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Starman

Starman

List Price: $14.94
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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Starman Rules
Review: Buy it. Rent it. Call a friend who owns it, but you must see this movie. It's too good to miss. I don't know why a sequel hasn't been made or at the very least, a TV series. Hollywood, give us a break and make another one. PLEASE!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: "John Carpenter's Starman"
Review: Starman (PG) ****/5
Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith, Richard Jaeckel, Robert Phalen.
Directed by: John Carpenter.
Synopsis: An alien takes the form of a widow's dead husband. He must evade government agents in time to return to his own planet.
Special Features: Trailers.
Review: John Carpenter directing a romance? Yes it is true one of the signs of the apocalypse has come to pass. Widow Karen Allen can't get over the death of her husband, but when a visiting alien takes his form (Jeff Bridges) they must flee government agents who are desperate to catch the alien. This film is sweet, funny, and yes an enjoyable chick flick. (Hm is that the second sign of the apocalypse?) As for the cast they are all fantastic. I bought every performance. Karen Allen and Jeff Bridges give the performances of their lives wow! Carpenter directs his chick flick with unbelievable style. This is just further proof Carpenter is the greatest director of all time. As for the DVD? Get off your rears Columbia/Tri Star and go make my special Edition of this and "Vampires" NOW!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Jeff Bridges At His Best
Review: This was Jeff Bridges best performance for me. In contrast to his most recent film K-PAX (about anothe supposed alien), Jeff received an Acadamy Award nomination for this film. And he deserved it.

Directed by John Carpenter (Holloween, Chrisine, Escape From New YOrk and Vampires) this story tells the tale of a visitor from another world taking the form of a deseased truck driver and learning what there is to learn about the human race.

It also stars Karen Allen fresh from her gig on Raiders OF The Lost Ark. Both give a stellar performance but Jeff gives the alien a subtlty that makes you belive this entity is learning about his "physical being". He has special powers and often uses them to "save" life, but he can't understand why.

A scientist on his side (the FBI is trying to capture and disect him) asks him why he is here and in response the alien replies - "Do you know what I find most beautiful about your people? You are at your very best when things are worse."

That statemnet hit home and made the point of the film very clear. It's got romance, action adventure and lots of special effects. I just wish the DVD had a commentary with Jeff Brtidges and Karen Allen. That would be interesting!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Jeff Bridges is great in unearthly love story
Review: STARMAN [Amazon] [Jeff Bridges, Karen Allen, Charles Martin Smith / Directed by John Carpenter / 1984 / 115 minutes / Rated PG-13]

This 1984 movie about a space alien who takes on the physical appearance of a young woman's dead husband hasn't aged as well as some sci-fi movie of the period because the special effects now seem especially cheesy. That aspect, however, was never among the reasons to see "Starman". What makes it worthwhile are it quirky, touching love story, its gentle humor, and Jeff Bridges extraordinary performance as the alien, for which he received an Oscar nomination. Here, he proved himself to be among the great physical actors of his generation. Even if the story itself were not so strong, it would be worth watching the movie simply to see Bridges.

Starman comes to visit our planet after we launch a satellite that broadcasts an 'invitation' to any intelligent life that might be out there. As you might expect, though, when he gets here, the first thing our military does is to shoot him down. After bailing out, he makes his way to the isolated home of Jenny Hayden [Karen Allen], the widow. While she is sleeping, he looks around the house and finds some home movies and a photo album. This is how he finds and assumes the shape off her husband [we never see Starman's real shape]. His actions awaken her, and she has a shocked first encounter with this apparition. As military helicopters approach, Starman has no choice but to commandeer Jenny and her car for a mad dash across the country to Arizona, where he has one chance to rendezvous with a rescue ship from home. Along the way, they have many exciting adventures. They also discover that compassion and love may be truly universal.

