User reviews

While there's no denying the poor production value and cheap special effects (this is a B movie, after all); I feel the story behind this movie has some value. The motivation of the bad guys is well established. They are not simply evil, but are in a bit of a tight spot themselves. Also, the primary method they use to achieve their goal (a suicide ray) is rather chilling. The use of telepathic communication between the aliens was a nice touch. The cheesiness of this film can easily be embraced as enjoyable camp. It's not a great film, but I think you'll find that it sticks with you after you watch it. The story is fairly rich, with lots of details and connections filled in along the way. It truly has some meat to it. I first saw it as a kid while growing up. Now, over 25 years later, I finally tracked it down and watched it again. I'm still charmed by it.

"Oh boy, a real flying saucer!" is what a little boys shouts when he and his parents are confronted with a mysterious space ship circling above their car on a secluded countryside road. I definitely shared his enthusiasm, because I truly worship cinematic B-trash like this, and my only regret was that I wasn't yet drunk enough when I watched "Starship Invasions". Although a low-keyed crossover between the hugely successful "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", this piece of junk has quite a lot to offer. For example, it stars Christopher Lee in the most ridiculous and embarrassing outfit of his long and respectable career, hypnotizing aliens speaking without moving their lips, alien base camps underneath sea level, loads of sexy space wenches, authentic R2D2 robots (oh no, they're not men in suits AT ALL) and goofy intelligent beings with gigantic bald heads and miniature ears. I'm not at all sure what the plot is about, but it sure is incoherent and totally messed up. There are alien invaders trying to overtake planet earth, but at the same time these crazy beings are at war with other extraterrestrial species. I can't really say why because I always got distracted by random alien babes in too tight spandex costumes. Presumably the big bald aliens are here to protect us humans from the nefarious Christopher Lee and his posse. Meanwhile, Robert Vaughn stars as a professor who takes himself deadly serious and appears on TV talk shows in order to persuade the world about the existence of interstellar civilizations. Okay, "Starship Invasions" comes across as cheesy and campy, but admittedly it's also dark and sinister at times, especially when it turns out that the evil aliens are able to make earthlings commit ritual suicide through their telekinetic powers. Once you're done laughing with Vaughn's nihilistic facial expressions and Lee's stoic voiceovers the film does become very boring, though. The special effects are astonishingly decent for a low- budget Canadian exploitation flick like this. Particularly the UFO models are nifty, albeit prototypic, and even when floating around they don't look that stupid. With a slightly more coherent script and competent direction, and maybe also with less urge to imitate other and more successful Sci-Fi titles, I'm convinced that "Starship Invasions" could have been a better movie. Now it's merely a curious footnote in the genre and a reasonably interesting flick for cult-collectors. Writer/director Ed Hunt was also responsible for two favorite 80s guilty pleasure of mine, namely "Bloody Birthday" and "The Brain".

"Starship Invasions" is an incredibly slow and underacted sci-fi film from Canada. While it stars Robert Vaughn and Christopher Lee, the rest of the cast are mostly unknowns. If I didn't know better, I would believe that the film's director gave all the actors downers before they began filming. This is because although the film is supposed to be a life or death tale about the invasion of the Earth, it's all so low energy and the acting is just too subdued....to the point where you start to wonder if it's a sci-fi zombie film!

So is there anything I really liked about this film? Well, there isn't much but I did like the makeup job on the huge-domed aliens-- they looked quite good considering the low budget. As for most of the rest of the aliens, however, they were just folks wearing silly black leotards. The robot that saves the day is even more ridiculous. Overall, the film has its moments but just not enough to recommend you watch it.

