They just dont make em like Battle Beyond The Stars anymore well they didnt until this summer at least! Often unfairly derided as one of the shameless cash-ins to arrive in the wake of Star Wars, Battle beyond the Stars is a curio that has only improved with age. Thats not to say it wasnt Roger Cormans shameless cash in on Star wars, which is something he would freely admit, but whilst Battle tapped into the sci-fi zeitgeist of the age it does so by adding its own unique flavours into the mix rather than opting for bland repetition. One of those flavours was to appropriate another key influence from The Magnificent Seven and Seven Samurai before it. There is no earthling guide here like Quill or Crichton, but a cast of weird and wonderful characters including George Peppards Space Cowboy (a cowboy in space, no more, no less) Sybil Dannings Saint Exmin (a statuesque Valkyrie warrior woman who would give Gamora a run for her money) and Robert Vaughns Gelt (a shadowy assassin who is a reprise of his character in The Magnificent Seven). Battle Beyond The Stars is a curiosity and a delight, and as well as being the perfect Guardians nicotine patch, is a chance to see the early work of luminaries like the aforementioned Roger Corman but also John Sayles, James Horner and James Cameron himself, when they were still hungry with the bit clenched between their teeth.