BATTLE BEYOND THE STARS (1980) ***

In this space age version of The Seven Samurai, Richard (The Waltons) Thomas gathers together a ragtag bunch of space pirates to defend his planet from the evil blue faced John (Enter the Dragon) Saxon.  George (The A-Team) Peppard, Robert (Superman 3) Vaughn and Sybil (The Howling 2) Danning are the humans helping Thomas, but there’s also a lizard man and five white omnipotent dudes too.  Peppard gets to show the aliens how to eat a hot dog, Danning gets to show off her ample cleavage and Saxon gets new body parts grafted every five minutes, but it’s Vaughn who takes the acting honors.  (Vaughn was also in The Magnificent Seven, itself a remake of The Seven Samurai).  This was producer Roger Corman’s most expensive movie and he re-used many of the sets and effects for many later movies.  He also got a list of future Hollywood heavyweights for his crew too.  James Cameron was the art director, Gale Ann Hurd was an assistant, and James Horner did the score.  The three of them would go on to make Aliens six years later.  Screenplay by John (Alligator) Sayles.