DiVad's 80's MOVIE FLASHBACK MINI-REVIEW: THE LAST STARFIGHTER

Hey folks DiVad back again, this time with another posting of "80's MOVIE FLASHBACK MINI-REVIEW" I have, like many others this addicting service called Netflix and recently I've been on 80's movie mode. (I guess it's the new Indy and the new Rambo, Transformers, G.I. Joe and God knows what other 80's franchise they are desperately trying to reinvent) Anyway, when old movies pop into my head that I used to love when i was a kid, I wonder, would this movie still hold up now? Maybe not the special effects but will it still be a good movie to watch now that I'm 27 yrs. old and did the whole "film school" thing? Well I've been renting a whole bunch of them online, big budget classics and those good ol' HBO/straight to video ones. Which one will I flashback too today?


INT. SPACESHIP- A NOT TOO REALISITIC PLASTIC EVIL ALEIN COMMAND CENTER SET

The two evil alien commanders stand next to a large plastic well that is showing the status of their space craft as all these sparks explode around them.

Evil Alien Commander#1
"Were being pulled into he moon's gravitational pull!! What do we do?"

Commander#2 Looks up at Evil commander #1 slowly even though the ship is about to hit a fucking moon. A plasic clear sunglass thing covers one eye like a high tech pirate eye patch (zzzzzzzz)

Evil Alein Commander#2
(pause) "WE DIE"

EXT. SPACE

The Evil Ship hits the fucking moon. Good Guy ship flys by the screen. (yahooo!! cue music)

FADE OUT:

They don't make movies quite the same as in the 80's anymore. THE LAST STARFIGHTER (1984) is a little proof of that. Young Alex Rogen (Lance Guest) is a good teenage kid living in a crusty trailer park out in the woods. Even though he looks about 30 years old he's apparently 18 because he is trying to get into a good college when he graduates high school. One night while playing an old arcade style game called 'the last starfighter ' he gets the high score ("You's gonna bust the record!!") But the game is not really a game its a training tool put on earth to recruit young boys as spaceship fighters to save the galaxy. Young-ish Alex soon get's picked up by an alien who looks like the "music man" but drives a alien car/ship that looks like a decked out Delorean and whisks him out into space to save the galaxy from an evil alien armada.

This movie was one of the first to ever use computer generated images to create the special effect shots. Practically all the sequences in space are CGI and they still look pretty damn good. Nothing like today but kick-ass for 1984. This movie was most likely green lit post" Star Wars" phenomenon and Universal was hoping to ride off the super sucess of that franchise. While it was not as successful as 'Star Wars' or 'Star Trek' , THE LAST STARFIGHTER has become a 80's sci fi mini-classic and still gets you feeling like a little kid when you watch it. Bottom line:Just like that old black janitor says at the end of the movie, "This baby really packs a punch!!!"

ORIGINAL TRAILER



CLIP: "WHAT DO WE DO?......." "WE DIE!!"