The Best Worst Movies By Decade

The Best Worst Movie of the '70s: Laserblast (1978)

Laserblast 2b

Laserblast is a love story between a teenager and an intergalactic space gun he finds in the desert (don't ask). Trying to (unsuccessfully) cash in on the Star Wars craze at the time, the director cast a leading man (well, boy, really) who was a spitting image of Mark Hamill but had none of his talent, and that's saying something considering the best thing Hamill has done lately is voice The Joker in a Batman video game. How badly did this movie want to be the next great sci-fi space opera?

There's a scene where the aforementioned Hamill-wannabe blows up a sign (with his aforementioned space gun) on the side of the road that simply reads, "Star Wars." Take that, George Lucas! I think Lucas can rest easy.

This movie has classic scenes like the lead character wandering aimlessly around a house party from room to room for several excruciating minutes, not talking to anyone or doing anything. Most of the time, our hero is inexplicably shirtless, I guess to make those '70s ladies swoon. It didn't work. Nothing this film tried did, except being one of the Best Worst Movies of All Time.

Contributor

Michael Perone has written for The Baltimore Sun, Baltimore City Paper, The Island Ear (now titled Long Island Press), and The Long Island Voice, a short-lived spinoff of The Village Voice. He currently works as an Editor in Manhattan. And he still thinks Michael Keaton was the best Batman.