Star Pilot
Star Pilot
PG | 01 October 1977 (USA)
Star Pilot Trailers

Aliens from the constellation Hydra crash-land on the island of Sardinia. A prominent scientist, his daughter, several young technicians, and a pair of Oriental spies are taken hostage by the beings so they can use them to repair their spaceship's broken engine. With that done, they take off towards their home planet, taking the earthlings with them. However, the humans attempt to mutiny against their captors, inadvertently sending their tiny spaceship hurtling into the infinite beyond...

Reviews
Bezenby

By the way, Gordon Mitchell is in this for about a minute, tops.This one kind of starts off like They Came From Beyond Space, what with a group of scientists investigating an area in Sardinia where nothing grows due to radiation or something. Along for the ride are the elderly professor, his daughter the broad, and some other guys. The Chinese are in on things too as the bad guys, so everyone is surprised when the patch of lands houses a UFO, everyone is captured and forced to work for the aliens. Wait, the leader is 'a woman?'.So you've got a serious prof and his acolytes, his ditzy daughter with her nice arse and bad acting, and everyone ends up heading out into space and you'll be glad of that because most of what happens beforehand is really boring. This film is saved by the cast heading out into space, because that's when the rules get thrown out of the window.Not only is our broad 'forced' to wear the female leader's costumes, but vice versa happens as our aliens learn 'love' while exploring the cosmos while our enemy, the two Chinese guys, are attacked by a bunch of monkeys on some bizarre planet and never mentioned again.There's other revelations, and a pretty abrupt ending, and so much crap randomness that I can't help but like this film more than I should. I thought I would hate it but things pick up about halfway through.

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midge56

Spoiler: Star Pilot has the sequel ending to "Doomsday Machine" with details which no one else seems to know about or failed to comprehend. The film "Star Pilot" didn't just steal scenes from Doomsday Machine, it provided a sequel to the ending.Although Doomsday Machine leaves you hanging with the last two survivors of this rescued film in the add-on sequences, the film, "Star Pilot" gives us their fate. At the end of the rescued, add-on sequences of Doomsday Machine:The surviving couple were left stranded, alone in the soviet craft. Earth was literally destroyed & Venus refusing their approach after having destroyed their fellow astronauts in the US ship. Leaving the 2 astronauts the only option... to find another planet to settle as the Sole surviving human couple.Star Pilot finishes the story by beginning earlier in Earth's past where a group of scientists are taken captive to repair a space ship from Hydra. The aliens (human style) decide to take their captives to their planet Hydra as they also develop relationships.Enroute, they encounter a skeletal pair of astronauts in a soviet style ship from Earth's future. They realize time has passed faster on earth during their voyage to Hydra & learn of Earth's destruction from the craft recording system. This dead skeletal pair of astronauts were the same surviving couple on the finale of Doomsday Machine. So we now know they died looking for a new home planet.The Star Pilot Characters argue about returning to Earth (which was destroyed when it blew into pieces on Doomsday Machine) or continuing to Hydra. The alien Commander makes the decision for them by gassing everyone. Upon arrival to Hydra, she discovers her planet abandoned & contaminated by radiation with a monument which states the Hydra inhabitants have fled on their fleet of ships, seeking a new planet to avoid the pitfalls of radiation & mutation.It leaves one wondering if the inhabitants of Hydra went to Earth (which no longer exists) or found a new planet. The group is left wondering what to do with Earth gone & Hydra contaminated. They are now homeless as well. Earth violently destroyed by a doomsday machine & planet Hydra contaminated with radiation & abandoned. Did the inhabitants of Hydra find a new home planet? If so, where? Thus, another open ending.If any of these neophyte post Xgen idiots had actually watched these movies instead of behaving like immature juveniles, they would have noticed Star Pilot was a sequel to Doomsday Machine. I recommend watching both movies in sequence.Is there a sequel to Star Pilot?

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Woodyanders

Aliens from the planet Hydra crash land their spaceship on Earth. The ship's occupants kidnap a scientist and force him to fix their damaged craft. However, the scientist, his daughter, several technicians, and two untrustworthy Oriental spies who all have been taken hostage band together to mutiny against their captures. Writer/director Pietro Francisco relates the entertainingly asinine story at a snappy pace and treats the gloriously ludicrous premise with hilariously misguided seriousness. The game acting from the enthusiastic cast keeps everything humming, with especially commendable work from ravishing redhead Leonora Ruffo as formidable alien leader Kaena, Mario Novelli as the handsome and dashing Paolo, Roland Lesaffre as the no-nonsense Prof. Solmi, Kirk Morris as the stolid Belsy, and the luscious Leontine May as the spunky Luisa Solmi. Legendary muscleman Gordon Mitchell has a regrettably tiny part as gruff alien Murdu. The cruddy (far from) special effects, dodgy dubbing, clumsily staged action set pieces, a welcome appearance by a savage tribe of grunting'n'leaping primitive apemen extraterrestrials, and the totally unexpected from out in left field surprise bummer ending all add immensely to this picture's considerable campy charm. The garish cinematography by Giulio Albonico and Silvano Ippoliti gives the movie an eye-popping bright look. Nico Fidenco's neatly varied score alternates between groovy swinging lounge and more generic spacey stuff. A complete kitschy hoot.

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chexmix

When you are a science-savvy person, watching science fiction films is often a painful experience: whether it is completely unrealistic (but in a way dramatically understandable) gaffes like loud roaring sound effects in the vacuum of outer space, or the unbelievable idiocy of people who think "backup engines" are there to make a rocket go, well, back up ... one just never knows what offenses filmmakers will slap up on screen.Unfortunately, there is little one can do to prepare for something like _Star Pilot_, or however one wants to reference this particular Italian "science fiction" mess. The creators of this thing not only did not have a scientifically literate person on set, they all seem to have skipped every science class that was offered in their school careers! Other reviewers have pointed out the film's startling revelation that -- contrary to what science tells us -- it is actually quite comfortable beyond the confines of any planetary atmosphere whatever, and you can just twirl around between spaceships without the benefit of a helmet or any other bulky garb. Truly amazing. I was also amazed to note that when "Bellsy" was out in the balmy vacuum repairing the ship's antenna, gravity just seemed to switch on and off without warning - since the damaged antenna he removed visibly fell down and out of sight, no matter how much bouncing around (on a trampoline, apparently) Bellsy did himself! I could go on forever. I could cite the space chart / screen two characters stared at that appeared to have standard N-E-W-S compass directions on it. Future generations of Cub Scouts will no doubt be relieved to know that there is a North in outer space, and that their compasses will work.And yet ... this film is so stupid on so many levels (despite pretensions to ... uh, something at the end) that it manages to be quite entertaining at times. It's THAT kind of bad. It would have made a good MST3K target. It's garish, incomprehensible, nonsensical, giddy, idiotic. Furthermore, some of the actors make okay eye candy, if you are into that kind of thing. "Leontine" alone is worth the price of admission, as she is some kind of cross between Angelina Jolie, Barbarella-era Jane Fonda, and something I can't quite name. Her costumes made me believe that Western culture does indeed have a basement, a hard rock floor beyond which nothing can possibly go. And yet ... no matter how often I wanted to turn away, I just ... could not.

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