The Last Starfighter (Widescreen Collector's Edition)
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Movie Reviews of The Last Starfighter (Widescreen Collector's Edition)
Movie Review: It's only a game--not!
Summary: 5 Stars
This quick-moving sf-adventure clearly owes more than a tip of its hat to Star Wars Episode IV - A New Hope (1977 & 2004 Versions, 2-Disc Widescreen Edition), but it has a charm and a story all its own. 17-year-old Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) lives with his mother (Barbara Bosson) and 10-year-old brother Louis (Chris Hebert)--there's a father in his wallet photo, but we never meet the man--at the Starlite Starbrite Trailer Park, built on an impressively terraced hill somewhere in Northern California. Like Luke Skywalker, he longs for adventure and travel--outer space, Paris, even just something other than City College--and while he waits for his chance at them he spends much of his time as the park's all-purpose handyman, "patching 30-year-old fuse panels and unplugging people's toilets." The only bright spots in his life are his girlfriend Maggie Gordon (Catherine Mary Stewart), who lives with her grandmother (Meg Wyllie) in one of the other trailers, and the Starfighter video game outside the park's mini-store. On the evening after learning that his application for a college loan has been refused, he starts playing out of frustration and breaks 1,000,000. The next evening an odd-looking car arrives, driven by a fast-talking stranger (Robert Preston) who calls himself Centauri and persuades Alex to come with him for purposes undisclosed--which turn out to be recruitment (the Starfighter game is actually a screening/testing device to locate potential gunner-pilots) to the space-fighting forces of "the Star League," whose frontier is threatened by the traitorous "Xur (Norman Snow) and the Kodan Armada." Bewildered, Alex hesitates at first and even succeeds in being returned to Earth--only to discover that Xur knows where he's from and has put the mercenary and murderous Zandozans on his trail. But his reluctance saves the day, for while Centauri is returning him home one of Xur's agents plants a bomb in the fighter bay and kills all the pilots and navigators, except Grig (Dan O'Herlihy), Alex's assigned partner. Now it's up to them and their ship, or gun-star, to stand alone against the armada's fighters and flagship.
The effects aren't anywhere near what we're familiar with 25 years later, but their video-gamish look actually suits the story very well. The action is fast-paced and Alex's hesitancy is completely plausible and understandable. But the best part of the film is Preston in his last big-screen role (he died two years later), portraying Centauri as more than a little like his mildly larcenous Prof. Harold Hill from The Music Man (Special Edition). StarWarriors and videogamers as well as family audiences should enjoy it equally.
Movie Review: Worlds not Suited to Be Our Equals
Summary: 5 Stars
The Star League of Planets defends the 150 planets of the Star League with the Great Frontier built by the advanced technology of the Planet Rylos. War is not their passion. Earth is not mature enough yet to be approached and granted permission to join the Star League. But nonetheless, the Rylons will also defend Earth until it matures. Fighting wars is not what the Rylons are about; they recruit Starfighters who have "the gift", "the gift" amongst the billions of inhabitants from the different planets in the Star League. Now, the Rylons key spy has been captured and caught, and the secret of the Great Frontier lays in the hands of the evil Ko-dan who are the Rylons' enemy, and who are also being helped by the evil son (Zur) of the Emperor of Rylos. One group of about ten Starfighters against the whole Armada? Yes, that is "the gift", the chance of becoming a Starfighter and held in high esteem by all the Planets and billions of inhabitants of the Star League.
Those who have "the gift" are the only warriors in the Star League.
I thoroughly enjoy this movie for its charm, and I now enjoy the DVD, originally having the movie on Beta, when it first came out on tape. The tape is worn, but the movie is a classic!
Recruiting from a non-member planet like Earth is forbidden, and highly unususal. But this Earthling passed the test, ah the test, and has "the gift". "And afterall Earth is in danger too" quips Centauri (Robert Preston). This is the premis of the movie, taken a college-bound human, living a not so normal I'm the fix-it man of the trailer park under the alien Centauri's wings, so to speak. But Alex (Lance Guest) does not want to go to the community college, and wants to go away to college if his loan is approved.
The loan however is not approved, but his mother (Barbara Bossen) states that he can still go to community college with his friends, even if that won't amount to much. But Alex wanted to have big plans to pursue his love (Catherine Mary Stewart) who he grew up with in the broken down trailer park. Alex wanted a new life, but a Starfighter? His mother always thought that Alex would go away someday, but to another Planet?
I still enjoy watching this movie, from the first scene to the last. An alien abduction, out in a trailer park in the middle of nowhere, that turns out good. Even if people watch this movie over and over again, as I have, usually one will never tire of this movie, even knowing what scenes are coming next in the movie. A fun movie, encompassing total unreal expectations, with humans from Planet Earth being thrust far into the future of what is considered science fiction as far as humans in a trailer park are concerned, made real!
