THE ICE PIRATES

US, 1984, 91 minutes, Colour.
Robert Urich, Mary Crosby, Anjelica Huston, Ron Perlman, John Carradine.
Directed by Stewart Raffil.

The Ice Pirates is oddball science fiction. It has very good credentials in terms of production from M.G.M./United Artists. It was co-written and directed by Stewart Raffill, director of such family films as those of the Wilderness family as well as some actioners like High Risk and The Philadelphia Experiment. Popular TV star (Vegas) Robert Urich is the lead with Mary Crosby (Dallas) as the heroine. There are some oddball performances by Michael D. Roberts and Anjelica Huston as well as veteran John Carradine.

The film is set in the galaxies and is a variation on Star Wars as well as Mad Max. There is a lack of water in the galaxy and so the hero and his crew are ice pirates. There are explorers, pirates, Templars, princesses. There are also far-fetched adventures - which look so eccentric that they might be called 'spaced-out'. The film is entertaining in an oddball way - derivative of many space epics of the '70s as well as the send-ups. There are robots, odd costumes, action. The climax is interesting as the main characters move through a time warp and age many decades in a few moments. Not one for discussion but rather for entertainment or for merely disbelief.