Customer Reviews

The Last Starfighter (Collector's Edition) (Widescreen)

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first saw this movie when it was released to the theaters, so I have forgotten it, and it seemed completely new! Like I was back in the 80s... In almost every scene, I had the same comment to make - is that it? There is almost no tension or suspense in thie movie, and I was always looking for more. This could have been a much beter movie! It would be a good movie to watch if your Dr. told you to avoid stress!

This film is populated by stock characters. The hero, a senior teen, wants to get away from the trailer park where he lives with his mother and is the de facto handyman. His girlfriend is a sweet person whose chief concern besides the the hero is her "granny". The hero's little brother about age eleven has a collection of Playboy magazines and is kept in line by the threat of disclosure. The chief nasty, who chews the scenery, has joined forces with a powerful alien race which wants to conquer the chief nasty's confederation of planets where the scenery-chewer wishes to rule.
What brings the two sides together is an arcade starfighter game which the hero learns to use so well he breaks the record. On the heels of that success comes an alien, a galactic headhunter, drawn there by the hero's success. Eventually , the hero trained by the arcade game as a gunner is teamed with a reptilian mercinary pilot, to whom the hero refer as a "gung ho iguana". Through circumstances, the pair become all that is left of the defence force.
What separates this plot and its characters from a rejected Star Trek episode is Centauri, the headhunter, played with great gusto by Robert Preston in his best Prof. Harold Hill voice and manner from The Music Man. He lights up the sky and the film.
The special effects are primitive but adequate; the aliens interesting enough. For all its limitations, the film is a pleasant enough evening's entertainment.

This is a pretty cheesy movie.
I guess my memory is failing me - I thought I liked it when I was younger.
Robert Preston is the only thing worth watching in this awfully scripted movie, and he is greatly under used and given horrible lines to speak.
The movie is hurried and has huge opportunities for character and plot development which it shamefully wastes.
And the special effects are dreadful - not even up to par for the technology available at that time.
What a waste of a good story and talent.

Hot on the heels of the then-defunct Star Wars franchise came The Last Starfighter. There had been other copycat films before (see: Battlestar Galactica) but none were as successful as The Last Starfighter. The theme that they both have in common was the young boy, stuck in the doldrums of his daily life, aching to get away and make something of himself. The Last Starfighter wore its theme on its sleeve. Like Otis says in the opening scenes, "When life gives you a chance, you gotta grab on with both hands and hang on tight!"

I recently re-watched my old DVD and was shocked to see how bad that 1998 release looked. Certain frames had sections that were washed out, I could see a hair on the film, and there were plenty of scratches that begged for digital restoration. I immediately went out and bought the blu-ray. Suddenly, everything was crisp and clear in glorious 1080p hi-def. All the defects I noticed before had been cleaned up. The film looks great!

Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) is your average American teen living somewhere in the southern states (Arizona? New Mexico?) in a trailer park. His application for a loan has been rejected and it looks like he's going to be stuck going to city college with the locals. His dream of finally getting out has been quashed. However, Alex has a talent -- more accurately, "the gift" -- to be a Starfighter. Only he doesn't know it yet. All he knows is that he just scored 1,000,000 points on a video game called "Starfighter".

Light years away, the peaceful planet of Rylos is about to be invaded by the traitor Xur, who has declared himself Emperor (Star Wars?), and the deadly Kodan armada. Rylos' best hope are the Starfighters: an elite group of fighters who have mastered the gunnary station aboard the powerful Gunstar starships. And that video game was more than a game. It was simulator, planted there by the alien Centauri (Robert Preston in his final role), and designed to find someone with "the gift" to be a Starfighter.

In short order, Centauri appears, as a 70 year old man in a (then) futuristic car. He whisks Alex away across the lightyears to Rylos where the whole situation is explained to him. One problem though: Alex doesn't want to go. He doesn't want to die for a war he'd never heard of before, far from home. Will he eventually remember Otis' advice? Will he grab hold of this chance with both hands and hold on tight?

What made The Last Starfighter unique was that it had a dual plot. While Alex has been swept away to the stars, he has been replaced back home with a Beta unit that looks exactly like him. These scenes ground the movie and provide much of the comedy relief, as Beta tries to understand Alex's girlfriend Maggie (Mary Catherine Stewart). Beta also doubles as a a target, a decoy. Once Xur learns that there might be a Starfighter on Earth, he sends a (really cool looking) Zandozan assassin to eliminate him.

Humour, action, cool looking aliens and fascinating early CG animation all make The Last Starfighter an interesting viewing. Although now it looks horribly dated, it is easy to overlook the primitive CG and just get into the story and characters. The only way this movie could work, then and now, is if you can suspend your disbelief and get into the characters. Thankfully, some stellar performances make that easy to do.

Bonus features are excellent. The original DVD documentary from the 90's is included, as well as a brand new one in 1080i hi-def. Both Lance Guest and Mary Catherine Stewart appear and provide fascinating insight. As a kid, I always suspected that the Beta version of Guest was wearing a wig as the hair never looked right. Guest confirms this: Many of the Beta scenes were added as an afterthought, and he had already cut his hair. Stewart is good humoured about her awful Michael Bay moment ("I love you Alex Rogan").

The Last Starfighter, while looking dated, is still a timeless story and it should still grab the imaginations of kids today. It certainly still holds mine.

5 stars.

