Saturn 3 (1980)

Saturn 3 is one of those lousy science Fiction movies from the late 70's that deserves to be ridiculed. Unfortunately, it wasn't bad enough to be featured on SNL, but definitely not good enough to be remembered. Somewhere in the remote future a Human inhabited spacecraft, Saturn 3, is occupied by the stunning Alex(Farrah Fawcett) and her pre- geriatric lover, Major Adam (Kirk Douglas). They are visited by an anal technocrat from Earth (The Captain) played by Harvey Kietel. He is proposing to construct a high tech robot for research and to serve as an assistant for his new home. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned. The Captian is taken by Alex's ethereal beauty. He wishes to severe the tie she has with the aging Kirk Douglas to have her for his own. His method? To live vicariously through the robot (Hector) in order to overtake Adam's position as lover. Now I know the appeal of beautiful woman can be a plot driven device if used tastefully and if it doesn't dominate the overall theme. But this seems to be the only thing going on here beside the development and fine tuning of the poorly constructed robot. Now I thought the robot was pretty cool looking and reminded me of a more fragile version of The Terminator. But Hector, albeit striking in appearance, is poorly designed with all of its loosely fitted wires, exposed valves and hollow frame. He could have used a more sturdy core to withstand blows. Modern Sci-Fi movies take the attractive woman's beauty as incidental and give the poor gals a bit more brains, substance, authority and toughness. But Farrah was just being used for eye candy while she titillated us with her sexy pouts, lilting voice, gorgeous figure and dazzling eyes. Harvey Keitel is wasted in this role where he plays against type. Here he chooses to use an uptight voice and speech pattern which sounds more robotic than military. And Kirk Douglas? Okay, I don't really have anything personal against the guy, but watching him cast with a woman thirty years his junior is both disheartening and fairly grotesque. Much like his son, he was the kind of actor I felt I had to put up with when watching a movie rather than ever truly enjoying or liking him. Saturn 3 is a snooze fest. But that's not to say that I completely hate it. It boasts some pretty cool production qualities and some admirably constructed set designs. This movie could have done better if they made a porno where Farrah gets accosted by some Technocrat or alien. It's that bad

Two lovers (Kirk Douglas and Farrah Fawcett) stationed at a remote base in the asteroid fields of Saturn are intruded upon by a retentive technocrat (Harvey Keitel) from Earth and his charge: a malevolent eight foot robot. Remember, in space no one can hear you scream..."Saturn 3" was produced and directed by Stanley Donen, better known for his colorful musicals, who saw it as "a Frankenstein story in space". The story came from John Barry, who had done production design for such films as "A Clockwork Orange", "Star Wars" and "Superman". He initially passed the story to Donen's wife who passed it to Stanley, but Barry ended up being a co-director of sorts.The cast, consisting of only three people, is pure star power. Kirk's role was originally for Sean Connery, but Connery passed because he was hiding out in Spain to avoid taxes. And this was during Keitel's low period, after his work with Scorsese and revival thanks to Quentin Tarantino. For some odd reason, he is entirely dubbed. People are bound to seek this one out just to see some of their favorite stars.I cannot even begin to say how disappointed I was by this. Science fiction is a fun genre, and this is an all-star cast with a hugely successful director. There is no way this should have gone wrong, but it totally did. What should have been suspense turned into a slower, dragging tedium.There is so much potential here, and you have to admit the set designer and special effects crew did a top notch job. For a late 1970s science fiction film, they had everything at their disposal to make this a blockbuster. This same robot used in a different way could be incredible... but no.The film lost money at the box office, and the critics were not too kind, either. Roger Ebert gave the film a measly single star and wrote "the story is so dumb it would be laughed out of any junior high school class in the country".The Scream Factory Blu-ray features audio commentary with fan Greg Moss and film critic David Bradley, and is extraordinarily informative. For such a stinker of a film, these two have an endless amount of information on its background and make it almost a treat.

In the future, Earth is overcrowded and the population relies on distant bases to be fed. In the Saturn 3 station, Major Adam (Kirk Douglas) and the scientist Alex (Farrah Fawcett), who is also his lover and has never been on Earth, have been researching hydroponics for three years in the base alone with their dog Sally. Meanwhile, the psychotic Captain Benson (Harvey Keitel) fails the mental test required to travel to Saturn 3 and kills his replacement, Captain James, taking his place in the mission of assembling and programming the Demi-God series robot Hector to replace one of the scientists in Saturn 3. On the arrival, the mentally disturbed Captain Benson becomes sexually obsessed for Alex. Then he uses an interface to link his brain to program Hector, but incapable to control his emotions, he transfers his homicidal tendency and insanity to Hector. Now Major Adam and Alex are trapped in the station with a dangerous psychopath robot."Saturn 3" is an underrated sci-fi cult from the 80's with a dark story that has not aged. The plot is very simple but creepy and the cast is very well selected: Kirk Douglas very mature but still handsome, convincing that Major Adam is capable to seduce Alex. The underrated actress Farrah Fawcett in the top of her beauty and showing parts of her body, seducing not only the psychopath Captain Benson but ( I believe) most of the male viewers. And Harvey Keitel is perfect as a mentally unstable man with sex drive on Alex. The non-commercial conclusion is also excellent and perfect for the story. My vote is seven.Title (Brazil): "Missão Saturno 3" ("Mission Saturn 3")

I have this film on VHS, bought it so cheap through Amazon, and I am such a sucker for sci-fi movies. I watched this movie last night and thought it was OK. I remember seeing this when I was only 10, on TV and thought it was really cool; but it was on TV and I was so young. It's one of those sci-fi pictures U would find on Mystery Science Theater late at night, but I never considered it awful. Yes, the special effects are lacking and some of the scenes U can tell are filmed in miniature. It's a B sci-fi movie but it's not bad, considering most of the cast just consist of 3 main characters and a robot. The plot is a basic one, a not so stable astronaut, kills one who is going to Saturn 3. He takes his place and the terror is about to begin. Once there you can tell Capt. James is a few shy of a six pack when he meets Adam and Alex. The 2 scientists who reside there and who are conducting new ways of food production for Earth from Saturn 3, an outpost hydroponic food production . Once settles in Capt. James begins to build a robot, named Hector, a new model the company is starting to use. Once complete, he shows off his creation to Adam and Alex. Capt. The robot is creepy enough; but what's creepier his his direct input to the robot, by taking information from his brain into Hector's. Hector eventually turns on Capt. James and eventually comes after Adam and Alex. It's up to Alex and Adam to stop this robot from hell and try to escape with their lives. This movie is far from Star Wars, but give it a try.THX, -Kris L. CocKayne-