Subject: Retrospective: Last Starfighter, The (1984)

From: Dennis Schwartz <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 2002 17:58:44 -0000

LAST STARFIGHTER, THE (director: Nick Castle; screenwriter: Jonathan R.
Betuel; cinematographer: King Baggot; editor: C. Timothy O'Meara; music: Craig
Safan; cast: Lance Guest (Alex Rogan), Robert Preston (Centauri), Dan O'Herlihy
(Grig), Catherine Mary Stewart (Maggie Gordon), Kay E. Kuter (Enduran), Norman
Snow (Xur), Barbara Bosson (Jane Rogan), Chris Hebert (Louis Rogan), John Maio
(Alien), John O'Leary (Rylan Bursar); Runtime: 100; Warner Bros.; 1984) 

"It features a bland story and acting, but it has a certain charm that makes
this teen sci-fi'er endearing." 

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz 

Alex Rogan (Guest) is a high school senior living with his mother and younger
brother in a backwater trailer park who aspires to go to an out of town college
and escape his dull life, but his application for a loan is turned down. Feeling
despondent, the youth goes to his trailer park office and plays his favorite
video game where he's piloting his Gunstar ship to protect the Frontier against
Xur and the Kodan Armada. He beats the Starfighter game and the park residents
gleefully spread the word that Alex is their hero. He is approached shortly
afterwards by the game's fast-talking inventor Centauri (Preston) and asked to
come with him in his souped-up sportscar for his surprise prize. It turns out
he's taken in a spacecraft to another planet, where he's recruited to fight in
an intergalactic war against a superior enemy that simulates the video game. On
the planet Rylos, he's pitted against Xur (traitor son of the Rylan leader) and
the Kodan Armada (a gaggle of aliens). They are the same characters from the
game, but this is real-life. Alex is given the honor of being a Starfighter and
in taking on the invading enemy's entire Armada. If all that sounds
preposterous, it is because that's what it is. Thankfully the film doesn't take
itself seriously and it's all played for laughs as a parody of such sci-fi
flicks. 

The film follows two stories. The first is Alex's story of fighting on the side
of one alien army over the other, which he first refuses to do but when he
returns to Earth and is attacked by enemy aliens and soon finds out that all the
other Starfighters were killed and only he can save the universe -- he returns
to Rylos. Here he receives help from a reptilian-looking creature called Grig
(O'Herlihy), who trains him and becomes his pilot as he becomes the gunner. The
second is the story of "Beta," the simuloid beta unit who looks just like Alex
and replaces him in the trailer park so no one will know he's missing. This
makes for some pretty funny stuff as the robot has to fool his wiseacre kid
brother, Louis (Herbert), who collects Playboy magazines and is totally
obnoxious, into thinking he's having a nightmare when the robot has to make
mechanical repairs on his ear and takes off his head in full view of him. He
also has to fight off hot girlfriend Maggie (Stewart) when he's not sure of what
to do to her sexually. On top of that, there are bounty hunters who can't tell
one Alex from another and hunt the Beta down on Earth. 

The computer-animated special effects were good for the eighties, and the video
game looked just like the war battles. This one is a must see for video-junkies
and those who like off the wall cult films. It features a bland story and
acting, but it has a certain charm that makes this teen sci-fi'er endearing. It
is also derivative of Star Wars, having the same heroic journey of someone who
came out of nowhere to save the world for the good of mankind. 

REVIEWED ON 6/11/2002     GRADE: C 

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews" 

© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED   DENNIS SCHWARTZ 

http://www.sover.net/~ozus

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X-RT-RatingText: C