The Last Starfighter (1984)

Absolutely Brilliant!

It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

A recent high school grad (Lance Guest as Alex Rogan) lives in a rural traier park that his mother runs. Despite having a great girlfriend (Catherine Mary Stewart as Maggie) and a loving family, like any kid in his late teens he wants to see what is in the wider world, specifically he wants to go to college. But that requires a scholarship, and when he doesn't get one, that means he is stuck where he is, going to community college. Out of frustration and boredom he is given to playing "The Last Starfighter" video game that is in the park's rec area. Then one night Alex breaks the record on the game, and is surprised when the alien Centauri (Robert Preston) lands and asks him to come with him, that as the winner of the game he has won a great surprise of a prize.Alex finds out that the surprise is that Centauri is an intergalactic con man who marketed the game to find somebody with the ability to be a Starfighter and basically simulated the actual war between the democratic Rylan Star League and the autocratic Ko-Dan Empire in the game. Alex says he did not sign up to get himself killed and asks to be taken back to earth.Right after Alex leaves, the Starfighter base with all of the Rylan fighters is blown up due to sabotage and the Starfighters killed - except for one, Alex. The Empire sends a hitman after him in the trailer park, and he would have succeeded if not for Centauri interceding. Centauri tells him the empire will send more and more of these hit men and that the only way Alex can protect himself and his family is go back and be a Starfighter. Except now he is literally "the last Starfighter".If this all sounds a bit like Star Wars - autocratic empire versus democratic good guys, a young man who wants adventure who finds himself in the middle of things, etc. that is because it is. Unfortunately, the villain doesn't really measure up. That would be Xur, a traitor from Rylos to whom the Ko-Dan Emperor has promised control of Rylos in return for giving the empire vital information. Xur plays this role as a campy man child who walks around talking to his scepter. Not exactly Darth Vader. There are some humorous bits - Robert Preston in his last feature film doing a send up of his conman role in The Music Man, and the robotic likeness of Alex who Centauri placed on earth so that Alex's friends and family don't notice he is missing while he is out saving the galaxy. The problem is that the robotic likeness just doesn't get 20th century "mating rituals" as he calls them, and manages to alienate Maggie in Alex's absence, and also frighten Alex's little brother when, in the middle of the night, the Alex clone decides to get up and repair his head.The ending makes it look like the film was setting itself up for a sequel, but that never happened as the box office didn't really pay off. This was a summer movie in 1984 and much was expected, but it did not pan out. I'd still mildly recommend it, largely for the wonderful Robert Preston who unfortunately is not around for most of the film.

....After all, Star Wars borrowed heavily from both Flash Gordon and Akira Kurosawa(in particular, the hidden fortress). But we are talking about TLS here, so here we go.The Last Starfighter is a space adventure PERFECT for kids around 10-11. The special effects, the tongue-in-cheek script, the whole movie is one of the most exciting and entertaining films to come out of the early 1980s. The use of CGI space ships-then state of the art-may look dated today, but keep in mind this was 1984, so I feel that it doesn't hurt the film that much.*Spoilers ahead* The story is about Alex Rogen, a high school kid living in a trailer park with a talent for an arcade game called 'Star Fighter'. One faithful night, he beats the top score, and the next day, a man named Centauri comes to recruit him to fight evil, the game acting as the proverbial sword in the stone which leads Alex to his destiny, leaving behind a robot double to fill in as his replacement. The film does a good job of making a star wars like fantasy that is just different enough to keep it fresh. Lots of fun, with an enthralling soundtrack and good acting all around, especially from the late Robert Preston(Centauri), who plays the role of Centauri. It is also interesting to note that the film was originally going to spawn a tie-in video game of the same name, Atari's first 3D polygonal arcade game to use a Motorola 68000 as the CPU, but it was never released. If you like Sci-fi and adventure, this film is right up your alley.

Lost in the summer releases and technically very inferior to the "Star Wars" series, but a lot of fun. The film that probably killed Lorimar-Filmways! The digital effects are crude. The spaceship matte is very inferior and fake-looking by today's standards. What does it have in it's favor? Several things: It has a great intentional sense-of-humor. (You will notice this more on the 2nd viewing.) The villain is a spoiled brat that looks like a bald Kryptonian. He bombs the space academy while the spacesuit-tailors are arguing about modifying the uniform for "humans"! Great intentional "miscasting" with a green lizard man (nice rubber suit) and Robert Preston plays himself as a Harold Hill-alien "flim-flam man". Great low budget special effects and some of it takes place on Earth in a boring trailer park! The alien assassin smells like a rotten pork chop and disguises itself as a policeman-shape-shifter! The "Space Blossom" secret weapon is powered by a 9-volt radio battery! Lot's of fun. Our hero, played by Lance Guest, (Alex) is a teenaged college student with a very-hot girl friend (Catherine Mary Stewart). "Alex" plays "the video game" at the trailer court. The game was shipped there by mistake! It was meant to go to another city or planet! By beating the game, he qualifies to become a space cadet and gets recruited by Robert Preston as "Centuri". Other nice touches: Alex (the Starfighter) is "replaced" temporarily by a robot duplicate. It takes off its head to adjust itself after taking a "tongue in the ear" by his girlfriend! The "Star Car" changes into a "Space-Car" just like in "The Men in Black".

Trailer park kid Alex (Lance Guest) gets the high score on the video game Starfighter. Shortly after he finds himself recruited by an alien named Centauri (Robert Preston) to take part in an intergalactic war. One of my favorites from my childhood. I'm not sure if you have to be a child of the '80s to enjoy this but it probably doesn't hurt. It's a character-driven sci-fi adventure film with a wonderful cast. In addition to Guest and Preston, who are both excellent, there's the great Dan O'Herlihy and beautiful Catherine Mary Stewart. Special mention to kid actor Chris Hebert, who's lots of fun as Alex's little brother. If you don't walk around with your nose in the air or a stick up your rear, give this one a shot and you will probably enjoy it. It's a fun movie.