User reviews

Right, well I had the opportunity to sit down and watch the 1996 movie "Space Truckers" for the first time ever here in 2021. I didn't even know about the movie prior to now.

So of course, I was somewhat surprised to see the likes of Dennis Hopper and Charles Dance in a movie such as this. Needless to say, of course, that I just had to sit down and watch it.

And yeah, "Space Truckers" was every bit as corny and campy as the title suggest. But it was actually an enjoyable and watchable movie. I found the movie, as written by Stuart Gordon and Ted Mann, to actually be rather entertaining. There was just something truly unique about the whole cheesy feel of the movie.

"Space Truckers" is a lean-back-and-munch-on-popcorn kind of movie. It is not a movie that you should take overly serious, though it does provide good entertainment.

Visually then "Space Truckers" was actually rather interesting. There were lots of nice designs and concept ideas. Sure, the effects weren't always up there to match the ideas, but they worked as intended. And I do love the scenes where you see the harnesses suspending the actors floating around. It seemed like the post-production people didn't even bother to cut them out of the scenes.

This 1996 sci-fi adventure comedy has a pretty interesting cast ensemble, with the likes of Dennis Hopper, Charles Dance, Debi Mazar, Sean Lawlor, George Wendt and Barbara Crampton.

I can warmly recommend that you sit down to watch "Space Truckers", should you get the chance to do so. Especially if you enjoy light sci-fi movies that don't really take themselves overly serious.

My rating of director Stuart Gordon's 1996 "Space Truckers" lands on a six out of ten stars. You haven't seen everything before you've seen a square pig.

What an unusual, but never before thought of idea! It gets big points for originality by reviving the old days of 70s "truckin' man" flicks and updating the genre into a sci-fi visual feast that compares closely to STARSHIP TROOPERS! Imagine if Bo and Luke Duke were flying around in their orange coaster without jumping over obstacles, and avoiding capture by Sheriff Roscoe! There has to be a good sense of fantasy surrounding this old fad. Well, I'm not gonna get all hyped up about SPACE TRUCKERS, which is mainly your regular dosage of outer space mayhem. The simple action looks as good as the rich visual quality, but don't take it too hard. It plunges into the offbeat stage, and loses its sci-fi luster to some needless "hot" sexuality (added by the lack of gravity), and a captivity scene. I can tell that the minds of script writers skirted around the explicit subject matter, just to prevent any further boiling on the offensive side. You know, the two lovebirds running and floating around in their undies. And could it be that there are two different endings? Campy as it will sound, there is reason to have fun with it after all. Okay by me.

Space Truckers is a perfect B-Movie. It has a title which makes anyone cringe, and a lightweight plot with no originality, except perhaps the concept of a square pig. That said, as long as you watch it with no expectations you will be pleasantly surprised. The quality of acting is generally good, with a competent cast (particularly Charles Dance) managing to avoid laughing their way through the script. The ending however is almost unwatchable, yet I can't escape from the feeling that this film is entertaining, which is all that any movie should aim to do.

This is a good B-Grade film, and there are many reasons to watch it.

First, and the reason I watched it: Debi Mazar is gorgeous and gets plenty of quality screen time.

Second: the story line is interesting and imaginative.

Third: the special effects are more than decent when one considers the mid-range success this film's creators would have been aiming for.

Fourth: the acting from the main pair (Charles Dance & Dennis Hopper) was spot on - considering this film was meant to be a space adventure/comedy.

Fifth: the design of ships and cargo carriers was very good.

Sixth: almost all of the dialogue was well written.

Seventh: the film should provide many laughs all the way through.

So why the terrible 4.9 rating? Is the film badly edited and hard to follow? Absolutely not. On the contrary this side of things was very well handled, and the film is very easy to follow with no errors of continuance.

Did the film suffer from bad casting? Definitely not, and both Charles and Dennis would be irreplaceable in my opinion. Remember Dennis Hopper's terrific one liners in Water World? Well, he repeats that performance here in Space Truckers. Besides, we get to see Dennis play a heroic character for a change!

Does the film suffer from a lack of character development like some reviewers have said? Utter rubbish! I can't say much here that would not give elements of the outcome of the story away, but I will say that if you miss character development in this movie then you didn't watch it properly.

And one last thing; this movie is close to the mark as far as the reality of our world is concerned. Technology has created power for some people that we should all be very concerned about, and while Space Truckers is a comedy, I felt it hit very close to home on a few fronts.

What would happen if Star Wars was rewritten to focus only on Han, Luke, and a girl, only Han was older and Luke was snottier, and the director was a crazed cowboy redneck? It would suck, that's what. But it would also be damn entertaining.

Watched for the 1st time in 2021, and will all the rubbish coming out the last few years, it was so refreshing to see this fun and dumb film.