Movie Review: "Last Starfighter" still dazzles
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the unexpected joys of the 1980s was a "little" film that packed a huge entertainment wallop.
"The Last Starfighter" broke new ground in computer graphics, but it was much more than that for many of its fans.
This is a genuinely good story, beautifully acted, sensitively directed by Nick Castle and lovingly crafted by all the technicians who worked on it.
What makes this film work so well from the opening frames are the small touches director Nick Castle adds -- a rural landscape, a trailer park...and small things like a bird feeder and a sleeping dog, plus noises coming from each of the trailers, as well as voices calling out as a new day begins.
Every relationship in this film rings true. And the main character -- Alex Rogan -- is perfectly portrayed by Lance Guest (who introduces one of the DVD's special features).
Among the great joys of the film are Robert Preston's "Centauri", the alien being who invented the Starfighter video game (and spread them across the galaxy in hopes of finding candidates for becoming real starfighters), and Dan O'Herlihy's "Grig", who created a most believable, lovable character underneath his reptilian makeup.
It also has one of the best music scores written for any movie. Craig Safan enthralled movie fans of all ages with an heroic theme which is interwoven throughout the film -- from the quiet moments, to the romantic scenes, to the space thrills and to the ultimate jubliation of victory over Zur's armada. It's a tour-de-force musical creation and one of the great scores of all time.
Because of the film's human strengths, it holds up extremely well despite major advances made with digital computer graphics over the past 20 years. During my first viewing of the DVD, I wondered if Castle had ever been approached about updating those sequences, since most of the blue-screen elements probably still exist. But we'll leave that sort of revisionism to George Lucas.
This film stands tall as it is.
Movie Review: "You can still go to City collage with your friends."
Summary: 5 Stars
In the tradition of "TRON" (1982), we have the classic challenge. This formula movie is a bit technically challenged due to being released in 1984. However, this is one "rite of passage" tale that would have interested Joseph Campbell author of "The Hero with a Thousand Faces."
Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) is stuck in a small trailer community and it looks like he will be going to City College. He dreams of being more. Due to a misplaced video game (a game? No a test) he gets the opportunity to more than fulfill his dream and save The Star League form Xur (Norman Snow) and the KO-DAN armada as the last starfighter.
This film has well selected actors as if the parts are written for them; this especially includes Robert Preston of "Music Man" fame. By the way this was Robert Preston's last movie. Also, watch Catharine Mary Stewart who has appeared in episodes of "The Outer Limits."
Can he do it? In the mean time who is looking out for his girl?
Recently applied to Blu-ray to keep up with the transfer from tape to DVD to Blu-ray to whatever is next.
Advantages and disadvantages of the Blu-ray. The voice-over commentary by director Nick Castle and production designer Ron Cobb fill in the information that is only implied in the movie. It is like having someone pointing out that your shoe is untied. However you now know what to notice the next time around.
The 1984 graphics after the Blu-ray treatment looks more sharp and cartoony. Luckily the film is a classic and you overlook the CGI.
The Blu-ray disk contains all the standard goodies as a D-box option, voice-over, and sketches of the various actors.
Starman [Blu-ray] ~ Jeff Bridges
Joseph Campbell - The Hero's Journey
Movie Review: Love, the stars and computer graphics
Summary: 5 Stars
The Last Starfighter a movie by director Nick Castle (Major Payne). It is a story about Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) who dreams of a better life outside the humble trailer park in which he lives. Breaking the record on an innocent looking video game, which take him on an adventure well outside the confines of the trailer park.This movie should go down in history as being the first movie to start using complex computer generated graphics. Tron, which was the first movie to use computer animation, The Last Starfighter takes one step further by using more than simple vector animation.
The actors choosen for the role were superbly cast. Lance Guest as Alex Rogan, Dan O'Herlihy as Grig and Robert Preston as Centauri. Each actor cast stamped their style to the character. In Robert Preston's last feature presentation it was a intergalactic reprise of his character in the Music Man in which Preston stamps his style to his role and to the movie.
Nick Castle did a superb job in capturing the humble life of the trailer park and the complex war torn planet of Rylos. Along with Production Designer Ron Cobb the created not only an entertaining story about a boy and his dreams but showing detail well beyond what was available at the time.
The DVD version of this movie definitely does it justice, with a remixed soundtrack, now in Dolby? Digital 5.1. The soundtrack isn't a complete remix as many of the scenes that used to use Dolby Surround still give this ambient quality to it, there is the superior clarity that the digital track offers and music wonderfully scored by Craig Safan also has been remixed nicely in Dolby? Digital.
Picture Quality is possibly the best I have seen for this movie. But still contains many of the flaws that were possibly present in the source for remastering. With the DVD version the computer generated scenes have never looked better.
This is my favourite movie of all time, I enjoy all aspects of the movie and admire the work that Nick Castle and Ron Cobb put into this movie.