The spy who loved me ended with "James Bond will return in For Your Eyes Only"
but that was before Star Wars hit the screens and everyone went Sci-Fi crazy,
the planned movie was scrapped and replaced with Moonraker.
A film that has so little to do with Ian Fleming's novel of the same name
that another novelization was written by Christopher Wood to avoid confusion.
In one of the weakest and most bonkers films in the franchise
Bond glides through venice on a hovercraft gondola, much to the shock of this pigeon.
Before blasting into space to join US astronauts in a laser fight against Drax's henchmen.
While still leaving time to bed the beautiful Dr.. Goodhead.
'My God. What's Bond doing? '
'I think he's attempting reentry, sir.'
Luke Skywalker was just too whiny in the first Star Wars film...
'But I was going into tosche station to pick up some power converters.'
So Space Hunter gave us what we thought we wanted, a Han Solo, solo movie.
'Works] every time.'
And boy were we wrong.
'Whatever you say princess.'
This hero quest takes us to the desert planet of Tatooine...
Sorry, Terra 11. To rescue a beautiful princess...
Sorry, three beautiful nurses from Darth Overdog
'You'll know when I'm not pleased.'
And just in case you weren't sure of its Star Wars aspirations it appears wolf has cannibalized R2D2 to fix his ship
In many ways Krull feels more like a Tolkien style fantasy adventure to save a princess
But then there are laser guns and sword fights,
sword fights that spark red lightning with every clash of the blades
It's almost like at some point a producer walked in on the dailies and said can we Star Wars this up a bit?
Maybe throw in a giant spaceship in the opening and never refer to it again and get this Liam Neeson guy in there...
There's there's something of the Jedi about him.
'noble sentiments, but we fight for profit - you know what I mean?'
In a Han Solo kind of way,
Roger Corman is not a man to let an opportunity go to waste, so took a cue from Lucas and went back to Akira Kurosawa
to find inspiration for his sci-Fi space opera and what he found was the Seven Samurai.
'Oh yes, but then who will protect us against these mercenaries'
With a planet under threat a hero is needed.
'I will.'
'You? You're a boy.'
This Luke Skywalker like boy sets out to find others to join the fight,
walking through doors that sound like Darth Vader...
taking on Stormtroopers in laser gun fights,
Before an epic space battle where the young hero destroys the enemy's Planet destroying ship.
Another nod to the prevailing influence of Star Wars comes in the form of the film's young FX technician,
who after seeing the Sci-Fi Blockbuster, quit his job as a trucker to make movies.
His name? James Cameron.
'Live fast, fight well and have a beautiful ending.'
Some films on this list are merely capitalizing on the Sci-Fi fantasy craze ushered in by Star Wars.
But, Dünyayı Kurtaran Adam, better known as Turkish Star Wars goes one step further
by literally stealing whole scenes and then editing them nonsensically into the film.
Sometimes it reverse.
But it's not all bad look at how seamlessly they integrated the famous Cantina scene.
And if you think the music sounds familiar, that would be Raiders of the Lost Ark, stolen too.
The poster for Hawk the Slayer features what looks like Han Solo holding a sword aloft while a dark helmet frames him in the background.
Which is in no way trying to evoke memories of this less famous poster.
The princess in white to be rescued in this movie is a nun.
Hawk's sword glows from the hilt rather than the blade,
Darth Voltan the scarred villain in Black is instructed by this Emperor clone,
'Prepare yourself Dark One.'
While the story sidesteps the Father-son twist in favor of the less dramatic good and Evil brothers
'I shall wait for you at the gates of hell'
'Has anyone ever told you that you're awfully cute for a meat body?'
What is better than sky walking? Why star chasing of course.
Starchaser the Legend of Orin, follows the exploits of Luke Skywalker and Rambo's bastard Love child
Who is given a message from Obi-Wan Kenobi's ghost to find the blade to a mystical hilt.
'Find the blade and you will find your freedom.
He is joined by Juan Solo,
'You've got exactly 10 seconds to tell me what you're doing in this swamp.'
and his 80s mobile phone.
'I wasn't talking to you Arthur.'
who owes money to Arab the Hutt.
'My friend, it has been ages.'
Darth generic bad guy number eight suffers me all too familiar fate of Star Wars characters,
Although the climax might have got George Lucas's attention when he came to write the Phantom Menace.
'What's up Vincent.'
Years before Disney finally got to add Star Wars to their ever-growing Blockbuster Monopoly,
They wanted a slice of the sci-Fi pie.
At twice the budget of Star Wars, The black hole was the most expensive Disney movie to date,
and even then they had to make cutbacks on the effects as they could not afford to rent ILMs groundbreaking equipment.
That said the effects are a step above other films on this list
and the film's opening credits sequence featured what was then the longest computer graphic ever built,
this led to the film getting an Academy award nomination for best special effects.
In this film we also get equally useless red Stormtroopers
And while there is certainly similarities between the ship's robot and R2D2, Henry Hoover may be a closer relation.
You have to be kind of impressed that Japan got their Star Wars knockoff on two screens in less than a year,
Although they may have taken the term spaceship a little too literally.
What's more we get a plucky princess in white.
'Nothing you can say can change what happened you're detested wherever you go.'
'Take her away'
R2D2...
'Master why not help these good people.'
And single seater spaceships embarking on a climatic trench battle to destroy the enemy's base.
'We did it.'
But the standout scene in message from space is their take on the famous Cantina scene.
An you thought Mos Eisley was a hive of scum and villainy.
nice tits though.
From the opening shot there is no pretense that Star Crash is not just another Star Wars ripoff,
ship flying over camera, check.
scrolling prologue, check.
Lightsaber fights, check.
Caroline Monroe fighting in a sexy feather bikini...
Well no one said Star Wars couldn't be improved.
We also get a helpful robot who retains the nervousness of C-3PO
'Everytime I go on a hyperspace I get nervous.'
But with a Texan accent.
'Release her or I'll blast your queen.'
The sci-Fi cocktail is complemented by some budget Ray Harryhausen,
laser gun fights,
David Hasselhoff and a starship battle to blow up a planet destroying space Cube.
And boy are we tired of that storyline being ripped off...
'This was the death star...'
'And this is star killer base.'
Oh dear.
'So it's big'
We've only just skimmed the surface of these craptastic movies and everyone deserves the full Dark Corners treatment,
So let us know which you'd like to see more of and we'll get that out before the force goes back to sleep
Thanks for watching. Let us know your favorite Star Wars ripoffs in the comments below
and may your midi-Chlorian count always be high.