Star Odyssey
| Seven Gold Men in Space | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by |
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| Written by |
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| Produced by | Luigi Alessi |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Silvio Fraschetti |
| Edited by | Mariano Arditi |
| Music by | Marcello Giombini |
Release date |
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Running time |
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| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian |
Star Odyssey (Italian: Sette uomini d'oro nello spazio / Seven Gold Men in Space) is a 1979 Italian film directed by Alfonso Brescia. The film is also known as Space Odyssey, Metallica and Captive Planet in other video markets.
Plot summary
[edit]In the year 2312, a group of aliens auction off insignificant planets and the winner of the auction for Sol 3 (Earth) is evil despot named Kress. He soon flies to "Sol 3" in what is the first contact with beings from another planet for those living there. Kress starts gathering humanoid slaves using his robot army to sell them to his evil counterparts.
Defending "Sol 3" against the new owner is the kindly Professor Maury and his ragtag band of human, one of which wears a Spider-Man t-shirt, and robot friends. Maury and his defenders set out to reclaim the planet from Kress and his cyborg army. Their plan is to destroy the metal of the alien ship, called Iridium (or etherium) after discovering its weakness.
After being defeated and retreating from the planet, Kress resells the planet at the space auction for a profit.[1]
Production
[edit]Star Odyssey is one of the four low-budget Italian space opera movies produced in the wake of Star Wars by Italian director Alfonso Brescia (under the pseudonym Al Bradley). This is the fourth and final film in Alfonso Brescia's sci-fi series, with the others being Cosmos: War of the Planets (a.k.a. Year Zero War in Space), Battle of the Stars (a.k.a. Battle in Interstellar Space), and War of the Robots (a.k.a. Reactor).
The film re-uses many of the effects and costumes from War of the Robots.[2] "Popular Mechanics" noted the "light-sabers" were cardboard swords painted with fluorescent paint. "Worst Movies Ever Made" found the effects to be laughable and the story confused at best.
Cast
[edit]- Yanti Somer as Irene
- Gianni Garko as Dirk Laramie
- Malisa Longo as Bridget
- Chris Avram as Shawn
- Ennio Balbo
- Roberto Dell'Acqua as Norman
- Aldo Amoroso Pioso
- Nino Castelnuovo
- Gianfranca Dionisi
- Pino Ferrara
- Aldo Funari
- Cesare Gelli
- Claudio Undari
- Filippo Perrone
- Franco Ressel as Commander Barr
- Massimo Righi
- Silvano Tranquilli
- Claudio Zucchet[3]
Reception
[edit]"Creature Feature" found the movie to be an example of sci-fi so bad it has to be seen to be believed, giving the movie two out of five stars. "Popular Mechanics" noted the movie was a dreadful trashpile.[4] Techradar found the movie either insufferable or hilariously bad, depending on your mood.[5]
References
[edit]- ^ "Star Odyssey - 1979 - Review". 11 November 2012.
- ^ Stanley, J. (2000)Creature Feature: 3rd Edition
- ^ "Scheda".
- ^ Wenz. J. (25 May 2017) 7 Spacetastic 'Star Wars' Rip-Offs Popular Mechanics.
- ^ Lambrects, Stephen (2015) 8 Star Wars Rioffs https://www.techradar.com/news/home-cinema/the-8-most-entertaining-star-wars-rip-offs-1310972
External links
[edit]- Star Odyssey at IMDb
- Star Odyssey is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive
- 1979 films
- Films directed by Alfonso Brescia
- Space opera films
- 1970s Italian-language films
- Films set in the 24th century
- Films about robots
- Italian science fiction films
- Films scored by Marcello Giombini
- 1970s Italian films
- Films about slavery
- Films about telepathy
- Films about alien invasions
- 1979 science fiction films