ron Perlman to name a few.
Ultimately, despite its wobbly tone and clear budget restraints, Raffill, the cast with some imaginative production design stop it falling into low budget hell. Overall, it does what it says on the tin.
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