5.8 | / 10 |
Users | 2.5 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
In the far future water is the most valuable substance. Two space pirates are captured, sold to a princess, and recruited to help her find her father who disappeared when he found information dangerous to the rulers. A real Space Opera with sword fights, explosions, fighting robots, monsters, bar fights and time warps.
Starring: Robert Urich, Mary Crosby, Michael D. Roberts, Anjelica Huston, John MatuszakSci-Fi | Insignificant |
Comedy | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.77:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 0.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.0 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
What can one say about The Ice Pirates? It's certainly one of the least likely titles yet to be
selected for a Blu-ray release by the Warner Archive Collection ("WAC"). WAC takes a lot of
heat for its Blu-ray selections, especially from fans who think it should specialize in film noir,
but all of WACs choices (yes, even the musicals) have been a result of fan requests. It turns out
that Ice Pirates, too, has its fan base, and WAC is obliging them. Obviously I am not one of their
number, but having more than my share of soft spots for films that others consider vile, I'm not
about to criticize someone else's cult favorite. Still, for anyone contemplating a "blind buy" of Ice
Pirates, consider this review a public service. (If you're already a fan, you may as well skip
directly to the technical evaluation, which is favorable.)
Ice Pirates' chief distinction is that it preceded Mel Brooks's Spaceballs by three years, thereby
scoring the lead in big-screen parodies of Star Wars and other space-themed films. But Brooks,
who has never been known for subtlety, looks like a master of nuance next to the creators of Ice
Pirates. Drawing elements not only from the George Lucas franchise, but also from TV's
original Battlestar
Galactica, Alien, The Road Warrior and other sources, co-writers Stuart
Raffill (who also directed) and Stanford Sherman created what plays like an amateur sketch
revue strung together by the barest outline of a story. The costumes are a melange of themes and
period, the sets often look like converted parking garages (or leftovers from the worst Star Trek
episodes), and the humor is so juvenile that it makes Spaceballs' jibes about the size of one's
Schwartz sound urbane.
Whatever one thinks of the result, one can't assume that it happened by accident, because Ice
Pirates was made by professionals who presumably knew what they were doing. Director/co-writer Raffill helmed the original Philadelphia Experiment, which was also released in 1984 and
has justly became a minor classic of the time travel sub-genre. Raffill went on to direct various
family films, including The New Swiss Family Robinson for Disney. Co-writer Sherman penned
the previous year's space fairytale Krull, which was a minor
success and, though dated in its
effects, still holds up as a fantasy film. The cast was led by Robert Urich of TV's Vega$ and
Spenser for Hire, and included future Oscar
winner Anjelica Huston, future Hellboy Ron
Perlman, Dallas' Mary Crosby (daughter of Bing) and the legendary John
Carradine. The film
even managed to sell $14 million worth of tickets, which meant a lot more 32 years ago (and
exceeded the budget of $9 million).
Whatever one thinks of its overall merits, The Ice Pirates boasts a professional cinematographer
in Matthew F. Leonetti, whose extensive fantasy and sci-fi credits include the original
Poltergeist, the James Cameron-produced Strange Days and two Star Trek films (First Contact
and Insurrection). Then again, Leonetti
also shot Dumb and Dumber To, which
The Ice Pirates
might legitimately claim as a forebear.
For its 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray release, The Ice Pirates has been newly transferred at 2k
from an interpositive by Warner's MPI facility. Substantial restoration in the digital domain has
compensated for the age of the source, producing a fine-grained image with no visible damage.
The clarity and detail are remarkable for a such a low-budget feature, allowing one to appreciate
(if that's the right word) the junky aesthetic of the space vehicles, Templar palaces and other
assorted locales. The space effects are limited by the optical and matte techniques of the era, but
they probably look about as good as they can. (Ice Pirates is the kind of movie where cheap-looking effects fit right in.) The colors are
surprisingly vivid, primarily because Leonetti uses
washes of red, blue, green and yellow light for atmosphere. An extended desert scene looks more
ordinary, and the approach to Wendon's lair borrows the old Star Trek gimmick of shrouding an
alien environment in fog, which is cheap.
WAC has mastered The Ice Pirates at their usual high average bitrate of 34.99 Mbps. Whatever
one's opinion of the film, the visual presentation can't be faulted.
Contrary to the information listed at IMDb, The Ice Pirates was released to theaters in mono, not stereo, and WAC's Blu-ray reproduces the original mono track, formatted in lossless DTS-HD MA 2.0 with identical left and right channels. The track is in good condition, free of noise or distortion, and its style matches that of the film, which is to say that it sounds like a bad science fiction movie. The dialogue is clear enough, as are the sounds of laser blasters, rocket engines, the clanking metallic movements of the robots and other typical space adventure effects. The mock-heroic score by Bruce Broughton (who would later get to score a superior intergalactic adventure with Lost in Space) is well-matched to the events onscreen.
The only extra is a trailer (1080p; 1.78:1; 2:20), which is all that was offered on Warner's 2005 DVD of The Ice Pirates. With a tongue-in-cheek voiceover narration by someone who sounds an awful lot like veteran character actor William Schallert, the trailer is funnier than anything in the film. ("See depravity in zero gravity!").
Order The Ice Pirates if you're a fan. You'll receive a superior presentation of the film.
Otherwise, I recommend you steer clear and set course for a different galaxy very far away.
Limited Edition - 2,000 copies
1983
Collector's Edition
1996
1990
1990
Buck Rogers in the 25th Century: Awakening
1979
1990
1983
Roger Corman's Cult Classics
1978
1955
1980
1989
Uchu kara no messeji
1978
2001
1964
1989
1996
Monsters from the Moon
1953
Space Mission to the Lost Planet / Vampire Men of the Lost Planet
1970
10th Anniversary Special Edition
2008
1957