I remember seeing this during Passover Holidays (easter) at my local cinema. It was marketed as a 'Star Wars' knock-off. I picked it up 20 years later in a 2nd hand bin on VHS. THIS FILM IS HILARIOUS DRECK!! Basically this race of aliens try to take over the Earth by mind control by causing earthlings to commit suicide!! Mixing UFO nonsense with ludicrous 'Star Wars' mythology and some demented ideas, I will never forget sitting in a cinema full of teens and pre-teens, and watching in horror as the main actress has her mind controlled, and she proceeds to slash her wrists! Kids were screaming in horror, and the projectionist had to stop the film!! It was truly one of those classic cinema experiences that people just don't experience in today's disgusting cineplex wasteland!

Gave this film a watch considering I do enjoy Christopher Lee and Robert Vaughn and alien invasions! Well, this one was not too good as this thing came out the same year as Star Wars and while Star Wars still looks good to this day, the effects in this one are dated. I do not mean they look dated by today's standards, I mean they look quite dated for the year it was released as I have seen 50's alien films with better looking alien spaceships than the ones presented here which look like those dinner trays that have the lid over them at hotels when you order room service. Still though, I like the idea of a pleasure room...

The story starts out as a farmer is abducted by aliens and instead of getting probed, he gets presented with a beautiful alien woman he apparently makes love to (thankfully they omitted this part, I mean she was an attractive lady, but they guy not so much). Well a family is abducted and all of this is being done because the aliens are about to lose their planet so they want to take over ours. Sounds okay, until the invaders go to this underwater pyramid where there are more aliens from countless planets and they would not allow this attack. This makes the whole 'our planet is dying' thing not work, as the aliens in this pyramid are very helpful and would probably help the one's whose planet is about to explode due to a star going nova so there should be no need for them to annihilate the inhabitants on Earth by making them commit suicide. I mean, these people have a pleasure room, so you know they are cool! Oh, and Robert Vaughn is sort doing stuff too...

I am kind of baffled that Robert Vaughn got top billing in this film instead of Lee as Lee is in this thing a lot more and does more than Vaughn. I am still unsure why the cool aliens felt they needed his and a guy who look like Norm from Cheers help. They have been on Earth observing for a while, and have flown in space...what the hell can Robert Vaughn's character know about planets that they don't?

So, the film is kind of ruined by the whole good aliens because, once again, they are willing to help Earth so I am sure they would help the doomed planet too. Robert Vaughn's character almost seems pointless and tacked on to give this thing more run time rather than add anything interesting to the plot and I think the film could have been a bit more adult oriented and it would have been a more enjoyable watch. I mean, who wouldn't mind seeing more pleasure room!?!

I saw this movie at the theater when it was released -- in 1977 -- when I was in fifth grade. For a Saturday matinée, it was a nice diversion (compared to cleaning my room). I then saw the movie about 20 years later and wondered if I had taken any drugs that Saturday afternoon so long ago. Further research informed me of its Canadian origins; that probably answers LOTS of questions right there, but I don't want to say anything bad about our Canadian friends. I personally believe in the Ancient Astronauts premise, something many people passionately deny. Whether you believe in Ancient Astronauts or not, Starship Invasions will mostly likely fulfill all your expectations of what it would be like to have Canadian Aliens building subaquatic bases and terrorizing dumb farmers. I agree with the previous review: Christopher Lee should definitely have had talking scenes.

This one gets a 5/10 from me, due to its success as entertainment, while failing to be a viable main stream movie. You will not be turning to this movie if you are just looking for something 'impressive' to watch, but rather if you like 'that sort of thing'. A 1970s vintage B grade sci-fi drama (it leans much more towards drama than action or suspense). This one was actually from Canada and has a look and tone that are perceptibly not made-in-USA. The stars in the film are worth seeing, as they do the most with what they were given here. The same can be said for the special effects and props department; they make the most of their budget. Especially entertaining, was the use of a cake icing applicator as a medical device (icing on the B-movie cake? Yes). A movie like this is for someone that wants something different, and is willing to actually suspend disbelief for the duration and just see where it takes you.

