Rating: Summary: I enjoy it every time I watch it! Review: I am so glad that you have recognized this movie! It will hold your interest and it's a good "boy meets girl" show with a minimum of violence and the show makes you fantasize a little which I thoroughly enjoyed!
Rating: Summary: a classic 80's sci-fi picture Review: This is one of the sci-fi movies that I fondly remember from my childhood. Everytime it runs on TV I still have to stop and watch it. It is that good. I think two things that set this apart are the performance of Robert Preston.And the trailer park/girlfriend scenario. I find the scenes with the replacement Alien and the girlfriend to be hilarious sort of like "Starman" but more entertaining. Good film!
Rating: Summary: fun, easy movie to watch, worth seeing again and again Review: special effects almost on par with later Lucas work. Robert Preston steals every scene he is in, unintentionally, He knows this is a fun, not really serious, movie and it works. Everybody else seems to follow his lead. If not for Star Wars similarities in storyline, would have been bigger box office hit, seems to be a hit at video stores.
Rating: Summary: great movie, disappointing DVD Review: I have literally waited for years for the wide-screen edition of this movie to be released (laserdisk never did so), so I bought the DVD immediately. With the exception of a couple of places where thin white vertical lines appeared on the screen (don't know if it's a poor original or a bad pressing), the picture quality was satisfactory -- not great, a little grainy for my taste. But what's unforgiveable is the so-called bonus materials. (1) Every time you start the DVD, you are 'treated' to a collage of boring images from Universal movies along with the Universal logo. At first I thought it was an ad. It is. It's just that is for everything from Universal. This outrageous use of forced viewing will cause me to return a DVD next time. (2) The so-called cast pictures are poorly chosen and you can't control the rate at which they are displayed. A complete waste of time. (3) The director's voice-over method doesn't do much for me. I want to hear the director talk about the film, and illustrate with a few well-chosen segments. I don't know about you, but I'm not going to watch an entire movie and listen to someone drone on in the background throughout. This so-called Collector's Edition was poorly thought out, and is an insult to the user. Thank goodness this is one of the truly wonderful films of the scifi genre. It actually has human characters. The story is Romantic (a quest), but it is well done -- inspiring if you're young, touching if you're older. And there are wonderful camera touches throughout that make you say, "Wow, I really love movies!" Although the graphics are not up to StarWars standards, it's okay, because what you're really in it for is the story. I'd write to Criterion and see if they're going to release this film on DVD before buying this shoddily produced regular commercial release. Universal should be ashamed of themselves for taking this deserving film and doing such a mediocre job with it on DVD.
Rating: Summary: excellant on this format but commentary kinda lame Review: This has always been one of my favorite videos to watch over and over. I couldn't wait for it to come out on dvd and i must say it was well worth the wait. The lame print that came out last year in vhs looked somewhat washed out. But the dvd really brings the colors back in its theatrical glory. The Lance Guest intro was outstanding.
Rating: Summary: One of the Ten Best "Forgotten" Sci-Fi Classics Review: Simple, straightforward and fun, "The Last Starfighter" is one of those movies you loved as a kid...and one that you can still find things to enjoy and appreciate as an adult.The movie may best be remembered in the annals of sci-fi history as the first to extensively use computer-generated special effects for it's space-combat scenes, and that's a pity. The film also features some wonderful performances (one of the last by Robert Preston), some memorable and fun characters, and some of the best design and effects work of any non-Star-Wars/Star-Trek film of the 1980's.A great afternoon time-killer...and it's about damned time they got it in letterbox. A real treat!
Rating: Summary: Fantastic, fun filled, true sci-fi action adventure!! Review: If you are looking for a fun movie, I recomend this one! I've watched it a million times (well, not THAT many times) and I love it every time. It's got the action, the romance and the heroism. It was made before violence was the "in" thing in the movie media, so I feel that this is appropriate for all ages. I highly reccomend it!
Rating: Summary: Excellent, with a taste of cheese. Review: I know it's not out yet, but I just wanted to share some comments. My brother and I hold this movie as one of our favorites. With impressive special effects ( for the time), funny dialog, and believable characters (OK, Xur gets a little silly, but still), The Last Starfighter is a great one for all ages. The DVD promises to be the best version available yet, especially considering the only available version is a "censored" release with a very bad pan-and-scan job from F.H.E. I can't wait for this to come out.
Rating: Summary: Great movie for its time! Review: I grew up with this movie when I was in junior high school. For me it reflected every kids dream. The specail effects I think were very good for the amount of money that was spent on the making of the movie. I also believe it should be considered a sci-fi classic I give it 4 stars, a great movie!
Rating: Summary: Entertaining adventure movie Review: In the tradition of Atari games, whiz kids and teen adventure and fantasy movies, there it comes. A boy, who used to play an arcade game in his trailer park, got to break the record and he passed the test to become a starfighter. That arcade was designed by aliens to find starfighters to defend the frontier against evil forces. The environment is some mix between Star Wars, Buck Rogers and a Sci-Fi comic book of 80's. Computer animated sequences can be recognized due to lack of textures (What am I supposed to expect from a movie of 1984?). They looks like Tron. However, animation and direction makes you feel combat scenes are better than the Sci-Fi sequences of "The mind's eye". The argument tells you how a common boy which had a girlfriend is about to become a starfighter and make his dreams come true. In this aspect the movie takes you through the fascination that reminds Close Encounters of the Third Kind and E.T. The argument has two backdraws. First, the pilot of the ship (the recruited boy is not the pilot but the gunner and the star of the movie) does not take his role so seriously and that reduces the thrill level it could have. Second, the villain is not as siniester as he should be. From Darth Vader to The Joker, villains are an important part of the story. Villains should match or exceed hero capabilities so that their confrontation may result a challenge and some emotion may be added. This is not the case. However, a very very good soundtrack (it has the same quality of John Williams scores) and very good direction makes this "so so and easy to ruin argument" to be an entertaining space adventure movie despite of writer's lack of imagination for space culture design (he performs good when not in space). I should notice that the concept of this movie is interesting and entertaining but it required quite a bit more to be excellent rather than good. This is a non ambitious commercial movie of 1984 that tried to promote arcade games and animated computer wonders, so you may not expect deep feelings analisys like in "Enemy mine" (1985) or the thrill of "War games" (1983). I should notice that this movie does not contain the violence level of today movies and in my opinion, despite of its simplicity, it is better than Babylon 5 which seems to be an expensive "Space station last starfighter" rerun. Just my opinion. All in all, it is a very nice entertaining movie for teens and a good remembrance for those of us who lived in the Atari era.
|