STARFORCE is a VERY low budget science fiction epic that feels very much like a derivative STAR WARS wannabe expect made on a fraction of the budget of the 1977 movie. The whole film is replete with wooden acting and terrible CGI effects that look cartoonish in nature. The plot sees a bunch of soldierly heroes battling aliens on a distant planet and contains some not-bad desert scenery and a small role for reliable Australian bad guy Vernon Wells. But the whole thing is so inept that the only fun you'll get from this is treating it as an unintentional comedy.
6 Reviews
100 dollar budget
geordiegheezer28 March 2005
How did this movie get released? It is awful! The whole movie reminds me of BBC's Dr Who and Blake Seven, (both of which I will watch over and over again), because of the poor filming and cheap sets but they are 20+ years old! This is awful!The CGI is home PC stuff and don't get me started on the lobster like creatures in the cave! The actors are wooden and miss cast. The lame script is straight out a spate western with lines being delivered with sneering expressions and a big sigh. Truly a waste of film and I thought Post Impact was the worst movie I had seen!What was the budget? It would have better spent on a Pizza and Star Wars Video from 1976! Watch this movie but only if you got it free! 09/10/2005 I was discussing movies with an old school friend of mine yesterday and the subject of worst movies came up. You guessed it we both said Star Force! hahahahahahaha We watched it again and laughed so much I nearly spilled my beer!
Not even up to SyFy channel standards
swy_pdm23 January 2022
This was on Prime Video today and I watched it at 6am while I let the dog out to do his business. I try hard to not watch the movies made for SyFy channel like Ape v Monster and Aquarium of the Dead. But sometimes one sneaks past my defenses. What marks this as a substandard movie is the poor script, the micro-budget sets, and the lack of extras. When this is supposed to be a troop of soldiers or a colony of convicts and civilians, you would expect to see a plethora of extras hired to bulk out the populations. Not so here. Six or seven convicts and a few more in unbelievable death poses. Only one civilian (that I remember) and he was dead.
The CGI reminds me a bit of The Last Starfighter (1984), though it had none of the smoothness of that film. Space ships were herky-jerky and poorly rendered. Pilots in cockpits were so unbelievable I had to laugh.
While the two main characters were easy to look at, they delivered their (poorly written) lines like automatons. Just a side note: I was looking for the name of Amy Weber's Nipple Wrangler in the credits.
Make no mistake, this is a movie typical of the poor product put out by the SyFy channel. I just wish streaming services would label them as such.
In all fairness, though, this movie stands head and shoulders above Robowoman.(2019) with one of the most repulsive actresses I've ever seen, Dawna Lee Heising.
The CGI reminds me a bit of The Last Starfighter (1984), though it had none of the smoothness of that film. Space ships were herky-jerky and poorly rendered. Pilots in cockpits were so unbelievable I had to laugh.
While the two main characters were easy to look at, they delivered their (poorly written) lines like automatons. Just a side note: I was looking for the name of Amy Weber's Nipple Wrangler in the credits.
Make no mistake, this is a movie typical of the poor product put out by the SyFy channel. I just wish streaming services would label them as such.
In all fairness, though, this movie stands head and shoulders above Robowoman.(2019) with one of the most repulsive actresses I've ever seen, Dawna Lee Heising.
OK Then...
zbeezrhapy28 February 2022
Cheesy script, adequate acting, a couple of cute actors, low budget visual effects, soldiers wearing paintball gear, all terrain cycles and a dune buggy, what's not to love?
Camera work is pretty good though. Foley and music score are actually fairly good. We made it through without quitting from boredom, so there is that. Oh, and cute little horror bugs too.
Camera work is pretty good though. Foley and music score are actually fairly good. We made it through without quitting from boredom, so there is that. Oh, and cute little horror bugs too.
This is not good
Brooklyn_E15 November 2023
This movie sucks!!!!!!!!
This movie Stinks!!!!!!!!
As a fan of SciFi this is the type of flick that would turn off a casual viewer. I spent a lot of time chuckling at the CGI and the acting. There was a story here but it was very poorly done.
Were the lead actress' breasts paid for their performance as well? I certainly wish I had read a review BEFORE I watched. I would never wasted a minute.
I would advise against this one unless you personally know someone and you want to show support.
Trash is the immediate thought here.
I know we are sometimes starved for entertainment but where was the Starforce? Should at least look like you tried.
This movie Stinks!!!!!!!!
As a fan of SciFi this is the type of flick that would turn off a casual viewer. I spent a lot of time chuckling at the CGI and the acting. There was a story here but it was very poorly done.
Were the lead actress' breasts paid for their performance as well? I certainly wish I had read a review BEFORE I watched. I would never wasted a minute.
I would advise against this one unless you personally know someone and you want to show support.