Robert Vaughn and Christopher Lee are the embarrassed looking stars of this 1977 Canadian science fiction film, released in the UK under the title of Project Genocide. A group of rogue aliens known as the Legion of the Winged Serpent, from the Orion Constellation, lead by Captain Rameses (played by Christopher Lee in a gumby shaped ninja outfit), plan to colonize Earth fleeing from their home system, whose sun is about to explode. They plan to exterminate mankind in the process, using a device that affects the human mind from distance, causing people to become homicidal and suicidal. Many elements of the film, including the design of the robots and the winged serpent emblem the black-clad villains wear, are taken from real life UFO accounts. It was trounced at the Box Office by Close, Encounters of the Third Kind.

If you're running out of the great old 40's-'50's-'60's thriller/sci-fi clunkers that RiffTrax gloriously skewers (and you're not into the '80's-and-after "action" stuff that's just too dumb even to enjoy with riffs) have a look at this 1977 space entry. Your first danger signal is that it's written and directed by the same person---rarely a good sign, unless maybe Orson Welles was involved. (Minimal action + boring dialogue = bad movie.) Christopher Lee and Robert Vaugn are the name bait here, but their talents are wasted, especially in Lee's case: the aliens speak in voiceover, leaving their faces completely expressionless. This considerably drops the excitement level, which is low to begin with. Some unbelievably silly costuming drags it down even further. Slightly edited, it would have fared better as a kids' movie. But, the 'Trax guys have the zingers ready and it's one of their better efforts--for me, they turned what was an unwatchable sci-fi clunker into a pretty decent riff session. You may want to check it out.

Saw this turkey in the theater when it came out, not long after "Star Wars", and it quickly became a "MST3" with audience participation. The tag line for this bomb was "Why did they come"? When a cast member said that line in the film, my buddy stood up and shouted "Why did WE come?" which had the whole theater doubled over with laughter. The only redeeming factors for this film were the sexy female aliens in skimpy costumes and the unintentional laughs. Well, that and the theater was still offering real butter (not butter-flavored vegetable oil) on the popcorn. If you intend to watch this movie, gather some like-minded friends and prepare them for making snippy comments about it. Adult beverages will probably help.

I have to agree with the people who say this movie's bad, but disagree with the ones who say it isn't so bad it's good. This movie is completely hilarious! I can only hope warner pulled SI out of distribution because they're working on a 30th anniversary DVD edition with lots of making-of featurettes where the director details how much crack he was on while he was making it. (It's out of circulation now and amazingly it's going for 150 bucks on amazon, this movie. Fortunately my video store happens to have an old copy.) Wait till you see the part with the pocket calculator! In this movie a guy uses a 70s style pocket calculator to compute flightpaths for a flying saucer. I rather would have thought that interplanetary trajectories would be a bit complicated for a pocket calculator, but what do I know? I remember when SI came out pocket calculators were a huge fad, along with digital watches. Everybody was all, now we can finally achieve world peace, because there are pocket calculators.

And the overacting family in the huge car! "look! it's a flying saucer! For god's sake DON'T MAKE THEM ANGRY!!" And the robots who look like trash cans...

And the sadistic kid who squashes the tomato...

Believe it or not I remember seeing this thing 29 years ago when it came out. I was all, wow, that really sucked, mommy. And my mom was like, yeah, I don't know what to tell you. So hilariously stupid and trashy. it's got goofy flying saucers, lots and lots of cheesecake, christopher lee losing every scrap of his dignity, tons of mind-controlled people acting really zombified and stupid, space battles that look like they were lifted straight out of "mars attacks!", possibly the most ridiculous costumes of all time, and the real coup de grace -- one actually extraordinarily talented actress (Helen Shaver, the wife of the UFO researcher guy) caught in the middle of it all, trying valiantly to salvage this whole mess. oh, and the soundtrack kicks. and yet is completely inappropriate for the subject matter.

I know, I know, you probably didn't find this review helpful.

Yes, this movie really is worth seeing. Mainly because two big named actors Robert Vaughn and Christopher Lee agreed to act in a film with FX, set direction, and costumes that look like they were slapped together at a church picnic.

