| The Ice Pirates | |
|---|---|
The Ice Pirates theatrical poster |
|
| Directed by | Stewart Raffill |
| Produced by | John Foreman |
| Written by | Stewart Raffill, Stanford Sherman |
| Starring | Robert Urich, Mary Crosby, Anjelica Huston, Ron Perlman, Bruce Vilanch Michael D. Roberts, John Carradine |
| Music by | Bruce Broughton |
| Cinematography | Matthew F. Leonetti |
| Editing by | Tom Walls |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | March 16, 1984 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $9,000,000 (estimated) |
The Ice Pirates is a 1984 comedy/science-fiction film. It was directed by Stewart Raffill (previously the director of the Wilderness Family films), who co-wrote the screenplay with Krull author Stanford Sherman. The movie stars Robert Urich and Mary Crosby. Other notable featured actors are Anjelica Huston, Ron Perlman, Bruce Vilanch, John Carradine and football great John Matuszak.
Contents |
The film takes place in a future where water is an immensely valuable substance, both as a commodity and as a currency. Princess Karina (Crosby) is a spoiled princess who purchases captured space pirates Jason (Urich) and Roscoe (Michael D. Roberts). They then proceed to locate a "lost" planet that contains massive amounts of water. The planet must be approached on a specific course or the ship will be suspended in time forever. The course apparently contains some sort of real or illusory time distortion (resulting in both the heroes and the villains reaching old age during the climactic battle).
The film is somewhat tongue-in-cheek and often compared to Star Wars. Upon its release, the New York Times described it as a "busy, bewildering, exceedingly jokey science-fiction film that looks like a Star Wars spin-off made in an underdeveloped galaxy."[1]
The movie is note-worthy for its cheeky, obviously cut-rate production values, mid-eighties "color-blind casting", sexual frankness, and near-deliberately slack "sitcom" direction. The climactic "time-warp" battle is a rare example of the classic science-fiction temporal paradox done in a "real-time" context.
|
|||||||||||||||||