FQF

I'm thinking I may need to rename these posts something like "SATWFQ" - as in "Somewhere Around the Weekend Film Quiz." It's been a busy couple of days so I missed Friday. Ah well. I'm here now.

As I mentioned in the comments to the last post, I honestly thought nobody would get this week's movie, 1980's Battle Beyond the Stars. It's too small, too random, too obscure. But no. Tracy knew it and even knew that George Peppard of Breakfast at Tiffany's and The A-Team is in it (and his character's name is Space Cowboy). Wow. Kudos to Tracy. I know the picture below is probably not exactly what you had in mind with George on the beach - but it does fit the letter of the law so here you go:



Anyway, Battle Beyond the Stars is a low-budget sci-fi retelling of The Magnificent Seven which was a Western retelling of Akira Kurasawa's Seven Samurai. It was also redone (in a way) in Pixar's A Bug's Life. The set-up is basically this: pacifists are about the be invaded so they recruit tough people to fight for them. It was produced by Roger Corman which, as many of you know, means it was low-budget and schlocky. I was about seven or eight when we rented it on video from Country Time Video in American Falls, Idaho and my older brother and I watched it a lot. We knew it wasn't as well done or as fun as Star Wars but we didn't care. We'd take our space ships and laser gun battles where we could get them. In doing a little research about the film now ( you know, Wikipedia), I find out that the movie was actually James Cameron's big break in the movie biz. The original art director got fired and James, a lowly model maker, got promoted. Who would have thought a movie with effects like this:


would lead to a movie with effects like this:



Out of small and simple things, eh?

So anyway, BBTS is an acquired taste to be sure. It's strictly for people who enjoy movies filmed on pure Velveeta and can appreciate the mole-speckled Richard Thomas as a leading man. John-Boy in Space!

This week's quote is a slow pitch right down the middle. Enjoy!

"I mean, listen, I know it might sound a little corny, maybe even a little femme, but I find something so resplendent in the simplicity of Nicholas Sparks' writing, you know what I mean?"