Yes its cheesey yes the effects are from the 70's

the cast is great, i cant beleive they got charles dance to say one of the funniest most ridiculous lines i ever heard, you'l know when you hear it.

Great film.

This is one of those hybrid movies, grafting together a sci-fi space movie and a blue-collar trucker movie. Actually, it's not all that bad a concept but that's all it is -- a concept in search of a plot. The better-than-expected cast helps even though most of them appear to be slumming it.

Stephen Dorff spends the central part of the movie stripped down and squeezed into a pair of tight black undershorts while he's bound in chains with his arms stretched above his head. These scenes should please those fraternity house guys who really, really enjoyed being Pledgemaster during Hell Week.

And isn't it heartening that Mr. Dorff hasn't been talked into shaving his chest?

B-Movie GOLD! A ridiculous story about truckers in space dealing with super deathbots and a cybernetic warlord with a pull start penis that may as well have been a modified weed whacker that he threatens Mazar with. It is absolutely nuts, the effects are crazy, the story barely even tries to make sense and you get bad space effects and super visible wire work all over the place.

If that sounds like a fun time, then this is the movie for you! Personally, I couldn't stop laughing at it.

Okay,

I realize that there are some doubting Thomas's out there...I was one of them...but then I saw this masterpiece of celluloid.

All I can say is that the scene in which George Wendt gets sucked out of the spaceship BY HIS A** left me trembling. I sometimes sit bolt upright in my bed, screaming like an old man on a proctologist's table thinking about it. If the director is reading this... I would pay to be an extra in the sequel.

OK, this is not the best movie in the world, but it's pretty funny. It's clearly tongue in cheek and doesn't take itself seriously at all. You just have to watch it and enjoy its cheesiness. I mean, before this, Stuart Gordon wrote Body Snatchers, Castle Freak and The Dentist. You would probably expect some sort of body horror extravaganza, not the pastel colored corporate world of space transportation in the near future. But the thing is fun. It's like Super Mario Brothers mixed with Hardware.

Bottom line: it's not good, but it's not bad either. And it's silly fun.

Like Stuart Gordon's other venture into science fiction territory, the underrated and ill-fated ROBOT JOX, this is a nifty little film that was plagued by production difficulties and failed to find a theatrical distributor, which is a shame because its quite an enjoyable viewing experience. Everyone in the cast has fun in this , with Dennis Hopper delivering some unexpected and funny bits of dialog, Debi Mazar and Stephen Dorff providing reliable 2nd banana support and Charles Dance having the time of his life with his horny half-metal madman. This Excellent DVD offers a chance to see this little sleeper in a great looking print with a fascinating and funny commentary by the Director. This film delivers exactly what its titles proclaims.

You've got to be kidding. This movie sucked for the sci-fi fans. I would only recommend watching this only if you think Armageddon was good.

I have to respect movies which promise something and deliver exactly that. When I rented this (I was bored tonight) I had absolutely no expectations for some great piece of art, another Star Wars or Aliens. It was, however, a very cute and often amusing piece of sci-fi satire. (probably my favorite bit was how the truck's voice was a redneck woman, instead of the usual authoritative british guy) If you try to take it seriously, of course you'll hate it. But if you rent it because you want to see a beer & popcorn B-movie, then it's a REALLY good B-movie. I may have lost 90 minutes of my life and gained no new insights on the meaning of the universe, but I did have a good time.

I must admit that this is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. I thought Dennis Hopper had a little more taste than to appear in this kind of yeeeecchh. If this is supposed to be funny then I gotta look around for a new sense of humor. If you're thinking of buying this movie you'd better think again.

Gloriously insipid, it's a wonder to think that /this/ movie was Ireland's big chance at making big-budget films. It looks just like a real movie, but it's not. It's ridiculous. If you liked Spaceballs, here's a movie just like it, only different. See it.

Square pigs as a way of efficiently utilizing cargo space is the one and only clever moment in "Space Truckers". Believe it or not, Dennis Hopper has done worse, see "The American Way", but this movie is way up there on the "cream of the crap" scale. I think the best way to describe the viewing experience is that "Space Truckers" will please no one. Too cartoon-like too be taken seriously, an almost total lack of humor, and poor character development, virtually assures disappointment. The beer and popcorn crowd might tolerate one viewing, but all others have been warned to avoid "Space Truckers" for all of the above reasons. - MERK

The only thing that makes this movie funny is the fact that they actually got Dennis Hopper and Stephen Dorff to be in it. They must have lost a bet with somebody, and a pretty big one.

