capone666 Buck Rogers in the 25th CenturyThe key to deterring space invaders is making the Earth as inhabitable as possible.Fortunately for the future earthlings in this sci-fi movie, modern man almost succeeded.Awoken from suspended animation in 2491, Buck Rogers (Gil Gerard) finds his home world a wasteland besieged by space-pirates being held at bay by Earth's defensive shield.Teaming with a resistance Colonel (Erin Gray), a doctor (Tim O'Connor), a supercomputer and a robot (Mel Blanc), Buck plans to thwart the nefarious plans of an enemy envoy (Pamela Hensley, Henry Silva) headed to New Chicago for a peace treaty.Based on the operatic outer-space comic strip from the 1920s which inspired Star Wars creator George Lucas, this 1979 feature-film adaptation is hindered by its made-for-TV origins, and its similarity to the aforementioned galaxy far, far away.However, unlike Star Wars, you can rest assure that all of Buck's droids are out of the closet.Yellow Light

Uriah43 "Captain William 'Buck' Rogers" (Gil Gerard) is an American astronaut who has taken off on a 5-month deep space flight. Unfortunately, he is pulled out of his normal orbit and becomes frozen in time and drifts for over 500 years until eventually being picked up by a Draconian space ship which is en route to Earth as a peaceful emissary of Drago the Magnificent. As it turns out "Princess Ardala" (Pamela Hensley) is under orders to attack Earth once inside the secret force field that surrounds the planet. To that end her suspicious security officer, "Kane" (Henry Silva) decides to send the now-conscious Buck Rogers in his spacecraft back to Earth where it will either destroy itself upon entering Earth's orbit or reveal vital information regarding a secret path inside the force field. Anyway, rather than detail what happens next I will just say that, while definitely dated, this is a fun science-fiction movie all the same. Personally, I think Gil Gerard fit the role as Buck Rogers almost perfectly and having two lovely women like Erin Gray (as "Colonel Wilma Deering") and the aforementioned Pamela Hensley makes it even more enjoyable. Likewise, the robotic drone known as "Twiki" (Felix Silla) is icing on the cake. Granted it's not a great movie by any means but it served its function as a pilot to a television series quite admirably and I rate it as slightly above average.

