TOMB OF NOSTALGIA: GALAXINA (1980)

GALAXINA (1980)

(Remember, clicking the highlighted links brings you to other reviews and articles here at The Movie Madhouse!)

Galaxina is a low budget 1980 space spoof that would normally have been long forgotten except that it is remembered for being the first starring role of 1979 Playmate of the Year, Dorothy Stratten, who was savagely murdered by her estranged husband two months after the film’s release. Stratten played the title role, a beautiful female robot that space cop Thor (Stephen Macht) falls in love with and then has to be rescued when a mission goes awry.

Without the infamy of Stratten being a cast member, Galaxina is 90 slow-paced minutes of flat jokes, cheap production value and so-so SPFX elevated slightly by some 80s nostalgia. It is directed very by-the-numbers by William Sachs (The Incredible Melting Man) and he fails to give it the energy a homage/spoof like this needs. As he is script writer as well, Sachs is also to blame for the lack of laughs or cleverness the film is vacant of. One also has to question the logic of a movie that hires and promotes a Playboy Playmate of the Year as the star and then keeps her completely covered up the whole time. The flick also stars Ronald J. Knight as the robotic villain Ordric, who was voiced a la Darth Vader by Percy Rodrigues and comedian Avery Schreiber appears as the ship’s captain, Cornelius Butt.

Overall, this is a dull flick sadly made infamous due to the tragic death of it’s beautiful star. It does have some nostalgic meaning to me personally, though, as I actually saw this flick with friends at the long gone Fox Theater in Hackensack back in 1980.

MZNJ EXTRA TRIVIA: frequent John Carpenter director of photography Dean Cundey lensed Galaxina between The Fog and Escape From New York. Even cinematographers have to eat.

-MonsterZero NJ

2 sexy, sassy androids that deserved a better movie.