The evil tyrant Sador (John Saxon) and his army of the mutants Malmori threatens the peaceful Akira farmers of the planet Akir with his Stellar Converter weapon and tells that he will return to collect their harvest. The former Akira warrior Zed (Jeff Corey) advises that they should hire mercenaries to protect them from Sador and offers his spaceship to seek them out. However, the Akira can only pay with food and lodging. The young Shad (Richard Thomas) offers to pilot the ship with the computer Nell to look for mercenaries. He meets Dr. Hephaestus (Sam Jaffe) and his beautiful daughter Nanelia (Darlanne Fluegel) in a space station where he unsuccessfully tries to find weapon. Nanelia comes with Shad and he teams up with the earthling Cowboy (George Peppard),who was going to deliver weapons to a planet that was destroyed by Sador and offers to give them to Shad. Then he meets five clones that share the mind of one entity called Nestor that join him. Shad also recruits the lonely and wealthy assassin Gelt (Robert Vaughn) that accepts the proposed payment. Then the sexy and annoying Valkyrie warrior St. Exmin (Sybil Danning) joins the group since she wants to battle. Shad also recruits Cayman (Morgan Woodward) that wants to kill Sador and does not require any payment. They return to Akir and Sador also returns to attack the planet. Who will win the battle?

"Battle Beyond the Stars" is an enjoyable cult movie with a story based on "Seven Samurai" and its remake "The Magnificent Seven" but in space. Inclusive the Akira is a tribute to Akira Kurosawa. "Battle Beyond the Stars" reuses material from other films ("Space Raiders", "Starquest II", "Dead Space" and "Bachelor Party"); the acting is only reasonable; and the special effects, sets and costumes are poor. But who cares? My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Mercenários das Galáxias" ("Mercenaries of the Galaxies")

While the budget of this Roger Corman production is greater than his usual, it it still far less than a big-time sci-fi production of the era. For example, if you watch any of the three original "Star Wars" films, they are light years ahead of "Battle Beyond the Stars" when it comes to special effects. Clearly, it cannot keep up with these top-notch movies. But, if you accept that its effects are a bit cheesy and this doesn't bother you, the film is surprisingly enjoyable.

Richard Thomas stars as an alien living on a very peaceful planet. They are so peaceful when an intergalactic baddie threatens to destroy them, his people don't have the first idea about how to fight back and protect themselves. So, he goes on a mission to hire fighters who will protect them....and he comes up with a rag-tag group of heroes. Can these assorted heroes somehow fight back against this baddie and ignore, at least temporarily, Sybil Danning and her ever-present and very noticeable cleavage?!

The film offers quite a few B-list actors--a surprising number. In fact, apparently that is where they spent most of the money for the film hiring the likes of George Peppard, Robert Vaughn and the like. Overall, this is probably a film more for kids and die-hard sci-fi fans but it's reasonably entertaining and offers a few interesting characters.

Roger Corman's remake of THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN - in outer space - is more like a lousy STAR WARS rip-off, a cheap and cheesy affair packed with terrible special effects and appalling acting from Richard Thomas, hideously miscast in the heroic leading role as he cannot portray anything other other than an unconvincing wimp. Seriously, Thomas is totally wooden, failing to display any type of emotion and reading his lines like one would read a book aloud to a class of small children. His attempts at romance are pathetic, his heroic acts weak and laughable. I think the only thing I actually liked Thomas in was STALKING LAURA in which he played against type.

I never thought an effects-packed film such as this could be boring, but after the umpteenth lame outer-space battle with ships flying to and fro (no idea who was who) I was utterly tired of the whole affair. The first hour is very slow with very little confrontation, only picking up in the last half an hour to offer some fairly good scenes of laser battles in an underground cave system and the final confrontation between good and evil, fought in outer space of course. The special effects are pretty tacky, especially the dodgy spaceships, but there are some nice visual shots of planets and some good back projection to make up for this. Shots of people disintegrating are cheesy but fun, while the many alien races (including a green lizard man and two alien humanoid children who expire and turn cold) are imaginative and good for a laugh.

What's most astonishing is the well-known cast of actors rounded up to support Thomas in the lead role. You can see where all the budget went. Best-known of all is Robert Vaughn, actually quite good here as the mercenary Gelt; all he wants is a meal and somewhere to rest. George Peppard (DAMNATION ALLEY) supports as Cowboy, an old-time human fighter who has a ship full of weaponry, and aside from his false wig, he's not too bad as the good-old-boy fighter. Darlanne Fluegel portrays an icy beauty as the love interest, but her thunder is stolen by the far more interesting character played by Sybil Danning (THE HOWLING II),who dresses in outlandish costumes made to emphasise her breasts (so what else is new?) and is some sort of futuristic Valkyrie! Sam Jaffe's head appears in a cameo role whilst you may recognise the voice of Earl Boen (THE TERMINATOR),but not the face as he appears as a weird white alien creature who shares a collected consciousness with the rest of his race years before the Borg came about.

The mean bad guy is John Saxon, a performance he repeated in the even cheaper PRISONERS OF THE LOST UNIVERSE a couple of years down the line. Blue-lit and with weird markings on his face, Saxon enjoys himself in a hammy turn as the baddie Sador, and he even loses an arm before the film's close. A tweak to the pacing of the flick, a different lead and more imagination would have made BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS an enjoyable movie. As it is, it's a mildly entertaining bad film only for lovers of the genre or those feeling charitable!