At nearly half the budget of Star Wars - $6 to $7 million dollars - Message from Space was the most expensive movie in Japanese history up until 1980. At the time, it was routinely panned by the critics. Yet watching it nearly 40 years later, I was struck by just how ambitious, fun and strange it is. Jillucia was once a planet of peace, but that was before the Gavanas Empire turned it into one of their military bases. Kido, one of the planet's leaders, sends eight Liabe seeds into space to find soldiers strong enough to liberate the planet from the steel grip - and faces - of the Gavanas. Princess Emeralida (Etsuko Shiomi, Sister Street Fighter) and Urocco follow them into space in a space galleon. We meet some space racers - Shiro (Hiroyuki Sanada, Shingen from The Wolverine) and Aaron - and a spoiled rich kid named Meia who are chasing one another through some asteroids. These guys mess up the Kessel Run and wreck, but then find some Laibe seeds in their ships. General Garuda (the name means phoenix and the role is played by Vic Morrow, who graced the screen in films like 1990: The Bronx Warriors and Humanoids from the Deep before dying while making Twilight Zone: The Movie) is a drinking man, embittered by the loss of Beba-1, his robot. He orders that a rocket send the body of his faithful companion into space, which gets him in trouble with his superiors, who see it as a waste. This leads him to retire and take up a bar stool on Milazeria, where he also finds a Liabe seed. In that very same bar, Jack puts the pressure on Shiro and Aaron to repay their debts, as he himself owes the gangster Big Sam (no relation to Jabba) plenty of dough. Oh - he also finds a seed. To get the cash, they agree to take Meia to a forbidden zone where she can watch fireflies. On the way, the Gavanas attack, destroying the space galleon and a police ship. All of our heroes battle, but when the seeds - and Garuda, who is sleeping off his drinking - reveal themselves, Emeralida explains that the seeds have chosen them to liberate her planet. Garuda responds by leaving in a huff, but Beba-2 promises to get him to change his mind. There's supposedly a Chris Isaak cameo as a gambler in the bar scenes, way before he became famous.

No really. The Zucker brothers of "Airplane!" fame had nothing to do with this science fiction spoof that takes every science fiction/space themed movie of the previous decade and deliciously camps them up. There's more than just a passing resemblance in character and theme to "Star Wars" but there's so much more. Disco dancing teen aliens, space fireflies. space witches who look like members of the underground culture from "Planet to the Apes" and a very hip space princess who has the two young heroes (who look like Japanese rock stars) wrapped around her finger. Then there are the robots, the over the top villains (who have subgegated peaceful residents of a large planet) and Vic Morrow who seems to be wondering if he's still really on earth. He ironically looks like Indiana Jones after a long bender.

My issue with this film is the poor sound quality of the dubbed version, much of the dialog very difficult to understand. It is if the actors doing the dubbing had Mr. Microphone right up to their mouth, seemingly filled with walnuts when they spoke. A lot of creativity went into making this, and it definitely was not cheap. The costume and set budget alone must have been enormous, let alone the special effects. There's a lot of fun to be found here, that is if you can understand enough of the dialog to figure out what's going on.

The nice Jillucians have had their planet invaded by the wicked Gavanas. So, in desperation, they toss a whole bunch of glowing magic walnuts into the sky--where they fly across the galaxy in search of patsies willing to help them in their fight against the Gavanas. Eventually, a group of supposed misfits come to their aid--and using the power of the Force (or whatever it's supposed to be) they lead a battle for niceness....which is pretty important because the craptastic Gavanas now have their sights on Earth itself!

If all this sounds a bit familiar, it's because it's a reworking of the plot from "Star Wars". However, in every possible way it's inferior and stupid....very stupid. The special effects are just abysmal. Comparing the artistry of "Star Wars" to "Message From Space" is like comparing the Mona Lisa to a velvet Elvis painting! The acting is also pretty bad...no, actually, it's horrible. The annoying daddy's girl is a character you just want to strangle--she's THAT grating on the nerves. The rest aren't very good, either, but at least they didn't fill me with hate! This isn't a glowing endorsement, however, as most of them suck--really, really suck. Overacting, over-emoting and ineptitude abound. It's also sad to see Sonny Chiba in this film, though he did have a pattern of making some GREAT martial arts films as well as really crappy fantasy/sci-fi films.

So is any of this not terrible? Well, the music isn't bad. It's no "Star Wars" but some of it's decent--and seems strongly inspired from the music from "Once Upon a Time in the West" (seriously). I also like the narrator's nice soothing voice. I know this isn't much...but I am trying to be nice and find some positives.

By the way, get a load of the big baddie's mother. In some close-ups, you can see her nose is simply some really crappy putty--one of the worst makeup jobs I've ever seen. Also, if you want to see a DELIBERATELY funny and more enjoyable "Star Wars" knockoff, try watching "Thumb Wars"--it's a hoot. Also, no matter how bad "Message From Space" is, it's STILL better than the infamous "Star Wars Holiday Special"!!