Really! This is a laugh riot! The plot: Vaughn is a renowned scientist and family man who's having his reputation damaged by speaking out publicly about UFOs. Apparently, Big Brother knows about the aliens and Earth and wants to keep the matter quiet.

Like all media the term UFO doesn't mean "Unidentified Flying Object" such a insects, reflections of light, or lens' glare. UFO mean "Extra Terrestrial Spacecraft." Actually aliens are on earth doing experiments at several well hidden bases. But they're so advanced they come in peace and just want to study us. However, evil alien Christopher Lee heads a coup of their bases. Lee's evil alien race used up all their planet's resourced and now wants to enslave/destroy humanity.

The surviving peaceful aliens reach out to Vaughn by literally landing on his front yard. Apparently only Vaughn is smart enough to develop a super weapon to defeat Lee.

The sheer fact that Vaughn is able to keep a straight face during these scenes is side splitting!!! What the heck was used to blackmail Vaughn and Lee into being in this movie.

I'd have to think once they saw the set which looks like a children's playhouse they would be kicking a screaming to get out of there! Some of these scenes are the funniest in motion picture history!

Apart from his stint among the ensemble of AIRPORT '77, 1977 was truly Annus Horribilis for Christopher Lee: his three genre efforts were easily among the worst exploitation outings of their vintage that I have come across! For the film under review, I sure hope that he did not accept it without even bothering to read the script – in the vain hope of matching the enormous success enjoyed by his frequent colleague Peter Cushing with the same year's STAR WARS (for the record, he would himself eventually join that most auspicious franchise – albeit with a quarter century's delay)!

Well, where to begin with this lamentable Canadian attempt at a space opera – which, more than actively ripping off the George Lucas blockbuster, takes a leaf (or two) from yet another 1977 sci-fi landmark, i.e. Steven Spielberg's CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND! In fact, here we have two sets of aliens, one which is evil and intent on destroying our planet (shades of Lee's own END OF THE WORLD, one of his afore-mentioned contemporaneous duds) and the other benign and seeking to thwart their plan (though, yet again, they still need to kidnap humans in order to have THEIR computer system fixed – WTF?!). To be fair to this one, it is not as deadly dull as the others – in fact, I ended up laughing out loud a number of times throughout!

Indeed, its unintentionally hilarious moments are perhaps too many to catalogue or remember even at a mere day's juncture, but I will try regardless: a dim-witted, middle-aged farmer is abducted and conditioned to engage in sexual intercourse with a voluptuous alien (which he cannot quite believe is happening to him!); the costume of the invaders looks like a full-body black condom (which Christopher Lee looks understandably miserable inhabiting – what is more, all the actors playing extraterrestrials have had to loop their lines in post-production, since the writer-producer-director apparently thought it cool to allow them to only voice their thoughts!); equally incomprehensible is the redundant presence of what can only be described as space escorts forever waiting in the wings – maybe they should have called the film STAR WHORES?!; a couple of inept intergalactic goons realize too late that their protective force-field was not switched on, so that they are blown to bits by the typically impulsive and paranoid U.S. military; hero Robert Vaughn (displaying a fixed baffled countenance throughout) is supposed to be an expert on UFOs, yet when one flies over his car he does not immediately notice it and has to be alerted to its presence by his kid daughter and, on realizing that he missed the all-important sighting, he just shrugs and keeps on driving; to recruit his computer whiz pal to the aliens' cause, he visits him one evening at home, yet this guy is still wearing his coat and tie as if they were his casual attire; the world's end comes by way of a suicide epidemic (not in itself a bad idea, but would it not just take too long to achieve?) triggered by a laser beam fired from way out in space; Vaughn's wife, depressed over his absence from home (she had already voiced her concern about how he was being unfaithful to her with UFOs!), goes from peeling onions for dinner to slashing her wrists in a split second; though supposedly emanating from outside our atmosphere, the spaceships are inexplicably seen emerging from the sea several times; Lee does very little here except press random buttons off a keyboard and aimlessly fiddle with knobs to feign his authority, check his wristwatch every now and again to God knows what ostensibly vital purpose, and operate the occasional flimsy ray gun (also worn on his wrist), etc.

