There are some films that are so bad that they come back out the other side and become so bad they are good. Or at the very least funny - given time. This film is not one of them.
It's not like there isn't any effort involved in the making of this film either. Ron Perlman and Angelica Houston pop up as supporting characters - not that they are very good or have that much to do. So much so, you wonder why they even picked this film to be in. Equally the costuming for the most part is still pretty interesting. Some of the visual effects might now have been funny because they look so B grade if not for the constant abysmal dialogue peppered throughout the entire film. The nonsensical plot and padding out of the script with irrelevant and poorly executed sequences really make this film drag terribly.
It's not like they weren't making decent sci-fi films during the same period either. Ice Pirates hit cinemas one year after Return of the Jedi (1983) and seven after A New Hope (1977). Alien screened in 1979 and Blade Runner 1982. These films changed the face of filmmaking and none of these films have dated as badly as The Ice Pirates. Possibly the problem is because The Ice Pirates is trying to be a space-comedy-adventure: an extraordinarily difficult thing to well and this film fails on all three counts.
That and they decided to go nuts with the synthesizers. Which just seems to date films from the 80s awfully.
When I turned on the TV I was hoping for a bit of a romp or at least something that would make me laugh because it was so bad. Unless you are going to watch it for some interesting costuming please don't waste your time like I did.
It's not like there isn't any effort involved in the making of this film either. Ron Perlman and Angelica Houston pop up as supporting characters - not that they are very good or have that much to do. So much so, you wonder why they even picked this film to be in. Equally the costuming for the most part is still pretty interesting. Some of the visual effects might now have been funny because they look so B grade if not for the constant abysmal dialogue peppered throughout the entire film. The nonsensical plot and padding out of the script with irrelevant and poorly executed sequences really make this film drag terribly.
It's not like they weren't making decent sci-fi films during the same period either. Ice Pirates hit cinemas one year after Return of the Jedi (1983) and seven after A New Hope (1977). Alien screened in 1979 and Blade Runner 1982. These films changed the face of filmmaking and none of these films have dated as badly as The Ice Pirates. Possibly the problem is because The Ice Pirates is trying to be a space-comedy-adventure: an extraordinarily difficult thing to well and this film fails on all three counts.
That and they decided to go nuts with the synthesizers. Which just seems to date films from the 80s awfully.
When I turned on the TV I was hoping for a bit of a romp or at least something that would make me laugh because it was so bad. Unless you are going to watch it for some interesting costuming please don't waste your time like I did.