This is a lovely, touching film and certainly an atypical one for director John Carpenter.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Starman Shines
Review: John Carpenter's STARMAN can be accused of stealing from everyone from Spielberg to every science fiction picture that came before, but there is a lot more to this film than most and its a surprise from John Carpenter. An alien comes to earth and somehow takes on the form of a widoed woman's (Karen Allen) late husband (Jeff Bridges). The military finds out about it, and as usual they go after him/it. The movie is part road picture, romance, and sci-fi. Everything about this movie would dictate predictability , but the main ingredient is that it has characters to really care about. Karen Allen's character is still in mourning for her late husband and the alien/husband Jeff Bridges is a shock to the system. Then comes the road picture where she relunctantly helps him for his rendezvous to be saved by his alien kin for he can only survive a short time in the human form. And in all road pictures of this sort, these people will fall in love. Again, the plot is somewhat predictable. It has conventional military characters especially the George Fox character played by the late great character actor Richard Jaeckel and the government scientist played by Charles Martin Smith. Through all the conventionalism, the movie works partly because of Jeff Bridges quirky performance way ahead of Dustin Hoffman's Rain Man or Tom Hanks' Forrest Gump, and the romantic angle of the two main leads. The movie generates more repeat viewings than Spielberg's E.T. because it doesn't have all those kids running around trying to be cute, it is less manipulative, and it is light on the sugercoating. A great piece of work from the guy who directed horror classics like Halloween and The Thing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Star movie
Review: I was touched deeply by this "corny" movie about the love
between Karen Allen, a grieving widow, and Jeff Bridges, her alien lover. The performances were exquisite: Jeff's attempts at being human, like the first drag on a cigarette, were hilarious and touching, as was Karen's innocent responses. Something about the movie just grabbed me as few movies have.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Starman could have been better.
Review: Starman is spoiled by director John Carpenter's penchant for throwaway jokes.It could and should have been better.
For example,when Karen Allen's character is asked to define love,she puts in a really moving performance only to have the scene spoiled by a silly joke at the end.
In the finale,a silly scene of Bridges kissing a man is another throway joke that spoils the ending.
Despite this,Starman is still a good film.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of my top 10 of all time
Review: This is definately a movie for all you hopeless romantics out there ! It is sad and hopeful at the same time. I loved Jeff Bridges in this. He and Karen Allen make a wonderful team and there is real electricity. I still cry every time I watch this.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Karen Allen made this film work!!!
Review: It is such a sad thing that the great actress Karen Allen has not made much films lately. I just absolutely love her in this small gem of a film. I saw this back when I was a kid and I still cry in the ending where "Starman" tells her again good-bye. She just made this movie work. Not to say that Jeff Bridges performance wasn't good enough to deserve an Oscar nomination but why did Karen Allen get left out of a nomination? Her performance was also equal to that of Jeff Bridgers. I mean from a grieving widow who hit the bottle, to being able to show the true emotions of being scared and a willing hostage and to finally fall in love again and that tear jerking ending where she doesn't want him to leave. That part...I have to say looked so real, she showed what it really is to be left behind. But to me what really made me a fan of hers was the part of the movie where she asks him what his planet is like. He says that his planet is civilized. She looks at him and smiles. He then tells her what he will miss of "the planet earth" is the music, the singing, the dancing. She is looking at him expecting him to say that he will miss her too. You can just see her hope of wanting him to say the right thing. That he will say he will miss her most of all. But her hopes are dashed when he says "and all the others things". Her face just falls and you can just see hurt in her eyes mixed with love and little bit of hope that he will say the right thing later. I love that scene. Don't ask me why. I guess it is true that anyone who sees a movie sees something different. The role of Jenny Hayden must of been a hard role. It had to be to have to express so many emotions. If Julia Roberts won an Oscar for having the ability to say four-letter-words on cue then why the hell couldn't Karen Allen have been nominated back when this movie came out. Ohh the injustice of it all. Well I just hope Karen Allen makeing more movies. She is a wonderful actress who is beautiful and talented.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Let it stay buried in the past .
Review: I wish I hadn't seen this movie . My reason for seeing it in the first place was my appreciation of Jeff Bridges' recent works . I'd thought that seeing his earlier works could come out like seeing the earlier works of De Niro , Eastwood or Brando - great amount of pleasure , excitement and obvious milestones of the acting profession . It turned up to be a long time goner that really hasn't stood the test of time .

Honestly , Bridges is not to blame , even if he did play his role quite apatheticly in part of the time . The script , plot , state of affairs et cetera does not stand in today's standards ; the feeling I got seeing it , was the same feeling I got seeing the A-team , Macgyver and Alf old episodes in the last few years : I liked it as a child and I like it no more . The advancement of nowadays storytelling , script writing and presentation looks extra astounding compared to this film's performance .

A good thing I can say is that the film really represents the modesty , nativity , and yes , hypocrisy of the eighties as they were characterized by PART of that era's media : Minimal violence , covered up bodies (taken to the extreme) and values that in today's eyes would seem ridiculous and detached from reality (that is , the reality the motion pictures sell of course) .

To conclude , if you like Bridges too , look for him in other movies and let this one rest in peace - buried deep in the past .


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