I keep a list of my picks for worst movies ever, arranged by year. Until I watched this slipshod hunk of insanity, Laserblast was my entry for 1978. It has now been deleted. That is all.What's that? I still have to fill ten lines? Okay. Message from Space is one of those movies that epitomizes the astonishment that washes over you as you're staring at a bad movie like a deer caught in headlights, thoughts bursting: This was made by humans who possess the same mental faculties as me? Money was spent on this? Okay, not a lot, but it must have cost something to turn that mall or office building in a spaceship interior... right? Mystic walnuts that seek out eight heroes, inexplicably? Would that have even been a credible story element pre-cinema, centuries ago? You still would have been laughed out of the campfire fairytale gathering. Vic Morrow looks like he's wondering if he can stand up, shake his head and walk off the set, cursing, at any given moment. Is the dialogue this ridiculous in the original Japanese translation? Wow, look at all of the craftsmanship that went into the spaceship designs. The designers and model makers must have really (and probably still do) hate the IDIOT DIRECTOR AND CINEMATOGRAPHER.

Reminded me a lot of Battle Beyond the Stars. Same Seven Samuraiish structure, where valiant warriors from all walks of life are thrown together by fate to defend the peaceful townsfolk from the marauding intruders. ('Liabe Gods pick robots too').Extra points for deadly serious Vic Morrow grimly stalking like Hamlet amidst the leftover Buck Rogers TV series robots, spacegoing sailing galleons with rows of oars, gauzy space princesses, green evil Space Vikings, bad grannies in space wheelchairs, dayglow plastic walnuts from the Liabe Gods, and comical Space Cop pursuing those crazy teenagers playing space chicken in their combination Thunderbirds and Transformers hot rod spaceship.

Ahhh.. Message From Space. This was, as you probably read in previous comments, a grab at Star Wars from Japan. Sonny Chiba plays the main character of Hans. Chiba has a multitude of films under his belt as well as a very large following. The film is pure eye candy for any child despite its weak overall attempts at working out plot, characters, etc.. I actually like this movie. I enjoyed the fumbling Vic Morrow despite his intoxicated performance. I thought the special effects & props were creative. You see, the problem with any scifi film released in 1978 is that it will be compared to Star Wars. Star Wars set something as far as expectations, and anything else is considered a ripoff & a cheap one at that. The effects are retarded compared to Lucas & Co. But good for a saturday afternoon type movie. As a child this had a massive look to it and it was fast paced. The ships were actual sailing vessels in space, lots of good ideas but even with a date of 1978 there is no real excuse for how corny it ended up. Yes, & the walnuts.. Hard to believe. A not so typical 1978 type space saga with one step below the effects of the Flash Gordon movie. 5/10

Now of course, Message From Space is a Star Wars rip-off, but the Japanese have been doing space operas for a very long time anyway. But still, there are some direct steals from Star Wars, but hey isn't that part of the fun?This isn't quite as enjoyable as Starcrash as far as bad Star Wars rip-offs, but it's still a blast. Everyone is over the top, except for Vic Morrow, who pretty much sleepwalks through the entire thing and acts as if someone has a gun to his head the whole time, forcing him to appear in this flick. The FX are interesting and fun to watch, and as bad as they are, I'd still rather see these FX than today's crappy computer-generated cartoons.The TIE-Fighter type enemy ships are cool, especially the way they fire their lasers, and so is the rip-off of the Star Wars trench battle scene. Notice in this scene near the end, in the trench, the ships fly down trenches that actually curve away, so the FX people wouldn't have to worry about making "distance" shots appear realistic as in the Star Wars trench sequence.This definitely has "Japanese B-flick" all over it, and you gotta figure a DVD release would be a decent seller (as far as these kind of films go). This film proves that the only thing as enjoyable as a decent Star Wars rip-off, is a bad one!