The script is so/so. The dialogue is so/so. The special effects are cheesy, but unintentionally, so. In Gordon's "Fortress" or "Robot Jox," the special effects were pulled off quite well and looked really great. But why on earth would he opt to go for realism, in a movie titled, "Space Truckers?!"

The production design was intentionally cheesy, and that's the part of the movie I loved. "Square Pigs." "Zero Gravity Beer." That, friends, is comedy.

Not quite self-aware enough. But good for an afternoon rent when you think all straight-to-video is garbage. 6 of 10.

If you're one of those people who doesn't really like Sci-fi because of their sometimes far-fetched ideas and surreal world perspectives, you better stay away as far as you can from Stuart Gordon's Space Truckers! It truly is an absurd space adventure, stuffed with eccentric characters, colorful kitsch and ludicrous plot-twists. In all honesty…I probably never would have cared for this film, if it wasn't for Gordon's name on the credits. This guy comes pretty close to being a genius in the horror genre, with undeniable milestones like ‘From Beyond' and ‘Re-Animator' on his résumé. Apparently, Stuart Gordon likes his humor as twisted as possible! He already went completely over the comedy-top once (with Re-Animator) but, with the slight difference that the bizarre humor was effective there. Something that isn't really the case for Space Truckers…most of the gags lead nowhere and the entirely exaggerated atmosphere only works in small doses. In the end, all that remains is an occasionally amusing but completely unnecessary mess. Dennis Hopper and Charles Dance (or at least a semi Charles Dance) are always a joy to look at and the still stunning Barbara Crampton has a small role near the end of the film. Crampton was Stuart Gordon's regular heroine in previous horror films. The story of Space Truckers is as silly as they come. Dennis Hopper plays the self-made loner who's fed up with his job. Who wouldn't be when you're transporting pigs across the galaxy for a company named Interpork? He sees his change to flee while bringing his muse to earth. They float into Space-pirates and find out their cargo is meant to wipe out half the universe! Stuart Gordon wisely returned to making horror again after this little escapade. Since Space Truckers, he already made the sublime `King of the Ants' and the absolutely brilliant `Dagon'

The plot: Space truckers run into problems with space pirates, space politicians, and killer robots (who, technically, are not space robots).

Space Truckers is essentially a low budget, B movie space opera that's a parody of low budget, B movie space operas. It's full of cheesy lines, cheesy set design, and cheesy special effects. In fact, it's such a cheesy movie that it sometimes makes The Rocky Horror Picture Show look like The Godfather. At its heart, this movie is stupid, pointless, mindless, and has nothing to say about the human condition, except that it's funny to laugh at bad movies. If you're a Stuart Gordon fan, that's probably enough for you to enjoy this. As an added bonus, it's got a great cast, including many B movie veterans.

It can be enjoyed as either a so-bad-it's-good B movie or a clever parody. Like most Stuart Gordon films, it has rather narrow demographic appeal, and people who are not genre fans (or Stuart Gordon fans) are likely to hate it. I love Stanley Kubrick as much as the next film snob, but the world also needs ridiculous movies like Space Truckers and The Toxic Avenger. In fact, this movie is something of a marriage between Troma and New World Pictures. If you're unfamiliar with those studios -- or you dislike their copious output -- I'd strongly warn you away from this film. Space Truckers was reviled by the critics, rejected by audiences, and thought to be unintentionally funny by B movie fans. Well, for the true believers, this is an awesome movie, and nothing will ever convince us otherwise. Such is the cult of Stuart Gordon!

Dennis Hopper stars in this lightweight, low-budget space thriller with Hopper as a space rig trucker who accidentally ends up having to try to save earth from organic-robotic domination. A year after his evil performance in the big block-buster flop in Kevin Costners's underrated Waterworld and two years after Hopper's big block-buster evil persona with Keanu Reeve in Speed, Hopper gets to work in an obvious amateur movie as the hero that has some dazzling creative cheap sci fi set designs and a decent if not amazing plot that actually holds together relatively well. Yes, it is cheap, yet for the estimated budget of $25 million instead of the major block budget price ten times more, it provides an acceptable Barbarella (1968) production quality. Overall, a difficult to really pin down quality-wise, but by the end, it rates as an entertaining effort worth at least one afternoon or late-night viewing with a high-end seven out of ten. Do not expect greatness though.

There are things I really like about this movie (Stephen Dorff), and things I don't like (Dennis Hopper). I will also comment about the stupid restraint system so that future film makers won't copy it. It wouldn't have cost any more to make far more realistic restraints, so you wonder how this got by. Like Total Recall, though, you wonder why anyone would allow or be stupid enough to use a gun in a sealed space station or ship. Whenever I see this, it bugs me because the results of a bullet going through a window or dome is so obviously devastating, that I can't imagine anyone being that stupid. It always knocks a point off in my rating.