The Last Starfighter

I just pulled this out and watched it recently. Great film. I was pondering whether I wanted to get the blu-ray or not.

 

https://www.yahoo.com/movies/the-last-starfighter-sequel-118964499732.html

 

Well, it doesn't sound like a sequel is likely to be made any time soon, but that was a great article nonetheless, very thoroughly researched by the writer.

 

I loved this movie in the mid 80's when I was in my early teens. The computer graphics were really good for the time period I thought (at the time). I then bought it on DVD in the late 90's. The most recent I watched it was roughly 10 or so years ago. I still enjoyed it.
It was my mom - who at the time brought it home for me on VHS. A co-worker of hers recorded it from their HBO or whatever it was on at the time and I was hooked on it.
I had the same experience with another favorite movie of mine from the same period and that was 'Night Of The Comet'.

 

Ah, Catherine Mary Stewart. IMHO, she is the greatest asset of Starfighter and Night Of The Comet (also, you might like 1980's The Apple). She's... just... so........... 80s!

Gung-ho iguanas and Centauri are all that, but Mags is the topper!

 

Right there with you on Catherine. Whew!

 

I just saw her on a rerun on 'Knight Rider' the other night. I recognized her, but couldn't remember who she was. It's kind of funny that this thread happened to pop up today.

 

I have GOT to see Night Of The Comet again. I love when she dumps the dust out of the shoe.

 

love it! I have both DVD editions.

 

I loved it when I was ten and in theaters. Even collected the Marvel 4 issue limited series adaptation at the time. Now, I still like it for nostalgic reasons but it's pretty clear that it was made for kids my age in 1984. The scenes on Earth with the clonebot and the hit alien work the best for me as an adult.

 

Just saw her the other day on Weekend at Bernie's. Here's a recent picture of her from a convention.

 

Here's the two ladies from back in 2011.

 

Time is a thief.

 

Yeah, but I'd be willing to wager that she looks way better than any of us.

Just sayin'

 

Godamighty, this was a bad film. Bad, bad, bad. Horrible effects, trite story, terrible performances. Awful.

 

a great flick, made special by Robert Preston

 

I was reading though the comments in this thread, not believing all of the favorable ones. Better than Star Wars? Come on.

Lance Guest's performance is less than one dimensional. He has one move through the entire movie. It's a reaction shot where he looks surprised. Sometimes he modulates it to stunned.

Dan O'Herlihy is wasted under all the make-up. If we couldn't see his eyes, he wouldn't be there at all.

Robert Preston almost saves the film but his part is really a glorified cameo. He's only in a fraction of the movie. Professor Harold Hill in space, he's a huckster we never get to know.

And then there are the effects, which look like they were done on a Commodore 64. I guess the producers deserve an attaboy for trying to have the dramatic climax of the movie told through primitive CG work but they also could have done it through models and stop motion. Remember, this was after Star Wars set the high bar for a sci-fi film. They should have come up with an extra $500,000 in the budget and had some decent special effects.

Sorry, but the only thing good about this film is that it was The Last Starfighter. I'm grateful there wasn't a sequel.

 

For fans of the Craig Safan score, it's worth noting that it has been reissued by Intrada in an expanded edition , their MAF-7139. If you never managed to find a cheap example of the original Intrada (or Southern Cross) CD presentations, you've got a new option now.

As far as I'm concerned, it was a very fun film to watch and I'm glad I have it on a variety of formats. Robert Preston did an excellent job, Lance Guest was a credible fellow and Dan O'Herlihy was great.

 

Oh come on. I owned one of those and the effects weren't nearly that bad. Besides, I have it on good authority that they made the CGI on a Commodore Amiga, NOT the 64.

 

A pal of mine in the early 1980s worked for Digital Productions on a Cray XMP (then the most powerful computer in the world) on the visual effects for the film, and invited me to a cast & crew screening. Afterwards, we were milling around in the lobby and he asked me what I thought of the film, with an older gentleman standing next to him. I started ranting about how I thought the visual effects weren't a breakthrough at all, because they were no better than what had been done before in Empire Strikes Back, and that much of what they showed could've been done just as well with motion-control and traditional model photography.

I got into a polite back-and-forth debate with the unidentified gentleman, and told him at one point, "I could clearly see that there were little wooden model figures flying inside the spaceships, nothing that actually looked alive. The whole effort feels like a step backwards to me." He seemed a little bewildered. After a few more minutes, the guy walked away and my friend kind of winced and said, "gee, I wish you had been nicer to the director!"

 

I think it was and was intended to be a fun flick for kids and their youngish parents, not to be taken too seriously nor criticized for obvious special effects, which add a campy element.

 

Was taken to this film as a kid on my birthday the summer it came out and have remembered it fondly ever since. A wonderful fantasy.

 

I don't doubt some little kids loved it. But anybody past their teens would watch this and say, "eh, it's a Star Wars ripoff plus some video game crap and some very generic action/adventure stuff churned in." There's always former kids who will love something purely out of nostalgia, and I get that. But looked upon from the distance of 30 years, you gotta say the movie is terrible today. Star Wars still holds up very well, as do most genuine classics of that era.

 

I remember it fondly as a movie enjoyed as a fun family experience.

 

I have the Blu-ray, unopened, sitting on a shelf in my closet. Are you telling me I should keep it there?