 |
| Title: THE LAST STARFIGHTER Year: 1984 Rating: ***1/2 |
The connection of THREE AMIGOS, GALAXY QUEST and TROPIC THUNDER... of actors thinking they're taking part in just another paid gig that turns out to be incredibly real and dangerous... in a way began with Nick Castle's THE LAST STARFIGHTER where Lance Guest plays the oldest son of a trailer park landlady... in the kind of lonely Middle American town that Steven Spielberg practically created for CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND (and a bit like the "there's something better somewhere else" planet of Tattooine in STAR WARS)...
Castle includes other Speilbergian touches, like a highway speed-limit-sign rattling from the power of a spaceship.... here belonging to scene-stealer Robert Preston, who, with his signature speaking voice that practically sings every line, is beyond perfect as the pre BACK TO THE FUTURE DeLoreon-driving alien-in-human-form recruiter for an actual "star war" that Guest's Alex Rogen is hired to fight in...
 |
| Lance Guest in THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
The catch here is — he's an extremely agile video gamer, specifically the titular LAST STARFIGHTER that was created to test possible pilots... yet the slowest parts happen once Alex winds up in a giant space-ship (with grids like STAR WARS' Yavin strategy center) where a group of eclectic applied-effect aliens are preparing for battle...
But the tightest, most intriguing character-development occurs in the villain's vessel where Norman Snow — as a spoiled-heir-turned-evil-tyrant — overacts with the kind of heated fervor needed for science-fantasy...
 |
| Lance Guest in THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
Leaving the best sequences on the ground... particularly those involving Alex's "Beta Unit" replacement clone, awkwardly (and hilariously) attempting to seamlessly blend in with his... or, Alex's... best girl Catherine Mary Stewart and precocious Playboy-reading little brother...
Meanwhile random humanoid assassins provide necessary sudden-jolt action
sequences... injecting jump-scare horror into the sci-fi adventure...
between trips into outer space...
 |
| Lance Guest in THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
Where the whole space war (with dog-fights looking as if STAR WARS were in the TRON computer) never feel complete enough to matter beyond Alex's camaraderie with a stalwart alien played by Irish veteran-actor Dan O'Herlihy...
As director Castle strategically narrows the exterior action into what feels like random video game sequences, which brings the whole theme... of the gamer taking part in the real thing... into a neo-pulpy wish-fulfillment yarn that works better in various narrowly-escaping sequences than as an attempted-epic whole.
 |
| Dan O'Herlihy in THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
 |
Lance Guest in THE LAST STARFIGHTER with Dan O'Herlihy
|
 |
| Lance Guest in THE LAST STARFIGHTER with Catherine Mary Stewart |
 |
| Lance Guest and Robert Preston in THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
 |
| Lance Guest and Catherine Mary Stewart in THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
 |
| Norman Snow in THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
 |
| Kay E. Kuter (Yavin STAR WARS homage) in THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
 |
| From Nick Castle's THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
 |
| Arrow Video's THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
 |
| Dan Mason as Lord Kril THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
 |
| Lance Guest in THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
 |
| From Nick Castle's THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
 |
| Catherine Mary Stewart in THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
 |
| From Nick Castle's THE LAST STARFIGHTER |
Robyn Hilton enters into an eclectic exploitation comedy career in Wonder Women circa 1973 As mentioned a few posts ago, ROBYN HILTON, b...
year: 1978 cast: Allen Garfield, Leif Garrett, Kathleen Lloyd, Tony Alva, Pam Kenneally rating: ***1/2 Although promoted as a Leif Garr...
Kari Michaelsen in Saturday the 14th year: 1982 In LOVE AT FIRST BITE, a popular comedy that took the vampire genre by satire, Richard ...
Cornelia Sharpe in BUSTING Year: 1974 Rating: **** Starring Elliott Gould and Robert Blake as determined vice cops BUSTING hookers, makin...
Mary-Louise Weller in NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE ANIMAL HOUSE, directed by John Landis and produced by Ivan Reitman, stars John Be...
Kerri Green and John Candy in SUMMER RENTAL Year: 1985 John Candy, in his first leading role, plays a burnt-out air traffic controller ...
Robyn Hilton on STARSKY AND HUTCH Model/Actress ROBYN HILTON played Mel Brook's secretary in BLAZING SADDLES and turns up in an epis...
Robyn Hilton in Video Vixens the same year as Blazing Saddles: 1974 The Anthology of Comedic Parodies, already done in several Woody All...
CADDDYSHACK is best known for the iconic leading actors: Rodney Dangerfield, Chevy Chase, Ted Knight, and Bill Murray, but originally the ...
Elizabeth James and Tom Laughlin on equal ground YEAR: 1967 THE BORN LOSERS wasn't supposed to happen but thank God it did since BIL...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.