Apparently, Lee himself though of STARSHIP INVASIONS as the nadir of his career…but, while I beg to differ (relatively speaking), it was certainly not a fluke of a low point! In ant case, it was shown under various titles to no effect: ALIEN ENCOUNTERS, ALIEN WARS and PROJECT GENOCIDE!

For years I had hoped to run across this film again as I find that certain images of the flying saucers have stuck in my imagination throughout my adult life. Actual recollections of storyline are nil as it seemed to be crude in its storytelling but my impression is that for whatever reason I believe this to be an important film in terms of its longterm effect on the impressionable minds (like mine at the time) who watched it on its release. Robert Vaughn who so memorably appeared in other low budget films (notably Teenage Caveman, a Corman classic), adds to the overall impression that here was something to be enjoyed throughout ones life. Despite its obvious flaws, you should overlook the films limitations and enjoy the fact that here is a film that at its core is about flying saucers. Apart from Forbidden Planet, no other film has remained with me with such a powerful grip on my imagination.

Aliens, who have established a base on Earth, welcome a race of saucer-flying folks lead by Christopher Lee. Lee starts an invasion of Earth by taking over the alien base and getting humans to commit suicide, one by one. This invasion could take a while! The good aliens must call on the talents of human Robert Vaughn (Man From UNCLE, Helsinki Formula) to help them defeat Lee and his minions in a deep-space battle royale. Oh yeah, all the aliens speak by telepathy (lots of voice-over work in this film). This movie is rife with cheesy elements, from the alien garb (dragon logos that look like they came off the side of a Chevy van) to the crucial plot points (Why do the aliens need Vaughn's knowledge of the planets' weight? Shouldn't they know that kind of stuff already?). Although bad, it's a lot of fun to watch. Very high on the MST3K riffing scale. Look for the cake icing gun that doubles as a brain rejuvenator, and the female alien butt-cheeks.

Rumor has it that Vaughn was misled about what a rotten film this would be. Well, I'm sure it would be convenient for him if that were true, but I suspect he had some idea what he was in for if he read the script. Can't blame that on him, though. This dreadful attempt to catch the extraordinary wave of sf enthusiasm splashed up by Star Wars (a phenomenon that is hard to imagine today, if only because everyone now seems to love science fiction movies) lacks even the so-bad-it's-good charm of Plan 9 or Robot Monster. The saucer models are painfully amateurish, the robot is... well... painfully amateurish, and the dialog really, actually, sounds like the actors were asked to make it up as they went along (and did a painfully amateurish job of it).

This is the kind of film that begs for lampooning in a review, but I'm sort of hoping not enough people have, or will have, seen it to make it worth the effort. So I'll leave the lampoon on the deck and just tell you straight and prosaic: This is a bad movie. You won't like it. It is not entertaining and has no good parts. Do absolutely anything else with your time instead of watching it. Why are you still even reading this? There is nothing you could possibly do to further waste your time than devote another millisecond to anything connected with this movie, including reading more of this review. Go away. Really. Now.

Absolutely the worst movie I've ever seen. My dad took me to see this movie when I was a kid. He was a huge sci-fi movie buff and he even said it was the worst he'd ever seen. The special effects looked like they were done by a 5-year-old child. This movie was exponentially worse than Ishtar, Heaven's Gate, and Howard The Duck! Yes, that bad.

My parents took me to this movie when I was a kid. At the time, my parents and I had very little in common in terms of taste in movies -- I was a "Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang" and "Love Bug" kind of guy; they were into Woody Allen and French Cinema.

But when it came to this movie, for once, we agreed: It sucked.

