Battles the Robots" (2:18) "Network Ball Attack" (1:00) "Space War" (4:40) "Goodbye Akton" (3:34) "Starcrash End Title" (2:57) "Starcrash Suite" (7:14) Release and reception The film premiered in Los Angeles on March 7, 1979. At the 7th Saturn Awards, it was nominated for the Best International Film. In a contemporary review, Variety noted that the film had a "weak screenplay" and that Cozzi's direction "seemed to have no apparent plan". Variety commented that "what is surprising for a picture of this genre, however, is the lacklustre photography by Paul Beeson and Roberto D'Ettorre and special effects by Armando Valcauda and German Natali", and that the "photography almost never convinces that this is actually taking place anywhere but on the movie screen and special effects seem little more than poor imitations of what's been done before". The Monthly Film Bulletin noted the "mediocre special effects and a clumsily protracted finale", but stated that Starcrash "intermittently achieves a kind of lunatic appeal as it lurches pell-mell from one casually fabricated climax to the next". A retrospective review by Kurt Dahlke of DVD Talk said, "Starcrash is a masterpiece of unintentionally bad filmmaking. Pounded out in about 18 months seemingly as an answer to Star Wars, Luigi Cozzi's knock-off buzzes around with giddy brio, mixing ridiculous characters with questionably broad acting, an incredibly simple yet still nonsensical plot derivative to Star Wars, and budget special effects that transcend into the realm of real art. It's a completely ridiculous movie, that's great to watch with a few friends and a beer or two. And it still manages to make my jaw drop". R. L. Shaffer of IGN gave the film a rating of 10/10, declaring it the "single greatest sci-fi camp fest ever put on celluloid" and put it in a league with cult classics like Troll 2, Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky and The Room. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an aggregate score of 29% based on 2 positive and 5 negative critic reviews. In 2015, Starcrash was chosen by Rolling Stone as one of the 50 Best Sci-Fi Movies of the 1970s. In popular culture The film was featured on the movie-mocking television show Mystery Science Theater 3000 in 2017. The film was the subject of an episode of the podcast How Did This Get Made? recorded at the Dominion Energy Center in Richmond, Virginia on July 20, 2019. References Sources