The Ice Pirates (1984)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Stewart Raffill

Writers:

Stewart Raffill (writer) and
Stanford Sherman (writer)

Release Date:

16 March 1984 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Sci-Fi | Action | Adventure

Tagline:

SEE A Universe on the rocks TREMBLE at the ferocious space possums! CATCH Space Herpie the Love Bug [Video Australia]

Plot:

In the far future water is the most valuable substance. Two space pirates are captured, sold to a princess...

Plot Keywords:

Princess | Robot | Explosion | Pirate | Space Pirate

Cast

Robert Urich	...	Jason
Mary Crosby	...	Princess Karina
Michael D. Roberts	...	Roscoe
Anjelica Huston	...	Maida
John Matuszak	...	Killjoy
Ron Perlman	...	Zeno
John Carradine	...	Supreme Commander
Natalie Core	...	Nanny
Jeremy West	...	Zorn
Bruce Vilanch	...	Wendon
Alan Caillou	...	Count Paisley
Marcia Lewis	...	Frog Lady
Daryl Keith Roach	...	Fitzcairn / Prisoner (as Daryl Roach)
Robert Symonds	...	Lanky Nibs
Gary Brockette	...	Percy the Robot

Runtime:

91 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Germany:12 | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PA (Manitoba) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Iceland:14 | Australia:PG | USA:PG | UK:PG (theatrical release, cut) | UK:15 (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles Theatre - 615 S. Broadway, Downtown, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

JF Productions

Trivia:

The sport the pirates are watching on the monitor during lunch on the ship is scenes from the movie Rollerball (1975).

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Princess Karina is at the Amazon women's ice castle, Roscoe is holding the head for Jason to tickle his nose. You can see the actor's shoulders, in a grey jumper.

Quotes:

Maida: [after killing Patch's assistant] I think you owe the lady and me an apology
Patch: [smiles] My apologies.
Maida: [slices off his eye patch] You didn't sound to sincere to me.
Patch: I'm sorry.
Parrot: Don't believe him. He's lying.

Movie Connections:

Features TRON (1982)

If you liked Mars Attacks! and Buckaroo Banzai ....

This is the movie that killed Mary Crosby's career and nearly derailed Robert Urich's, Angelica Houston's and Ron Perlman's. It's one of those movies - like 1941 and Paint Your Wagon - that everyone knows is a total turkey, except for those who place what they see on the screen above what they read in the reviews. If you liked Mars Attacks! and Buckaroo Banzai, and laughed your ass off at Spaced Invaders and Killer Clowns from Outer Space, you'll love Ice Pirates.

The time is the distant future, where by far the most precious commodity in the galaxy is water. The idea that there were once ten planets whose surface was principally covered by water is considered a myth by most people, as is the story that the last surviving water planet was somehow removed to the unreachable center of the galaxy at the end of the galactic trade wars. The galaxy is ruled by your basic evil emperor (John Carradine) presiding over a trade oligarchy that controls all mining and sale of ice from asteroids and comets.

Robert Urich is Jason, leader of a band of ice pirates that includes Ron Perlman, John Matuzak and Michael D Roberts. Of course, the crew also prominently features the obligatory unbeatable master swordsman and latter-day samurai, but, in a blow for equality, the part is played to perfection by Angelica Houston. In the formulaic plot for outlaw space operas, our heroes attack an ice freighter, are captured, but escape with a princess (Mary Crosby) kidnapped by the evil emperor in tow. They rescue her, thread the perilous path to the center of the universe and the fabled tenth planet, and destroy the evil empire's stranglehold on the people.

Along the way, you are treated to some of film's oddest aliens, god-awful puns and excellent lampoons of space opera icons. It's full of bona fide toilet humor, from the pirates breaking through the hull of the ice freighter into a lavatory whose commode is occupied by a chickenman, to the standard reconditioning for outlaws and other deviants - castration by mechanical chompers, a lobotomy and a blond dye job, then sale as a soprano domestic slave.

Ice Pirates is the illegitimate child of Star Wars and Animal House. The jokes, both verbal and physical, range from the hackneyed to the truly brilliant - and most of both will have you rolling on the floor. It's a an hour-and-a-half of pure unadulterated fun. When I finally get the 6' x 8' screen for our light projector mounted, this will be one of the first movies we watch.