It left such a sour taste that a couple of months later, they had to drag my brother and me literally kicking and screaming to the movie theater to see something called "Star Wars."

I gave it an extra star because Christopher Lee.

Nasty aliens led by Ramses (Christopher Lee) plot to eliminate big-headed good aliens before extirpating humanity and taking over our planet. Quickly released to cash in on the popularity of 'Star Wars' and 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' and surfing the '70s fascination with UFOs, this Canadian production is generally awful. Christopher Lee wears an amusing flying-serpent adorned jumpsuit but, as aliens are telepathic, the usually excellent actor never speaks. Robert Vaughn plays a UFO-expert with his standard one-note delivery and an unfortunately constantly-clad Penthouse Pet of the Year Victoria Johnson rounds out the cast as some kind of alien. The 'big-head' make-up is pretty good but, in the aftermath of 'Star Wars', the 50's-style special effects look primitive and amateurish (although the UFO scenes often worked for me because they resembled the equally primitive and amateurish looking 'real pictures' of flying saucers that were making the tabloid rounds at the time). An odd attention to detail saves the film from the absolute bottom-of-the-barrel: many of the silly looking flourishes are based on 'eye-testimony' of 'actual' UFU abductees (eg the pointy androids, the flying serpent emblem). I went to this film when it first hit the theatres (the ads on TV looked promising) and remember being both staggeringly disappointed and curious as to how Christopher Lee would explain his presence in this space-turkey to his frequent co-star, Peter Cushing, who had recently achieved action-figure status after starring in 'Star Wars'.

Some trivia: Parts of Starship Invasions was filmed on the campus of the University of Toronto, in particular some of the UFO scenes were shot on the grounds of the then-new Robarts Library, facing the also very new Innis College (where Marshall McLuhan was teaching) In this film, Robert Vaughn basically plays the part of Dr. Ernie Seaquist, dean of Astrophysics at the U of T, and who, at that time, had pinned to the cork board outside his office a double page spread from the National Enquirer with an article quoting Prof. Seaquist and sporting the banner title with something like, "U of T Professor says there IS life in outer space" -- he said a journalist had called one day, asked him that question, so he explained the Drake Equation and how space was so unimaginably large, he'd be very surprised if we were alone.

Sure enough, his quote does appear in the two-page article. As the last line. We were told in the Astrophysics dept that our projects could be on any subject, "Except astrology and UFOs."

Okay, its been awhile since I saw this movie, but it is burned in my memory as the worst movie I have ever seen. It seems whoever wrote the script tried to bring in every hokey UFO/Aliens/whatever theory they could dredge up, from aliens building the pyramids to the Bermuda Triangle. I swear, the 'research' for this moving was from reading the Weekly World News.

And the so-called special effects. The 'Suicide Ray' was an obviously toy spaceship circling badly around a globe with an electrical arc going from a metal ball on a post coming out of the top of the flying saucer to the globe. Other flying saucers were obviously just thrown like a frisbee and filmed that way as 'cool flying sfx.'

All I can figure is that they were TRYING to be hokey. You can't get this bad without real effort.

A film with some great special effects shots and a few not so great. A film with neat ideas yet, crisp film cinematography and color. This is one of those popcorn and coke matinee films which i saw a zillion times when it ran on WGN and WKBD in syndication. The film features well known actors. In another version i thought I read CHRISTOPHER LEE says his lines. There may have been another version. STARSHIP INVASIONS came out as a "b" movie yet garnered a cult following on tv. It also was one of those post star wars films that capitalized off ufo myths tied in with ancient astronaughts like HANGAR 18. All of this makes for a fun story and has been fodder for years for writers searching for fiction story material. With some revamping the film could have been better. I sense budgetary constraints. As a boy I liked it and loved the escapism. Fans of older science fiction will enjoy this piece for a fun afternoon or evening. Fans of LARENCE OF ARABIA don't expect DAVID LEAN quality here. Expect escapism.