Rating: 
Summary: Funny, Scary, Cool, makes you go "Hmmm..."
Review: By this time, the movie shows its age. The music is sappy and dated - mid 1960s to early 1970s. The plot is as good as 2001: A Space Oddyssey, and this could easily have had some influence on that movie's development.This movie has many funny moments. The Alien is a huge beach ball filled with gas. The Bombs and existential discussions with them remind one of "The HitchHiker's Guide..." The scares have more to do with man vs machine than actual threats on lives. The cool thing about this movie is how it shows the monotony of space travel. When things go wrong, it shows the apathy that grows among the crew, how they procrastinate in emergencies. If you rent or buy this, you WILL be entertained as it has elements of all the mentioned works and more: it ends with a space-surfer. Oh, and it was written and directed by JOHN CARPENTER (Ghosts Of Mars, Vampires, HALLOWEEN, Escape From N.Y. / L.A.).
Rating:
Summary: cheap entertainment!
Review: bargain basement 1st feature from JC and dan o bannon has some laughs despite miniscule budget made in 1974
Rating: 
Summary: Some folks should do some homework
Review: I've noticed many of the reviews for this little gem have been positive. However, to the folks who bagged on it, perhaps they should do a little reading about the history of the film and then look at it from that perspective. The movie was the final USC film project of John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon and has excellent production design by Ron Cobb (who went on to other classics like Blade Runner). It was originally about 45 minutes long, but Jack Harris provided funds to add footage so that it could make the rounds at drive-ins. So, yes the film is low budget. But, the work and effort that went into shows through every frame. Yes, it was a beach ball. Its a joke. Get it.
Rating: 
Summary: God Awful!
Review: This is one of the most God awful films I've ever seen. Except for the interaction with the bomb, it was boooorrrring! In one interminal scene, one of the characters farts around with a beach ball for cryin' out loud! Don't waste your money on this dog.
Rating:
Summary: If I could bottle this cure for insomnia, I'd be rich...
Review: After reading the reviews, I thought I'd give this one a try. I shouldn't have. What I should have done was paid more attention to the reviews that stated that this film isn't for everyone. I would have saved myself some money. It looks like a low-budget (which I guess it is), amateurish film -- along the lines of the Blair Witch Project, which I didn't care for either. But heck, I liked that better than this. And yes, I realize they're two totally different genres. It's like watching a home made movie that maybe your uncle made while following someone around with his camcorder. I will admit that a few scenes made me smile simply because they made me think of the fun the actors and directors must have had making such a campy film. But with that said, I expected more than what I got so I didn't care for it. Heck, I didn't even finish it. But to its credit, it solved my insomnia at least for one night.
Rating:
Summary: five stars for quality with budget they had
Review: This is an excellent movie and has very good special effects for what resources O'Bannon and Carpenter had. I especially liked the hyper-speed sceen with the planet zipping away and the ship disappearing into hyperspace. This was a funny movie, especially O'Bannon's character, which was the most deranged of the bunch. "I don't like the men on this spaceship, they do not appreciate my 'finer' qualities."
This film gives you an idea of what space travel would most likely be like. Just a series of meanial chores and boredom. Much like a job at a warehouse(and feeding the rabid dog) and no weekend off at the beach.
I have the cassete version of this and the expansion scenes are at the end of the tape instead of integrated.
Rating: 
Summary: Well worth your time
Review: Dark Star is a very clever and funny film. The special effects are incredible considering the miniscule budget that the makers of this Sci-Fi fantasy had to work with. It makes bad, big budget disasters like "Supernova" look even worse by comparison.
Rating:
Summary: "Lt. Pinback, It's Time to Feed the Alien Beachball."
Review: If you can keep a straight face after the Elevator Scene, you are deader than Kai of the Lexx. On a serious note, For all the complaints about cheesy effects and low-budget, this is likely to be closer to the REALITY of Deep Space Exploration in the next century - the months and years of boredom and loneliness, the disappointments and frustrations, the all-too-human screwups that may kill entire crews, than any other SF film I've ever seen.
Rating:
Summary: Come in Bomb Number 20, Your Time is UP!
Review: I saw this film years ago on T.V. and it tickled my insanity bone no end. Quite simply it is a classic to end all classics, from the first moment you meet the four man crew who are as dysfunctional as they come, to the Captain who's dead but not really dead because his head is kept alive and he talks to the crew, not mention the suicidal Bomb No: 20 that wants to end it all and has to be talked out of detonating itself every so often. Quirky, crass, rude and totally irreverent, this is John Carpenter's brilliant portrayal of life above and beyond. The ending is superb with the bomb getting its wish to end it all, and a crew member finding out that there is nothing cooler in the universe than using the bomb as a giant skateboard. Wonderful, wonderful pulp science fiction that is ludicrous as it is poignant.
Rating:
Summary: Great Fun
Review: The first time I saw Dark Star was back in the 70's when it first came out in the theatres. Out of my group of friends who saw it with me, I was the only one who thought that Dark Star was a great movie. The idea of a near psychotic crew, a space ship on the verge of total systems failure, a playful beachball alien, happily suicidal planet buster bombs, a popsicle for a commanding officer, and a sad but funny ending...I don't know, maybe it had been done before, but at the time it seemed like the most original sci fi movie that I had ever seen. I loved it so much, that it was the first VHS tape I ever purchased. This is one of those movies that have great quotable lines, second only to Monty Python and the Holy Grail. If you're seeing it for the first time, don't expect the high cinema. The acting is mediocre, the sets are low budget, and the special effects, though passable for the time, are nothing compared to today's overly perfect, computer generated FX. However, these shortfalls add to the overall charm of the movie, and if they remade Dark Star, using today's technologies and standards, it would totally ruin the story. In my humble opinion, John Carpenter's first film (or maybe it was his second) was his best.
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