John T. Ryan THE ADAPTATION of a character from the print media to motion pictures is always a tricky proposition. Be the original print be that of strictly prose narrative or one of those illustrated narrations born of the drawing board and published in the Daily & Sunday Newspaper Comics Pages or in the much less legitimate Comic Books; there would always have to be some form or other of an adaptation process. No matter what the adapted work turned out, it was certain that there would be legions of dissatisfied. (And that goes double for me and Schultz!) WITH this picture of BUCK ROGERS IN THE 25th CENTURY (Bruce Lansbury Productions/Glen A. Larson Production/Universal Pictures, 1979) a new incarnation of the Buck Rogers legend came forth into the spotlight. We knew the storyline, but could only imagine just how it would be rendered. We did have some sneaking suspicions about just was in store, at least in part.BEING mindful about what had been done prior with Comic Book/Comic Strip properties, no one expected a straight page to screen adaptation. Remember, this was the late 1970's and our pop culture had been inundated by the old "Camp Craze" for some time; for it was a full "Baker's Dozen" Years earlier that BATMAN had hit the airwaves. After that, no "Funny Paper" or "Joke Book" properties would ever be the same in their celluloid counterparts.THE original Buck Rogers appeared in a pair of novels published in AMAZING STORIES Magazine in 1929. Titled "Armageddon: 2419 A.D.", the story had spelunker, Anthony Rogers getting caught unawares in a cave filling up with a sleep-inducing gas; kind of like having a cavern full of ferrous oxide (that's Laughing Gas, Schultz!) He slept in that next night for a record 500 years; only to awaken to a future Planet Earth dominated by a pack of outlaw gangs.NEWS about this Sci-fi pulp magazine unqualified success of the appearance in the Amazing Stories lineup soon spread far and wide.BEfore long the John Dille Company had negotiated a pact with the author, Phillip F. Nowlan, to bring the adventurer to the "funny papers". Passing up the formal sounding given name of Anthony, the strip version gave him a nickname of "Buck", which was and remains popular to this day.SO the world of the 25th Century Earth was filled with both scientific miracles and political strife. Regular characters in the comic strip included Wilma Deering, her little brother, Buddy Deering, combination NASA Scientist, President and U.N. Secretary General in Dr. Huer and Space Pirate turned Dictator, Killer Kane. The strip did well for itself and a BUCK ROGERS RADIO Show soon popped up; remaining a staple on the networks for years, which didn't assure success on TV as a Buck Rogers TV show in the early 1950's never got up much steam and fizzled out muy pronto.WE should mention the Universal Pictures BUCK ROGERS Serial (Universal, 1939); which starred Buster Crabbe as Buck, Constance Moore as Wilma and Jackie Moran as Buddy WADE! As he was written in as Buck's 20th Century partner in not Cave Exploration, but rather in piloting a Dirigible. The adaptation changed Buddy's name, century of birth, occupation and relationship to Miss Deering.FINALLY in getting down to today's special guest dissectee in this BUCK ROGER movie.FIRST of all, Buck (Gil Gerard) was now a wise cracking NASA Astronaut, who was held in an orbit around Earth in a Space Capsule filled with that old laughing gas stuff. He is rescued by 25th Century Earthlings in what had been the USA. There he meets up with Wilma (Erin Gray-Woo,woo,woo,woo!), Dr. Huer (Tim O'Connor), one Princess Ardala (Pamela Hensley-Woo,woo,woo,woo!) and Killer Kane (Henry Silva). Buddy is neither Wilma's brother nor Buck's 29th Century juvenile assistant. Buddy was out, kaput, persona non gratis.IN place of Buddy the production team gave us a short, little, cherubic robot named Twiki (voiced by the late Mel Blanc). That he has a remote resemblance to R2D2 of STAR WARS fame is not a coincidence; as the combo of R2D2 and C3PO caused such a stir.AS for the movie, it seems as if the creative team wasn't quite sure as to which direction they should go with it. Much in the same way that the BATMAN Series made use of "Camp" humor and super serious, overly melodramatic situations, this movie accomplished the balance by using innuendo and double entendre coming by way of a wise cracking, but obviously testosterone laden Anthony "Buck" Rogers." IN many respects, it is somewhat remarkable that this BUCK ROGERS turned out as well as it did; for much like the middle of the road attitude that was maintained in regards to the mood of the project; the film itself was shackled with a sort of split-personality. You see, the movie is classified as being 'Made for TV', it did have an extensive theatrical release early in the year; only to be shown on NBC as the premiere, special length episode of the BUCK ROGERS TV Series. It is the same way that National Comics/DC introduced the SUPERMAN Series some 27 years earlier. (The feature, SUPERMAN AND THE MOLE MEN (National Comics/Lippert Pictures, 1951) was put on Television as a 2 Part adventure.VERY much a positive is the excellent job that was done in designing and mounting the project. There were excellent choices made in the area of costuming. Buck, Wilma and company looked very much in 1970's style; but most of the others were done in a style that was very much in keeping with the look of the Buck Rogers Comic Strip, For that matter, so did most of the gadgetry, spaceships and the studio created sets on far-off, alien worlds.WE'll have to give it a rating of **.POODLE SCHNITZ!!

enterdigital When i first saw the movie on video i was 12 years old, and was addicted with the series to.at that time Buck Rules and the special affects were not that bad at that time but they should not put that Disco music on the series to. They should make a remake of the movie from 1979 with the C.G.I. effects of today ,with a new script how he could save earth in the 25th century,a whole new SF/adventure with Buck Rogers in the 25th Century with the special effects of today. Tim Burton did it already with Planet of the Apes,so why can't this movie be made,I AM WAITING