Star Wars, Where Is Thy Sting?

STARSHIP INVASIONS-1977-After some strange looking aliens abduct a farmer (he looks like he could be one of the 3 Stooges) and he has sex with a woman on the ship (not shown!), we are introduced to Prof. Duncan (Robert Vaughn) a serious, easy going UFO investigator. His wife (Helen Shaver) thinks he's becoming obsessed with his research and says that UFOs “are such bizarre things”. Christopher Lee is Captain Ramses, an alien leader from the planet Alpha paving the way for a “massive migration” of this race to invade Earth before his planet's sun explodes. He talks by telepathy, which is a good thing since he looks like if he had to speak the lines he'd break out laughing! 

The group abduct a woman and stick a big needle in her. Later they all wind up dead. Ramses visits “The League of Races”, a group of different space aliens whose headquarters is in The Bermuda Triangle. They even have an intergalactic whore house! Most of the league aliens look like normal humans in funny clothes but some have round bald heads. Ramses and his small crew take over the base and plan on wiping out Earth inhabitants through a beam that makes everyone kill and/or commit suicide. The alien league fights back however and enlists Duncan to help stop Ramses' deadly plan. 

 There's a lot of low budget effects, some unintentionally funny interview segments and a couple of wobbly saucers but the acting is played straight. Some very funny looking robots make an appearance too. It was filmed in Canada by director-writer Edward Hunt who later made THE BRAIN. 

The soundtrack by Gil Melle' (NIGHT GALLERY, KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER, 6 MILLION DOLLAR MAN) is an interesting mix of orchestra pieces and electric piano driven Jazz. 

The same year Lee played an alien in the similar END OF THE WORLD, was in the big budgeted AIRPORT '77 and was on-screen narrator of MEAT CLEAVER MASSACRE. Among other things in 1977, Vaughn was the un-credited voice of the computer in DEMON SEED.

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More Predators

PREDATORS-2010-This kind of a sequel to the first PREDATOR and “restarting” of the franchise. A diverse but typical group (a black, a whiney white guy, a tough woman, a Russian and surprisingly a Japanese Yakuza) of humans are thrown together on a planet where 2 different types of the famous alien fight each other and hunt the humans. Adrien Brody tries his hand at being an action star by leading the group including Danny Trejo, former MMA fighter Oleg Taktarov, Alice Braga (from I AM LEGEND) and Topher Grace (SPIDER-MAN 3). Lawrence Fishburne shows up unexpectedly. It’s not bad as junk like this goes and doesn’t go overboard with the gory SFX but it’s too dark at times and the characters whisper too much. The climax (where Brody emulates Arnold) is very good. Director Nimrod Antal had previously made VACANCY and ARMORED (also with Fishburne). Robert Rodriguez was the producer.

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