Roger Corman produced many films that reused the sets, special effects, and score from Battle Beyond the Stars. This one was the first. Not only is it a Star Wars knockoff, it’s one of those early ‘80s movies that had the word “Raiders” in title to cash in on Raiders of the Lost Ark.
A little boy (David Mendenhall, the kid from Over the Top) stows away aboard the spaceship of a band of space pirates. He proves himself to be useful to the crew and they eventually take a shine to him. Trouble brews when “The Company” sends a robot ship after them to blast them out of the stars.
The band of space pirates is comprised of an OK band of riff raff. Vince Edwards is the leader of the gang whose only memorable trait is that he drinks beer (thank God there’s still beer in the future) while piloting his ship in the midst of a space dogfight. Thom (Hawk from Buck Rogers) Christopher fares better as the alien with psychic powers. Luca Bercovici is the generic space cowboy of the group.
Space Raiders was directed by Howard Cohen, the man who gave us Saturday the 14th. It’s all rather harmless, forgettable, intermittently entertaining Saturday afternoon drivel. Even if it seems overly familiar and more than a tad cheesy (the lizard guy is well done, even though the characters pronounce his name about six different ways), it moves at a steady clip, which is appreciated. It also manages to have more heart than most of these things, thanks to Mendenhall’s performance.
Sure, we’ve seen Star Wars rip-offs with alien cantina scenes, space battles, and long establishing shots of slow-moving spacecraft, but this is the only one I can think of that features Dick Miller as a sleazy used spaceship dealer, so that at the very least is worth something.
AKA: Star Child.
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