What apparently was an attempt to turn Buck into a spaced-out James Bond is more like a bad episode of Three's Company. The script is full of obvious double entendres. (Following Col. Wilma Deering, ex-English Leather model Erin Gray, Buck radios, "I'm right on your tail"—and that's one of the better jokes.) The evil Ardala, Pam (Rollerball) Hensley, flounces seductively, but at 5'8" and done up in weird costumes and strange makeup, she often looks less like a space princess than a drag queen. As Buck, Gil (Airport '77) Gerard is so overbroad he makes one marvel again at Christopher Reeve's performance in Superman. Ditto Buster Crabbe's breathlessly naive rendering of Buck in the 1939 serial. And those who've seen that relic (still shown on TV) will probably yawn at by-now-standard Star Wars-Galactica special effects, longing for those saucepan-like devices villain Killer Kane used to put on the good guys' heads to turn them into zombies. (PG)
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