The Ice Pirates (1984)

A space comedy on the rocks.

Director: Stewart Raffill.

Starring: Mary Crosby (Princess Karina), Angelica Houston (Maida), Ron Perlman (Zeno), Michael D. Roberts (Roscoe), Robert Urich (Jason).

Ron Perlman as Zeno

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away (sound familiar), water has become the most precious commodity (this has got to sound familiar) and a small minority control its distribution (what a surprise, just have a heart attack and die from that surprise). A group of ice pirates (water renegades?…wet bandits?...oh wait, that last one's been used) try to discover the route to a fabled unlimited supply of water with a lovely but spoiled (Druish?) princess en tow and a group of idiots…er…despicable villains in pursuit.

This movie has the potential to be a really great comedic parody ("Star Wars," David Lynch's "Dune") but was just not handled correctly. It goes for, I believe the term is, "low brow" humor. It doesn't really succeed in being all that funny which is a shame since it has Houston, Perlman and Urich, who aren't exactly slackers in the acting department.

Ron Perlman has a supporting role as the ice pirate Zeno who is also ship's cook and keeper of his deceased mother's extraordinary recipes.

Availability: VHS and DVD. Suggest: Amazon.com. I have bought from Amazon, both, new and used, for years and have had no problems. Please make sure to check that the VHS/DVD is compatible with your country/region.

Definitely a rental and definitely have a drink straight up.

On a side note: This is the first movie I saw Ron Perlman in ironically (or appropriately) when I was at a theatre production cast party.

By Tressa Lee Breen.


VIDEO

VHS - NTSC
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VHS - NTSC
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DVD

DVD Region 1 -closed-captioned
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DVD Region 1 - English
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DVD Region 1 - French
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