Trash is the immediate thought here.
I know we are sometimes starved for entertainment but where was the Starforce? Should at least look like you tried.
A Retro '80s Star Romp!
rdfranciscritic14 October 2023
Warning: Spoilers
As I descended a Tubi wormhole, yet others seem to have found "Starforce" -- twenty-two years after-the-fact -- on Amazon Prime in 2022, picking through all of the '90s Alien-cum-Outland rips, this Vernon Wells-starrer (well, not really) pops up on my suggestion list. Turns out, I haven't seen 'em all.
Good, bad, or just really bad in our eyes: I enjoy these straight-to-video/cable low-grade Peter Hyman and James Cameron knocks offs -- films that also pinch "The Dirty Dozen" (1967), "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), "Lifeboat" (1944), "Escape from New York" (1981), and, of course, Ray Liotta's future-jungle prison romp, "No Escape" (1994), and "Bladerunner" (1982). There's also a lot of the TV-syndicated "Andromeda" and "Firefly" in the frames of "Starforce" and its low-budget brethren: there's so many to choose from!
There's "Hyper Space" (1989), "Alien Intruder" (1993), "Lifepod" (1993), "Galaxis" (1995), "Within the Rock" (1996), "Inhumanoid" (1996), "Assault on Dome 4" (1996), "The Apocalypse" (1997), "Convict 762" (1997), "Dark Planet" (1997), "Timelock" (1996), "Phoenix" (1996), "Moonbase" (1997), and "The Survivor" (1998). Then there's the uber-enjoyable Oliver Gruner and Mark Dacascos space junk. While a bit before that mid-'90s rush of knock offs, I'd put the more effective "Dark Side of the Moon" (1990) and "Moon 44" (1990) on the list, as well. Each, as does "Starforce," has their degrees of success and failure in effects and acting.
Still, there's no excuse, by the year 2000, to create films with production values that look as if the films were made during the Italian-made, post-Star Wars '77 backwash ("Star Crash," "The Humanoid," "Cosmos: War of the Planets" come to mind). Even Roger Corman's Lucas-cum-Scott rips ("Battle Beyond the Stars," "Galaxy of Terror") look better than this. Or, perhaps that was the goal? Is this a retro-homage to the Italian Lucusian knockoffs of yore?
The truth is: CGI, without the budget, is always awful; I'd rather the producers kitbash. Recent against-the-budget offerings such as "Ares 11" (2019), "Space" (2020; made for a mere $11,000), and "Space Trucker Bruce" (2014; with minimal CGI-exteriors from a freeware 3D program, as well architectural cardboard set-designs) are wonderful examples of budgetary inventiveness. Sadly, awful CGI has survived well into new millennium in numerous cheap films and probably for the same reasons we've seen awful CGI in so many big budget movies today: rushed schedules, out-of-money budgets, programmers who promised more than they can deliver, and bamboozled-to-impressed filmmakers who thought the CGI artist could make everything look better for mere pennies on the dollar.
THE PLOT
So, since we are pinching "Starship Troopers" more than any other film: we are in outer space way too much, which exposes the unnatural, cartoon-flat, home PC-do-it-yourself CGI. And those fighter pilot cockpits? Not since Reb Brown in those faux-Vipers compartments in the BSG stock footage disaster, "Space Mutiny" (1988), comes to mind.
However, once the proceedings get on the ground, things do get better -- and a post-apoc Max Maxian cool -- with the ATVs and dune buggies scurrying about (that remind of Armand Gazarian's "Prison Planet/Badlanders," one of my favs). That is until the bugs show up.
Oh, yes. The CGI insects look exactly like Klendathuian arachnids -- only they're about 12-inches tall and scurry about like packs of wild dogs. Yeah, when our crashlanded "Snake Plissken" (Micheal Bergin of TV's "Baywatch"; these days: a whole bunch of "Wrong" and "Christmas" for Lifetime and Hallmark) and his Ripley (a perfect-apoc make-up Amy Weber, aka Diva from the WWE) go into battle -- with our reason for being here, Vernon Wells (yeah, from "The Road Warrior") -- and mix it up with desert rebel-goons and scruffy, penal colony nerf herders (aka mining colonists), they do so in the requisite motocross helmets, hockey and paintball-styled military gear on the "Battle of the Planet of the Bugs," aka "2217: The Kerfuffle on Sygnus," to find some magical stones, or fuel, or something, to save the day.
The effective against-the-budget in-camera effects comes courtesy of a team headed by the film's director, Carey Howe, in his directorial debut. His own effects work dates to "Scared to Death" (1980; the Synegor movie!), as well as the "Friday the 13th," "House," "Re-Animator," as well as the Freddy Kruger, and "The Lord of the Rings" franchises.
