Rumble in the galactic jungle

Press, 16 April 1979, Page 10

Rumble in the galactic jungle

Oh boy. kids, a new space movie! Hang on to your turbolasers, keep Red Leadet on your tail, here we go again.

“Battlestar Galactica” has' clunked into view at the Cinerama. What’s it like? Terrible, but you’ll love it. . You may get all tingly as Sensurrouhd jiggles your seats, and all heartstruck as the bionic dog, Muffet, and

the boy, Boxy, get. into mischief, and all cheery as another baddie falls in flames. Adults may have a hard time staying awake during this third-rate, made-for-television “Star Wars” ripoff, but so what? The special effects are mostly superb, some more sophisticated than John Dykstra did for the earlier movie. And Battlestar Geriatrica (Lome Greene, Wilfred Hyde-White, Lew Ayres and Ray Milland are among the crew of mostly young non-actors) answers the question: “Why do I have to see a movie over and over to catch my favourite special effect?” by repeating the same effects and explosions at decent intervals. Known in the trade at “Raw Rats” ("Star Wars” backwards. almost), this inter-stellar copycat has

double suns, but it also has double moons. It has Zack, Starbuck and Captain Apollo, fast-talking space jockeys, storming about the universe. It has treacherous Cylons, Condition Reds by the dozen, evil Count Baltar. enemy robots with electronic laryngitis and digital watch eyes. The biggest cheer comes when Muffy stumbles on stage and sinks his bionic fangs into a robot. “Yahoo!” as the pilots are fond of crying. It has a mass exodus from the battered human colonies, with bottle openers, cut cheeses, gewgaws and pinwheels dressed up as spaceships.

“I’m right here, you! creeps’’ (cheer). It has that kind of dialogue. It also has this kind: “Smells like a trap, feels like a trap. 1 believe it is a trap . . . This is Starbuck, and I’m cornin’ in hot . . . It’s true then —we are defeated, doomed ~. Boomer, I’m getting an awful uneasy feeling." A queasiness in the stomach. Too much Sensurround, too much sap. “Just the tonic our people need," says an old Galactica councillor. “Some down ! home, honest to goodness i' heroes.’’ John Wayne would | have eaten these wooden-it faced heroes for breakfast, i Never mind, the movie! will be around for weeks and weeks. And every time; a cheer goes up. at least the burping youngster in the next seat will settle down for a bit.

Crack that gum once [more, kid. and you’ll be consigned to the starry void.