The Last Starfighter (1984)

At the time of its original release in 1984, this modestly budgeted sci-fi excursion had the distinction of offering some of the first examples of purely computer-generated animation, an apt (and frugal) special-effects solution for a movie with a plot line rooted in computer games. Both the computer-generated visuals and the arcade game now look quaint, but writer-director Nick Castle's affable, good- hearted adventure holds up nicely, thanks to a clever premise--the title game is actually a test for prospective starship pilots, planted by embattled aliens under siege from an evil invader. When a restless teenager (Lance Guest) racks up an impressive score, he finds himself spirited away to the besieged planet and thrust into the midst of an intergalactic war. Apart from Castle's skill at contrasting his extraterrestrial settings with the mundane details of his hero's earthbound life, the movie gets lift-off from two thorough pros, Robert Preston, who makes the alien recruiter, Centauri, a planet-hopping cousin to The Music Man's Harold Hill, and Dan O'Herlihy, the alien copilot, who suggests a scaly Walter Brennan. Older fans will snicker, but kids and young teens will find this rite of passage absorbing, while their folks will savor Preston's brash charm. --Sam Sutherland Amazon.com

Great movie when young

I'm glad to have grown up with this great fantasy movie. I loved the story that you could actually be called up into the reality that the game is just hinting at. This even has a liking to Ender's Game in that regard. A fun video. September 25, 2008

Starlight Starbright - Interstellar

The Music Man and his video game - but it's more, just a test ! Pre Star Trek spinoffs are stale this is the beginning, straight " country boy does good" plot extended to the stars. Yeah - I've done time in "Trailer Parks " ( Caravan Parks in Aussie ) and I wanted out and up too ! I lost my video game edge when I got specs, but watching this flick is 'living a dream' - escapism. Just enough woman trouble to fill in the touchy feely side of the universe too ! I must admit they stole the mask for the Friendly alien Grigg - and reused it as the Grinch ! OK for fun, escapism, and lots of wishful dreaming - watch it ! September 23, 2008

Old skool, but still love it..

I used to have this on vhs as a kid and loved it!! (I used to walk around quoting the live from the video game - 'you have been recruited...' etc)

Yeah so the fx are a little dated, and it's a little corny, but I loved this movie, and still do.

Great for any cult sci-fi buff. August 17, 2008

Last Starfighter

Great daydream film, small town young man leaves earth becomes a hero and saves the universe from the bad guy. I have had that dream starting at the age of 10, just as any other space cadet when they started read sci-fi. Special effect still good even in this day in time. July 21, 2008

Greetings, Star Fighter!

It's funny how people will love one thing, and then turn on something which is almost exactly the same on a fundamental level. In a small community a boy grows up dreaming of a life of adventure. A mysterious old man and some new friends help him to save the galaxy from an evil Empire. It could be a description of the plot from Star Wars but it's also the plot from the Last Starfighter (with the addition of one cool-looking arcade game that serves a sword-in-the-stone for the protagonist and a trailer park on plain-old-Earth instead of a desert world on the outer rim). So why is it that Star Wars is universally loved while people put down this classic just because its a little old (and not Star Wars)? Personally, I think it just gets better with age.

To Defend the Frontier...

Part tale of a small trailer park, part sci-fi intergalactic struggle, the Last Starfighter just might be the best bridge between the fantastic and the ordinary, a triumphant homage to the spirit of sci-fi fans everywhere who dream of becoming something more. For everyone who has ever wished that video game skills were actually useful in the real world, this movie has got to absolutely be the end-all-be-all of wish fulfillment. As a long time gamer, geek, and guy who never seems to attain anything tangible in this world, I must admit I absolutely love this movie. What makes this movie different from Star Wars is the strong hometown America feel, as everyone in the trailer park has a lot of personality, and seems like they could be from just about any small trailer-park town. So when you toss the craziness of the robot clone, alien assassins, and a Gunstar (man I love that word for the battleships) landing right in the parking lot, it just gives everything a great epic feel and drives home just how huge it is that Alex is suddenly the last hope for freedom for countless star systems. Gotta love it.

Young Alex Rogan dreams of escaping from his boring small-town trailer park life and building a life of importance for himself somewhere. Early on in the film his hopes get dashed to pieces when he's rejected for a college scholarship, but when he breaks the record on the only arcade game at a local diner, it turns out to be much more important than he could ever have imagined. The arcade game is a galactic sword-in-the-stone, and soon a galactic recruiter for the Star League's Starfighters grabs Alex and takes him to the base on Rylos to help save the universe!
Lance Guest's performance in the dual role of the main character and the robot sent to replace him while he's away fighting save the universe is really endearing, as is the actress who plays his small town sweetheart. Actually most of the characters in the movie are charming in this roles, including a one-time music man in his last film role. My personal favorite is of course the alien who pilots the ship Alex is the gunner for, and he says a lot of really great gung-ho lines "I always wanted to fight a desperate battle against incredible odds!". Great stuff.

"He could be the greatest Starfighter ever!"

The Last Starfighter has everything you could want in a movie. There's comedy, romance, dreams of heroism, space battles, and an absolutely fantastic musical score. It still amazes me after all these years of listening to musical scores how much they can improve a film. The score to this movie enhances it quite a bit, giving it a huge dramatic and idealistic boost (kind of like how the score to Star Wars changed it from a cheesy indy flick to a triumph of cinematic genius in the world's opinion). When this film came out the special effects were revolutionary (it was the first film to ever use computer-generated graphics depending on who you ask), and if you love old-school blue screen special effects it's definitely on par with Star Wars and the Neverending Story. The space battles are small-scale compared to Star Wars, but it's still a whole lot of fun because of the namesake battle of one pilot and gunner (Starfighter) against an entire Armada and the Capital ship. The icing on the cake for me when I watch this film is that when the kid finally does decide to take up the fight against the bad guys (he's quite reluctant for a large part of the movie and tries to run away home instead of fighting in the war), it's exactly like the Arcade game he played back home, from the target drones for training to the last boss. If you love video games like I do, you can't help but love the moments when all the time wasted playing a video game makes a kid into an intergalactic hero.

I hear they are making a Last Starfighter sequel and I can't wait. As a big fan of sci-fi and movies from the 80's (and especially space-fantasy movies from the 80's) I'm always looking for more great movies from that endless treasure trove. But in my mind there are some movies that trascend even my love for the genre and are just classics in every way. This is one of those movies. A must-own for any fan of space-fantasy movies or 80's sci-fi.

July 17, 2008

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