ddern@BBNCCK.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP (07/16/84)
From: Daniel Dern <ddern@BBNCCK.ARPA> THE LAST STARFIGHTER -- Highly recommended Here's a four-star summer film with no redeeming social value, so pack up your troubles and get airconditions for a few hours. If you like aliens, space ships, video games, and fantasy fulfillment, you'll love this. There's also an amazing amount of humorous bits, which I wouldn't dream of spoil for you by telling. Try for a theater with a good (dolby) sound system; it's worth it. The special effects are good. ... I found myself thinking about Robert Heinlein's "Have Space Suit -- Will Travel" at times, both during and after seeing this flick. The similarity is both protogonists want to "get out of this small town, go to a good college and do something with my life." The difference is that Clifford "Kip" Russell (in Space Suit) was a budding engineer/scientist/boy scout (i.e., a typical Heinlein hero of that era), and Alex Rogan (in Last Starfighter) has, apparantly, a phenomemal skill [...see for yourself, for what it's worth] and not much beyond that in the way of redeeming or interesting character, personality -- the kid would make a good vanilla ice cream sunday, if you poured hot fudge over him. His younger brother is much more interesting, and hip, too. In fact, Alex is much like Luke Skywalker -- a medium sized galoot ripe for teenage audience identification, which no real problems or personality of his own. Yawn. However, this movie makes no pretensions at being any deeper than a sandbox, or any more meaningful -- far less than Star Wars -- and I loved almost every minute of it. I think this is the golden age of sf films, so let's go go go. Daniel Dern