Dark Star
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Movie Reviews of Dark Star
Movie Review: The brilliant little movie that started two very big careers.
Summary: 4 Stars
Dark Star (John Carpenter, 1974)
By the time I first saw Dark Star, a decade after its release, I was already a firm John Carpenter fan. And, not surprisingly, I loved it. Years passed, and I wondered if my love for it had more to do with John Carpenter than the movie itself, so I went back and watched it again recently. No, it wasn't nostalgia or a blind adherence to John Carpenter (which I, like most folks, lost right after They Live, his last great film), it's just that Dark Star is a wonderful film that, like many great things, manages to both parodize and celebrate at the same time.
The story concerns a bunch of guys in a spaceship far, far away from Earth. Their mission seems to be to go around blowing up unstable planets, for which they have a large supply of semi-intelligent bombs. They've been wandering the universe for twenty years with everything going along about as usual. But, of course, once the cameras start rolling, everything goes belly-up. The ship's mascot goes crazy, the wiring starts breaking down, mental instabilities in a few crewmembers come to a head. It's all played for laughs, and Carpenter turned the film's shoestring budget into a strength rather than a weakness by finding the most improbable things he could and utilizing them (the mascot, for example, is a spray-painted beach ball with attached claws).
Needless to say, any seventies deep-space epic was bound to be compared to 2001, and Carpenter subverted the paradigm by making this, however loosely, a parody of that movie; in this case, rather than the intelligent machine deciding its human handlers were useless, the machine's intelligence comes mostly from programming, and it's up to the crew to bring it, as it were, to a HAL level of intellect. (The shortcomings of this approach should be obvious. They are also quite funny.) Not an easy thing to do when your crew are dysfunctional lunatics. The thing is, it all fails so miserably that in many ways it works. Whether Carpenter and screenwriter Dan O'Bannon (who also acts in the film) are diverting your attention cleverly from plot holes or whether the movie is smacking you in the face with them, they don't seem to matter a great deal here; it's a movie that was obviously made for the sake of making others laugh, and it succeeds. While not nearly on the par of Carpenter's greatest films, it is nevertheless an inspiring film for aspiring filmmakers wondering what they can do with no budget but a great deal of inspiration (and Dark Star should be a thousand times more inspiring than most indie genre flicks that have been released since), and an amusing one for the rest of us. Very well worth your time. ****
Movie Review: For film and sci-fi buffs
Summary: 4 Stars
Yes, this film is not for the general couch potato who wants to be given entertainment on a silver platter. Please rent Star Trek-Numbesis and ogle at the zillion dollar effects.This movie is a must for film buffs and sci-fi buffs. Place yourself in the year 1974; Kubrick's "2001" had set the stage for sci-fi presentation, the Star Trek TV series for stories with meaning, 50s sci-fi flicks for kitsch. Carpenter and O'Bannon create an incredible parody to counter the established sci-fi genre with something unexpected.
Life in space isn't mysterious, it isn't majestic, it isn't noble. It's outright boring, boring, boring. People go loopy and act stupid when bored out of their skulls. Crew members don't die from defending our way of life, they die from equipment breakdowns. Aliens aren't big-brained morally righteous gods or armies of monsters, they're silly beachballs. Computers aren't soulless mechina, they're as snippy and neurotic as the rest of the crew.
The movie offers a view of things to come from both Carpenter and O'Bannon. By taking this work as a skills-in-progress snapshot, you can see how both are forming their craft in movie-making. Carpenter's penchant for dark shadowy scenes is obvious, and O'Bannon displays his evolving talents at storytelling. Then take into consideration that the entire film was created for under $60,000 and you can appreciate the accomplishment.
If you appreciate the history of cinema and science fiction, you'll appreciate Dark Star. Let there be light.
Movie - 5
Content - 3
DVD Quality - 2
Overall - 4
Movie Review: Funny, funny..... funny again..
Summary: 4 Stars
This film, which is a debut film of John Carpenter, is quite preposterous. First, before this film, there is a masterpiece of SF film which is a Stanley Kubrick¡¯s work ¡°2001: A Space Odyssey¡±. Compared with Kubrick¡¯s, it is a directly opposite style. Contrast to Kubrick¡¯s carried weight and is very difficult, this film is funny and absurd. It is a feature of Carpenter¡¯s films; there are many funny scenes, which transcend an imagination. The plot of this film is nothing special. The spaceship crew who have a mission, but their life is a continuity of boredom, so as to their acting is very funny. Childish pranks of the crew and a pet alien which looks like a beach ball with claws, Ii makes people cannot help laughing. In addition, this film was made when Carpenter was a student of university. It was a low-budget film, so some special effects were little bit clumsy. Nevertheless, it deserves to watch because it is a comedy film, so it makes people feel funnier. As watching these scenes, I cannot help recognizing Carpenter¡¯s imagination is great. Dan O¡¯Bannon who co writes screenplay with Carpenter and played one of the crew, after that he created ¡°Alien¡±. This is also interesting thing. Anyway, this film is quite funny, and more, soundtrack that also matched with film, made well. John Carpenter usually took charge of music in own films as well as this film; he used amusing music for the soundtrack to make a funny scene.Movie Review: Very funny Sci-Fi
Summary: 4 Stars
This is well worth getting. Starting out as a student picture for debut director John Carpenter, he turned out a minor classic on an absolute showstring budget.
The film is about the crew of a spaceship, whose purpose is to destroy planets making way for colonisation. The crew are very bored. To make things more interesting an Alien escapes from the hold and proceeds to torment one of the crew. This sequence is extremly funny. The other main area of the film revolves around a bomb that seems to have a mind of its own. The dialog between the bomb and the crew and the ships computer is very funny. The film finishes with what is probably a comedic reference to 2001.
For a film made on such a small budget Carpenter achieved mircles. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Alien was inspired to some degree by this film, and indeed Alien does reference Dark Star according to the IMDB and of course Dan O'Bannon was involved in both films. At 80 minutes long its the perfect length - there is no time for you to get bored. If there has been a better sci-fi comedy made I haven't seen it.
Movie Review: Carpenter and O'Bannon show their impressive chops.
Summary: 4 Stars
As every film buff knows, Dark Star started off as a student film. The work so impressed producer Jack H. Harris (The Blob) that he gave the 'kids' some extra money to pad it to feature length. The rest is history, sort of. Dark Star is a deserved cult classic. For one, while it is bargain basement filmmaking, nonetheless the movie manages to look fairly good and does not bog down with filler (each scene is fresh and entertaining and adds something to the overall feel). The alien escaping into the ship and Pinback's giving chase (which alternates easily between hilarious and harrowing) is undoubtedly a highlight (both for being so entertaining and for forshadowing O'Bannon's script/story for Alien). As is Bomb #20. The second reason is that many of the crew (Carpenter, O'Bannon, and the effects creators) all went on to successful careers in the film making industry. If you can get past the tape and cardboard look (and the movie is so inventive and funny that it is easy to do) then Dark Star is a fun ride and an essential addition to any sci-fi film buffs library. Highly recommended.