One of the fondest memories of my childhood was watching this movie while eating a Chef-Boy-Ardee sausage pizza. (remember those?) Many hot summer days were spent enjoying the adventure of Alex Rogan travelling to Rylos and realizing his dreams and his destiny as a Starfighter with his navigator, Grigg. This is one of those inexplicably optimistic films that popped up in the 80's. Despite the fact that the special effects may look dated now, the story is timeless and well written for this genre. The video presentation on this DVD is rather crisp and clear but the audio could be a "little" better. Still, this is a wonderful film for kids and nostalgic adults alike. Oh, the extras are nice as well. I hadn't seen the "Making of" documentary since it appeared on HBO when I was a kid. This is a wonderful film.

An interesting little film of how a dead-end kid is forced to become a galactic hero, because of his facility at a computer game, which is a secret recruiting station for starfighter pilots. The computer-generated graphics, advanced for their time, now look ridiculously crude, but it somehow adds to the quaintness of the whole thing, with marvellous performances from Lance Guest as the reluctant hero, Robert Preston as the likeably roguish Centauri who is prepared not so much to bend the rules as to smash them into very tiny fragments and Dan O'Herily as Grigg, the lizard co-pilot whose dream is to go down fighting against impossible odds!

If you're looking for a masterpiece film that rewrites the sci-fi genre with intense drama and gritty characters, this isn't the movie for you. If you're looking for a really fun film that's a great mix of Star Wars, Saturday morning cartoons, and video games then stick this in your DVD player.

The movie's special effects hold up suprisingly well, considering that they're 20 years old. When Alex Rogan is flying the gunstar, it's like you're there with him, especially if you grew up loving this film. The characters are developed enough that you care, but not so much that it's like a daytime soap opera. Two thumbs up!

In 1984, Lorimar Film Entertainment and Universal Pictures joined forces to create a very engaging and entertaining sci-fi film entitled "The Last Starfighter". Directed by Nick Castle, the story begins in the dreary and dusty "Starlite Starbrite" trailer park where the teenager Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) lives with his mother Jane Rogan (Barbara Bosson) and his inquisitive little brother Louis Rogan (Chris Hebert). Alex has very little free time for himself as he has become the de facto trailer park maintenance man, repairing various problems in neighbors' trailers. He would like to go to college and leave the trailer park behind, but his mother's meager wages make that impossible. His girlfriend Maggie Gordon (Catherine Mary Stewart) also lives in the trailer park. When not with Maggie, Alex's favorite enjoys playing a videogame called Starfighter located next to the trailer park's office. Alex becomes very skilled at beating the videogame to the delight of trailer park residents. One night, a mysterious, fast-talking man named Centauri (Robert Preston, 1918-1987) pulls up in a fancy car. After asking about who beat the videogame, he invites Alex to join him in his car for a meeting. To Alex's dismay, Centauri drives them away from the trailer park and then into outer space, where he takes Alex to the planet Rylos so that he can become a real starfighter to fight the evil Xur (Norman Snow) and the Kodan armada.

With inspiration from the first three "Star Wars" films (which were released in 1977, 1980 & 1983), the highly successful 1982 videogame-based film "Tron" and the overall popularity of videogames in the 1980's, "The Last Starfighter" is a fun film to watch and was one of the earliest films to use computer-generated graphics to depict outer space scenes. As always, Robert Preston did a magnificent job of acting in what unfortunately was his last big-screen appearance. Lance Guest's portrayal of Alex was probably not as good as Mark Hamill's portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the 1977 "Star Wars", but it was good enough to keep the film's momentum going. Catherine Mary Stewart did do a good job with her portrayal of Maggie. Other memorable characters in the film include Alex's lizardy copilot Grig (Dan O'Herlihy), trailer park manager Otis (Vernon Washington, 1927-1988), trailer park resident Elvira (Peggy Pope), Maggie's grandmother (Meg Wyllie, 1917-2002, who played the Talosian Keeper in the original 1965 "Star Trek" TV series pilot "The Cage" that was later refashioned as the two-part episode "The Minagerie"), Lord Kril (Dan Mason) and Enduran (Kay E. Kuter, 1925-2003). Memorable scenes include Alex at the trailer park, Alex beating the videogame, Centauri's arrival and trip into space, Alex's arrival on Rylos, meeting the other starfighter pilots, the surprise attack, Alex talking with his beta unit, the Kodan spy, Alex's time with Grig, the battle scenes and the final scenes. Overall, I rate "The Last Starfighter" with 4 out of 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 is stuck in a small trailer community and dreams of being more. Due to a misplaced video game (a game? No a test) he gets the opportunity to save The Star League form Xur and the KO-DAN armada as the last starfighter.
Well selected actors including Robert Preston. Also 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?

The Movie:
When I was young, "The Last Starfighter" always held my attention with it's awesome CG effects. Now I'm older, CG Film Effects are far more advanced, but this film still holds up! With its mix of exciting action, romance, and CG effects that are as fresh now as they were in 1984, "The Last Starfighter" is a remarkable film that will remain a masterpiece for years to come! Movie Grade: A+
DVD Review:
"The Last Starfighter" is given an exceptional DVD release! The picture has never been mor exquisite, the sound never more clear. The behind-the-scenes documentary is one of the best ever produced. With DVD, "The Last Starfighter" will last forever! DVD Grade: A+