Galaxina (DVD, 2000)

This 1980 sci-fi romp is now mostly remembered as iconic model and Playmate Dorothy Stratten's one movie. While it may be essential to any Stratten collector, it also stands on its own as a comedy, with the late Avery Schreiber (a master stand-up comic) heading up a galactic "police farce" that includes a granite-jawed, cigar-chomping hero, a stoner, an inscrutable Oriental, a bat-winged soul brotha, and a robot of luscious proportions and, er, shocking tactile capabilities. On a mission to retrieve an important mineral sample, the robot falls in love with the hero, reconfigures her very-software, and takes on a mysterious baddie in a High-Noon-style confrontation on a planet of Harley-Davidson worshipers. Not that the plot matters much. Amid swipes at everything from 'Star Trek' to 'Alien,' the characters trade rapid-fire one-liners and land in one cornball situation after another; they obviously had a blast making the movie, and it will appeal to those who liked "Spaceballs," "Airplane!," "Amazon Women On The Moon," "Police Academy," and "Strange Brew" eh? ... especially if you've had a few beers already.

Cautions include an "R" rating purely for language--my nine-year-old would love this if it weren't for the four-letter words--and a poor formatting technique which involves neither letterboxing nor video ratio, but an attempt to scrunch the original screen ratio into video size, which makes everyone look slightly enlongated.