Dark Star
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Movie Reviews of Dark Star
Movie Review: Hilarious sci-fi
Summary: 4 Stars
This is one of my favorite sci-fi movies, a hilarious send-up of space epics. Director John Carpenter and co-writer Dan O'Bannon steer away from traditional sci-fi action to focus on the tedium and isolation of deep-space travel. It's a risky concept, but it works. Bleak comedy abounds as the crew of the ship _Dark Star_ slowly lose their grip on reality (although it's clear that some of them lost their grip a long time ago).Of the two versions of _Dark Star_ included here, the sixty-eight minute "director's cut" is far superior. The eighty-three minute "theatrical release" feels padded, though most of that extra time involves an extended sequence in an asteroid field. This scene, added at the request (or demand, if you prefer) of shocksploitation producer Jack Harris, radically changes the plot, and blunts the film's satirical edge.
The DVD package is unimpressive; video and audio are uniformly bad, and extras are minimal. Considering the film's production history and tiny budget, it's safe to say that _Dark Star_ looks and sounds as good now as it ever will.
Movie Review: You may recognize parts of this film...
Summary: 4 Stars
This is just about the only Hollywood film to recognize the fact that interstellar communication is limited to the speed of light, that artificial personalities may be less than cheerfully subservient, and that deep space exploration may not neccessarily attract the best and the brightest of the human race. Naturally, this is not a movie for everyone. It's very much like a film-school film, but like one made by a couple of VERY talented students. It features a lot of dialogue that wavers between comedy and ironic philosophy, and never really settles on either end of the spectrum. A couple of the scenes involving the beachball - er, alien - were later worked into Alien and Aliens, some of the computer graphics were used in Star Wars, and the overeager and intelligent bomb concept forms a major theme in the entire Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. I love it. But when I say it's not for everyone, I mean it. This is a film to watch with a bunch of serious science fiction lovers (and I'm not talking about Star Wars fans), or alone. You were warned.Movie Review: Budget Sci-Fi Parody
Summary: 4 Stars
I first saw this movie when I was in college 30 years ago and loved it. It was made on a shoe-string budget and was John Carpenter's first full length movie release. It is a sci-fi comedy and parody. The special effects are obviously not up to today's standards, but they were pretty good for the time it was made. I think this movie actually presents space travel in a more realistic light than most other sci-fi shows I have seen. In this movie, systems on the ship are breaking down forcing the crew to come-up with work arounds, and the crew is going stir-crazy from spending years out in deep space. The government says they appreciate the important work the crew is doing, but doesn't want to send out a repair ship to help them because it is too expensive. While this probably done for comic effect, if we ever do develop long range space travel, you know this is how things will probably be.
All-in-all, while it is not as action packed as most of today's sci-fi movies, this is a funny movie with a different take on deep space travel.
Movie Review: RIPPED OFF FROM RAY BRADBURY - BUT STILL GREAT
Summary: 4 Stars
This is one of those movies in which the INTENT is far greater than the EXECUTION.
If you read the novelization of this movie, by Alan Dean Foster, it reads as great sci fi, about depressed men who are slowly going crazy and beginning to hate each other on a lonely mission in space. The ending is amazingly touching, but then again, it should be since it was 'borrowed' completely from a great Ray Bradbury short story called Kaleidoscope.
You'll love this move ONLY if you can overlook poor production values and see the brilliant and witty story underneath. Great production values don't actually help with comedy, just look at the recent Hitchikers Guide movie, which was disatrously blah, in spite of glossy effects.
Personally, I'd LOVE to see someone remake Dark Star and do it right!
cb
Movie Review: Hilarious spoof will appeal to stoners and straights alike
Summary: 4 Stars
I first saw Dark Star when it was released and immediately loved it, even though it spoofs 'serious' films I also loved, particularly Kubrick/Clarke's 2001. It was with glee that I found this CD, at the bargain price of $10. Admittedly, the production is a bit rough, and the original film shows its student budget, but that is somehow fitting to the film. My only complaint is that they did not include the short "Hardware Wars" (a spoof of Star Wars, featuring an intergalactic steam iron and the heroic Fluke Starbucker, if I recollect correctly), which toured with Dark Star after HW's release in 1977; it made an inspired pairing. Oh well, I guess that 13 minutes of hilarity is available on its own DVD.