Dir. Nick Castle
Writ. Jonathon Betuel
Act. Lance Guest, Catherine Mary Stewart, Robert Preston, Dan O'Herlihy

This small movie was very big in the 80's and was ground breaking for one reason, all of its special effects were done by computer graphics, marking the first time that happened in movie history. This is a fun little movie and very 80's but it should be in my collection and yours too if you are a fan of computer generated effects.

Alex Rogan, played by Lance Guest (Jaws: The Revenge,) is a young 20 year old who is upset that he is stuck in his boring life living in the trailer park with his mom and brother. He is a handyman at the park and even his girlfriend, Maggie, played by Catherine Mary Stewart (Weekend at Bernie's,) appears to be happy living there even though she is loyal too him. The one thing that Alex is really good at is an old video game called The Last Starfighter. After Alex breaks the record one night, a man named Centauri, played by Robert Preston (The Music Man) who claims to have invented the game, takes Alex for a ride in his car. Only it is not a car, it is a space ship and Alex finds out that the game is actually a training program for Starfighters. Alex is then recruited to be a Starfighter in a war against creatures that want to control the universe.

Like I said in the opening, the special effects for the movie were unique. Other than make up and the explosions on Earth, the entire film was computer generated. Now, it is obvious that the effects look like a computer, actually they look like a video game with graphics in the early 1990's. Because the effects looked like that, watching the movie now is funny. I am sure that Michael Gates would be laughing the minute he saw the SFX but if it wasn't for this movie, movies like Cars and Finding Nemo would have been delayed a couple of years at least.

The acting is very 80's even though there were two Academy Award ® nominated actors in this movie. Robert Preston who was Centauri, was nominated for supporting actor for the 1982 film Victor/Victoria. Dan O'Herhily, who was the alien navigator for Alex, Grig, was nominated for best supporting actor for the 1954 film the Adventures of Robinson Crusoe. When they are on screen, there is a decided calm, for a lack of a better word, in the acting from the other younger actors who are on screen with them. By far the most annoying actor was Norman Snow (Manhunter) who was the evil Xur. He was supposed to be crazy but it just came off stupid and annoying.

An interesting side note on the movie is that Director Nick Castle was "The Shape" in the original Halloween movie and Lance Guest made his acting debut in the sequel, Halloween II. Another note is that this movie was the last movie for Robert Preston who died of lung cancer three years later.

This is a very entertaining movie but the story is silly. If it wasn't for the special effects, the movie wouldn't even be discussed. The special edition DVD has the making of the movie and that was fairly interesting. If I become really wealthy one day, I will own this movie, but if I don't, I will be sure that if it is on TV, I will watch it.

Brian - the Naked Gun