Starcrash

Starcrash (1978) is a wild Italian-American space opera you can watch online on iFILM. Director Luigi Cozzi rushed it out a year after the first Star Wars, and it shows: rubber sets, laser beams in every color, and a heroine who fights the galaxy in a metal bikini.

Smuggler Stella Star and her partner Akton get pulled off a prison sentence for one job — find the Emperor's missing son and blow up Count Zarth Arn's secret superweapon. Caroline Munro pilots through the stars, a young David Hasselhoff swings a glowing sword, and Christopher Plummer plays the Emperor as if he's reciting Shakespeare.

This is no blockbuster. It's a perfect slice of low-budget seventies trash, clumsy and cheap and oddly lovable. If you collect so-bad-it's-good sci-fi and miss the days of hand-painted star fields, this one's a treat. Stream Starcrash (1978) online on iFILM.