In the end: Even with its shortcomings, I had fun with this star romp courtesy of its retro home video fuzzies reminding me of those Lucasian Italian knockoffs. It's about time for Mill Creek to program some updates to their 50-film packs -- and "Starforce" would program nicely into one of their "Sci-Fi" disc sets.
Good, bad, or just really bad in our eyes: I enjoy these straight-to-video/cable low-grade Peter Hyman and James Cameron knocks offs -- films that also pinch "The Dirty Dozen" (1967), "The Magnificent Seven" (1960), "Lifeboat" (1944), "Escape from New York" (1981), and, of course, Ray Liotta's future-jungle prison romp, "No Escape" (1994), and "Bladerunner" (1982). There's also a lot of the TV-syndicated "Andromeda" and "Firefly" in the frames of "Starforce" and its low-budget brethren: there's so many to choose from!
There's "Hyper Space" (1989), "Alien Intruder" (1993), "Lifepod" (1993), "Galaxis" (1995), "Within the Rock" (1996), "Inhumanoid" (1996), "Assault on Dome 4" (1996), "The Apocalypse" (1997), "Convict 762" (1997), "Dark Planet" (1997), "Timelock" (1996), "Phoenix" (1996), "Moonbase" (1997), and "The Survivor" (1998). Then there's the uber-enjoyable Oliver Gruner and Mark Dacascos space junk. While a bit before that mid-'90s rush of knock offs, I'd put the more effective "Dark Side of the Moon" (1990) and "Moon 44" (1990) on the list, as well. Each, as does "Starforce," has their degrees of success and failure in effects and acting.
Still, there's no excuse, by the year 2000, to create films with production values that look as if the films were made during the Italian-made, post-Star Wars '77 backwash ("Star Crash," "The Humanoid," "Cosmos: War of the Planets" come to mind). Even Roger Corman's Lucas-cum-Scott rips ("Battle Beyond the Stars," "Galaxy of Terror") look better than this. Or, perhaps that was the goal? Is this a retro-homage to the Italian Lucusian knockoffs of yore?
The truth is: CGI, without the budget, is always awful; I'd rather the producers kitbash. Recent against-the-budget offerings such as "Ares 11" (2019), "Space" (2020; made for a mere $11,000), and "Space Trucker Bruce" (2014; with minimal CGI-exteriors from a freeware 3D program, as well architectural cardboard set-designs) are wonderful examples of budgetary inventiveness. Sadly, awful CGI has survived well into new millennium in numerous cheap films and probably for the same reasons we've seen awful CGI in so many big budget movies today: rushed schedules, out-of-money budgets, programmers who promised more than they can deliver, and bamboozled-to-impressed filmmakers who thought the CGI artist could make everything look better for mere pennies on the dollar.
THE PLOT
So, since we are pinching "Starship Troopers" more than any other film: we are in outer space way too much, which exposes the unnatural, cartoon-flat, home PC-do-it-yourself CGI. And those fighter pilot cockpits? Not since Reb Brown in those faux-Vipers compartments in the BSG stock footage disaster, "Space Mutiny" (1988), comes to mind.
However, once the proceedings get on the ground, things do get better -- and a post-apoc Max Maxian cool -- with the ATVs and dune buggies scurrying about (that remind of Armand Gazarian's "Prison Planet/Badlanders," one of my favs). That is until the bugs show up.
Oh, yes. The CGI insects look exactly like Klendathuian arachnids -- only they're about 12-inches tall and scurry about like packs of wild dogs. Yeah, when our crashlanded "Snake Plissken" (Micheal Bergin of TV's "Baywatch"; these days: a whole bunch of "Wrong" and "Christmas" for Lifetime and Hallmark) and his Ripley (a perfect-apoc make-up Amy Weber, aka Diva from the WWE) go into battle -- with our reason for being here, Vernon Wells (yeah, from "The Road Warrior") -- and mix it up with desert rebel-goons and scruffy, penal colony nerf herders (aka mining colonists), they do so in the requisite motocross helmets, hockey and paintball-styled military gear on the "Battle of the Planet of the Bugs," aka "2217: The Kerfuffle on Sygnus," to find some magical stones, or fuel, or something, to save the day.
The effective against-the-budget in-camera effects comes courtesy of a team headed by the film's director, Carey Howe, in his directorial debut. His own effects work dates to "Scared to Death" (1980; the Synegor movie!), as well as the "Friday the 13th," "House," "Re-Animator," as well as the Freddy Kruger, and "The Lord of the Rings" franchises.
In the end: Even with its shortcomings, I had fun with this star romp courtesy of its retro home video fuzzies reminding me of those Lucasian Italian knockoffs. It's about time for Mill Creek to program some updates to their 50-film packs -- and "Starforce" would program nicely into one of their "Sci-Fi" disc sets.
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