BEAST IN SPACE is probably the most bizarre science fiction movie I've ever watched. Italian trash director Alfonso Brescia is known among cult circles for his work on a wacky quintet of ultra low budget sci fi offerings in the late '70s, purely designed to cash in on the success of STAR WARS, and this is the last one of that series. Not content with reworking the same themes as in the other films, Brescia also decides to rip off an erotic drama called THE BEAST, about a woman in love with a monster, and this tells virtually the same story while relocating to another planet.The two halves of the film sit at odds with one another. On the one hand we get the usual cardboard sets, silly looking costumes and poor actors pretending they're piloting a spaceship, avoiding asteroids and going after a guy who's clearly supposed to be Han Solo. Once they land on a planet, they're once more pursued by a huge, rubbishy looking cardboard computer and they also find themselves up against an army of blond-haired androids who appear to be left over from the Brescia-directed peplum film CONQUEROR OF ATLANTIS.Thrown into the mix are a series of fairly explicit sex scenes that were spiced up with hardcore inserts for foreign markets; it's this XXX-rated latter version that's recently surfaced on DVD. No doubt to Brescia's delight, the actual star of THE BEAST, Sirpa Lane, was paid enough to appear in this as well. Supporting her is Greek leading man Vassili Karis, who had already starred in a couple of these sci fi yarns like COSMOS: WAR OF THE PLANETS, although he must have wondered what he'd got himself into when he saw the sex stuff in this one. The guy wearing the pan outfit is a hoot especially as the edge of the hairy legs he's wearing is visible throughout.Anyway, this is trashy stuff in the extreme, worthy only because it's a complete oddity even given the varied, anything-goes standards of Italian exploitation cinema.

This cheesy slice of Italian B-movie schlock has all the production value and style of a trashy 80s sci-fi series rapidly approaching cancellation (think Buck Rogers in the 25th Century at the end of its second season), with cheap and nasty costumes, crappy set design, terrible special effects, two-dimensional comic-book heroes, dastardly villains and attractive women in sexy but impractical outfits. But where the titillation in a programme like Buck Rogers always ended with just a tantalising glimpse of cleavage or thigh, Beast in Space goes much further, punctuating its silly space fantasy action with bouts of porn, starting off soft-core, but eventually progressing to the harder stuff.The risible plot sees Vassili Karis as starship captain Larry Madison, who leads a mission to the remote planet Lorigon where there reputedly exists a sizable deposit of the rare element Antalium. Once on the planet, Madison and his crew (three of whom are sexy blonde women) explore a castle where they are welcomed by the planet's ruler Onaph (Claudio Undari), who takes a keen interest in the female crew-members, particularly the insatiable Lt. Sondra Richardson (Sirpa Lane).In the relaxing atmosphere of Onaph's castle, the crew begin to enjoy themselves, perhaps a little too much: after witnessing two horses mating in a stable, they begin to get fruity with each other and give in to their desires, participating in an orgiastic display of wanton carnal lust (phew!). Even Onaph joins in on the fun, revealing himself to be a well-endowed faun like creature and pursuing Sondra through the woods with the intent of getting busy. It's not long before the woods are alive with the sound of humping.However, all is not as it seems: In reality, Onaph is the physical manifestation of a powerful supercomputer named Zocor, which protects its Antalium supply by controlling the minds of anyone who should visit the planet. Luckily, roguish merchant Juan Cardoso (Venantino Venantini), who is also after the valuable mineral, is immune to Zocor's mind control thanks to special tablets that cancel out the computer's hypnotic effect; after dosing up Madison and his crew (who actually seem grateful to be released from their endless ecstasy), Juan joins forces with them to destroy Zocor and steal its Antalium.As a big fan of both garish disco-era sci-fi and exploitative Italian trash cinema, I found Beast in Space a rather enjoyable way to pass the time, the nutzoid script, naff set design, dreadful acting, gratuitous nookie, and blatant steals from Star Wars (check out the dreadful laser swords wielded by Zocor's golden robot guards) being just the sort of nonsense I look for in my Z-grade entertainment. Obviously, this kind of thing doesn't qualify for a ridiculously high rating, but I certainly had enough fun for it to warrant a 6/10.

This is yet another trash film. I think it's worth noting that, at least to me, trash designates merely films with incredibly low production values. Often these films also press hard on the exaggeration of sex and/or blood. Not violence though. Mostly, and this film is no exception, these films work as parodies of other serious films. Not fully intentional as parodies, but as ways to capitalize on the success of other films. That's why here we have cardboard light sabers, 3 years after the original Star Wars came out.I come to films like this once in a while, first for the sheer fun of sharing its makers self- referential passion, enjoying the consented flaws as much as i appreciate the good things. But also, i come here to enjoy interesting concepts and sometimes subtle layering that often come up in pieces like this film. Usually, the disgrace of every aspect of filmmaking, from sets to acting, from blocking to framing, ruins the experience. But still, you can often find interesting things to consider, on the narrative level. Such is the case with this film.Check how this is built. A crew with the mission to go to a distant planet to collect some precious material. One of the elements (the sex star) of the crew has been dreaming about a place she doesn't know, where she is repeatedly raped (in the dream) by a beast, half human half goat (with a human penis). In the meantime she screws the leader of the mission. On the planet, interesting stuff happens. The planet is controlled by a machine, with power to enable sexual fantasies on its inhabitants, basically placing the crew under the illusion of consented sex with each other. This is made by the computer to enable its avatar, the half man half goat beast, to reach the girl and make her live the dream she'd been having. A final battle happens, the computer is destroyed, they leave the planet.What works fine for me is how we get buried deeper in the layers of the story. We supposedly start in the real universe of those characters. Sex between both of them makes her reveal her (sex) dream and we submerge one level below the reality of the world of film. The distant planet is itself the descent into a different buried world. The dreams induced by the computer, the initial illusion that we have that those are not dreams, that takes us to a different level. And the final doubt on whether the "real" rape was real or yet another computer induced illusion, that's interesting. Sex surrounds everything of course, as the producers need it in order to sell the film. So the premises are clear about what you'll see here. But how it is done can be appreciated, despite the trashy feel of the whole thing.My opinion: 2/5http://www.7eyes.wordpress.com

Good movie, very 70s, you can not expect much from a film like this,, Sirpa Lane is an actress of erotic films, a nice body but nothing exceptional savant to a pornographic actress from the body disappears, but the '70s were characterized a small breasts and a simple eroticism. Not demand a lot from these films are light years away from the movies today, the world has changed incredibly. The plot is simple and the actors not extraordinary. And the brunette actress has a single body, has one breast slightly bigger. Be satisfied. Papaya also is not great but at least these films have a certain charm ... Download them again but then again who knows what you pretend not to them.