Every Friday, Deuce dips into the mighty Grab Movies catalog and recommends a movie that may have slipped your notice.

This Week's Selection: Battle Beyond the Stars

The post-Star Wars years were a funny time in Hollywood - on multiple levels, the entire concept of making movies was changed: What constituted a blockbuster, small films vs. big concepts and of course, the revitalization of the dying "science fiction" genre.

It's funny to say that, actually - "dying science fiction genre". It's been so long since Stars Wars has been an active influence in our pop culture, it's surprising how science fiction was more associated with early 70's socio-political commentary and Charlton Heston instead of space travel and shoot 'em ups. Of course, after Star Wars exploded into pop culture, all of the industry was trying to capitalize on what had been initially foreseen as a giant bomb of a film. For the next ten years, moviemakers rushed to cash in with the space shoot-em-up style of filmmaking (with the Western overtone thrown in.) Most were garbage. Some were worse.

So leave it to veteran B-movie filmmaker Roger Corman to produce the best of the also-rans - Battle Beyond the Stars. Taking the plotline directly from Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai (which of course would later be the famous western, The Magnificent Seven) - a peace-loving planet is threatened by an invading armada. In order to protect the planet, a lone young man hurriedly assembles a band of hardened space veterans from the edges of the galaxy.

I've always had a soft spot for this movie, maybe because it wisely dispenses with trying to create too much of an otherworldly mythology and focuses on a simple story that's familiar but still highly enjoyable. It's also interesting to see the cast of familiar faces in the main roles - Richard Thomas from The Waltons as the young man trying to save his planet, A-Team's George Peppard as the quintessential cowboy character, Robert Vaughn essentially playing the same character from The Seven Magnificent Samurai, everybody's favorite workingman actor of the 70's John Saxon, and of course... Sybil Danning. Mmmmmm, Sybil Danning. Give me a minute, I'll be fine.

One of the tragedies about this movie has nothing to do with the movie itself, however - the special effects are surprisingly decent, but you'll do multiple double-takes as you experience deja-vu while watching the movie. That's because later B-movies (and even C-movies) cribbed the special effects sequences for their own low budget productions.

Battle Beyond the Stars isn't a great movie, but it is a fun movie which is why I recommend it. I find it remniscent of the appeal of the first Star Wars, before the Hollywood machine made it a religion - it's a fun little popcorn movie that will keep you entertained, making you laugh a bit and enjoy a Saturday night movie rental. Mmmmmm. Excuse me, I'm thinking about Sybil Danning again.

That's this week's recommendation. Keep coming back every Friday for more Sleeperdisc selections.