Starquest II (1996 Video)
1/10
It may break your mind but not in a good way.
22 July 2007
Warning: Spoilers
The description of Mind Breakers (The title of this movie in it's Australian release) on the back of the VHS container is quite misleading. It makes the movie sound like it will be a dodgy and innocuous Thing/Ten little Indians variation with the last survivors of the human race trapped on a spacecraft fleeing the earth getting picked of one by one by one of their own, who might not be human. It doesn't mention the meat of the plot which involves the humans being used in experiment in copulation by some mysterious (and horny) aliens. If it had I mightn't watched it not having acquired a taste for having my sci-fi b-movies spliced with soft core pornography. The presence of real actors such as Robert Englund and Adam Baldwin here is a little surprising- okay, they're not hugely respected actors or stars and generally appear in B-movies but I would have though they were both above soft core porn like this.

Basically 70% of the movie consists of soft core porn scenes or stock footage from other sci-fi and action movies clumsily reinserted into the movie with some pitiful attempts to fit in to the narrative. I didn't realise to now Roger Croamn was involved. The opening 5 minutes of the movie is a compilation of snippets from different movies clumsily spliced together with a bit of voice over narration- a mixture of space battles, some contemporary war stuff, strip club sequences and what looked like some kind of genetic experimentation and surgery footage. I'm not sure but I think this was meant to indicate the breakdown of civilisation on earth as we know it and/or be the nightmares of the main characters. It is really hard to tell. Later on there is a lengthy space battle that clearly came from a different movie awkwardly stuck into the movie in between sex scenes and more of the same footage from the introduction used when the aliens are giving a lecture of the downfall of humanity (Which is awfully preachy for a movie like this). Each of the characters is given an introduction which seems to consist of snippets from other movies the actor/actresses were in- one guy was clearly in a few Kick-boxing movies.

Basically a bunch of humans, consisting of scientists, soldiers and exotic dancers, wake up on this space ship with no idea of how they got there. They soon meet some aliens, who have taken the form of humans, lead by Robert Englund who is pretending to be a priest of some sort, who corral them into a breeding experiment, which is basically an excuse for a whole lot of sex. The ostensible reason of this initially is to rebuild the human race but with only 8 people that is going to be one limited gene pool. It is later revealed that the aliens have some plan which involves interbreeding with the humans, I forget why. There is a confused subplot about a faction of the alien dudes wanting to stop the experiment to maintain genetic purity. It makes less sense than you might think as the only alien seen to get down and dirty with the humans is the one who wants to kill them all because her faction is opposed to the interbreeding thing. There is one head scratching scene with her and Englund, the only two aliens onboard the ship at this point- the other having been randomly killed by an android (Don't ask), in which he explains how he thinks one of them must be from the rival faction but doesn't seem to come to the logical conclusion. Given he presumably knows he isn't the guilty party himself it leaves him with a suspect pool of one and he is warning her he knows. I'm generously presuming this is maybe meant to be a warning on the part of Englund to alien chick to quit it already rather than the writers for this thing being the dumbest people ever (It brings to mind Danny De Vito's attempt to write a two character murder mystery in Don't Throw Momma From the Train). Anyway, there is a whole bunch of screwing, most of the characters die and there are some really bad make effects for the alien transformations and killings- I was starting to fall asleep toward the end of the movie so my memories of the conclusion I kind of hazy.

There one or two weird bits of note relating to the alien tech on the ship. You only have to mention what food you want to eat and a plate of that food will instantly appear in your hand. There is a scene in which Robert Englund orders a plate of meatloaf and mashed potato 'the way his mother made it' and gets it right down to the amount of garlic his mother put in the spuds. Other than this one godlike piece of technology none of the rest of the equipment the aliens use is quite as impressive- they can instantly create matter based on the sensory memories in someone's head but only if it is in the form of food. Strangely enough nobody else is seen to take advantage of this wonderful device- I guess they were all to busy screwing. The other strange device are these lasers that pop out of the ceiling the second that anyone dies and burn the corpse to dust (Leaving the clothing). Why, I'm not sure. I'm also not sure why if they have sensors and weaponry that sophisticated they don't just use it as a security system.

Basically, unless you want to see some generic soft core porn involving Adam Baldwin intercut with shots of a leering Robert Englund or you're some kind of sick, sick masochist stay away.
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