Retro Film Review: Space Truckers (1996)
One of the most remarkable things in Ridley Scott's Alien is a vision of future in which space travel ceased to be domain of intrepid pioneers and brilliant scientists and instead turned into business for ordinary "blue collar" types. More than a decade later, this concept was brought to extreme in Space Truckers, 1996 science fiction comedy directed by Stuart Gordon.
Protagonist of the film is John Canyon (played by Dennis Hopper), one of the last independent space transport entrepreneurs. Times are hard and if Canyon wants to keep his space vessel, he mustn't be too choosy when it comes to clients or too inquisitive about the nature of cargo. On the space station he takes one such cargo and must deliver it to Earth. He also takes two new crew members - young "space truck" pilot Mike Pucci (played by Stephen Dorff) and waitress Cindy (played by Debi Mazar). Soon all three of them realise that the cargo happens to be small army of unstoppable killer robots. Their ship is soon attacked by pirates led by Macanudo (played by Charles Dance), grotesquely disfigured former scientist who wants to use robots for world conquest and similar nefarious purposes.
Stuart Gordon, filmmaker who enjoys something of a cult following thanks to his 1980s horror films like Re-Animator and From Beyond, had an interesting idea to combine space opera with 1970s road films (just like Outland had combined space opera with classic western plots). Unfortunately, this idea was compromised at the very beginning of the film, with Gordon abusing it for the sake of cheap laughs - Canyon's space ship that looks like one big truck and space station populated by "space truck" drivers who listen to country & western music. The rest of the film doesn't go much better, with quality of humour rapidly declining, special effects becoming cheesier and some actors like Stephen Dorff and Debi Mazar looking like they have wandered to the wrong movie set. There are few memorable scenes in the films, although more sensitive viewers would question Gordon's good taste (which would hardly come as a shock to those familiar to Gordon's 1980s films). On the other hand, those viewers who could handle such heavy stuff would find those scenes having little or no relevance to thin plot. In the end, Space Truckers could be recommended only to the most fanatical devotees of Stuart Gordon and those fans of science fiction cinema that need to watch bad films in order to truly appreciate the good.
RATING: 3/10 (+)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on May 16th 2003)
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