The last Starfighter you will ever need.
Back twenty five years ago, a lot of things were different. Music kinda sucked, clothes were different, man dad had actual hair, and video games were just getting started. In fact, back then if you wanted to play the lasted one out there, you had to go to a arcade or a bowling alley. Wow how things have changed huh? Back then, a kid playing a video game had dreams; some of getting the high score and others a much larger dream. Something on the verge of becoming a hero, rising above their drab and boring lives, and gaining something epic. Such is the dream of Alex, but I am getting a head of myself….
The Last Starfighter – A dvd review by Darcy Low
From the back of the dvd: ” Greeting Starfighter! You have been recruited by the Star League to defend the frontier against Xur and the Kodan armada.
So begins a adventure of galactic proportions in The Last Starfighter. After earthling, Alex (Played by Lance Guest) conquers the Starfighter video game, he is recruited by alien Centauri (Played by the late Robert Preston) to be part of an elite legion fighters. Leaving behind his trailer park home for the outer regions of space. Alex becomes the last hope for the beleaguered Star League and hundreds of worlds, including earth.
I love this movie! We got the twenty five year anniversary one, and it is full of extras.
Alex is boy who has just graduated from high school, and has big dreams of getting into a good college. He lives in a small trailer park, where he is spending most of his summer fixing things for the people there, electrical problems; and a little of everything. Seems like everyone needs him for one thing or another. He doesn’t mind too much; but it is really not how he wants to spend his summer. He is in love with Maggie, who will be heading off to the local community college at the end of this summer. Alex is wanting to go somewhere away from where he lives, he feels tied down and wants to see what’s out there beyond the trailer park. But as I said everyone there needs him to do something for him, and sometimes he can’t even get away to go swimming. His one form of escape is a video game up at the small store at the entrance to the park. It is The Last Starfighter, of course and Alex plays it so much he is close to beating the record on it. On the night of a very bad day for Alex. (He got a rejection letter from a school, his girl went off with some friends to a beach; and Alex spent the whole day in the park fixing other peoples problems.) He starts playing the game, taking out all of his dashed hopes and frustration on it, he is barely paying attention when it is pointed out to him that his score is VERY close to beating the high score. He is up past 900 million! And he is still going. In what is a very exciting and funny scene, where the entire trailer park crowds around him, he finally beats the all time record. That when the fun really begins for Alex.
The next night, he is up by the little store again, when the video game starts acting funny, flashing lights and giving off all these weird sounds. Just as he is going to investigate, a strange, futuristic car pulls up. The door opens, and a voice inside asks for the name of the person whole beat the high score. Alex says it was him, and the voice invites him to step inside the car, that he has a prostitution for Alex. Alex, I guess thinking he is going on some tour for being the kid that broke the record, climbs in. Now let’s stop there a second, NEVER, EVER get into a strange with anyone you don’t know, this could very well be why Alex gets all those rejection notes from colleges. Getting into a car like that is just asking for trouble. The owner of the car and the voice, tells Alex his name is Centaruri, and that he invented that game. He explains to Alex how that game wasn’t even supposed to be delivered there but to Vegas instead, which must mean that it was Alex’s destiny to be the high scorer on it. (Basically he gives Alex the same kind of fast salesman’s type talk he did in The Music Man years before. Which was really cool to see he still had it going on. More on this gifted actor later.) He introduces his assistant, Beta who is is sitting in the darkened backseat as Alex gets in, they shake hands and there is a blinding flash of light before the person steps out of the car. Centaruri then closes the doors and locks in Alex, taking him on a high speed ride. Explaining to him how that video game was supposed to go to Vegas, not some trailer park. And how it must have been fate that Alex would be the one to break the record. (Basically he is doing the fast talking salesman routine he did in The Music Man so many years before, it was really fun to see it again and he had some very funny lines.) They finally arrive at a hidden space station, where Alex learns that everything that was in the video game was real, and how there is a actual war for survival going on out in space. He then learns that he has been tricked by Centaruri, and that he has been “Recruited” into the group of hot shot pilots that are to help stop Xur and save the countless worlds. Alex, of course thinks this is all crazy and refuses; telling Centaruri to take him home. NOW!
While they get back to earth, the hidden space station comes under attack by Xur, killing almost everyone and destroying everything….almost.
When Alex arrives back at the trailer park, he learns that Beta is actually a robot who has been pretending to be him this whole time. Alex is really mad now and uses a device to call Centaruri back to get his robot. The group comes under fire from a hired alien killer and Centaruri is badly hurt, Alex goes back to the space station with him, knowing now that his family and friends are in danger, and that he has become a target in this space war.
They find station in ruins, and Centaruri is critically hurt. Alex goes with a alien navigator and launches into space to do his part to help in the war effort. It is then that Alex realizes the truth. He alone is the only Starfigher left alive. Can he put his video game skills to good use? In a war he is not supposed to be a part of, in a Star Fighter that is still so new that a lot of it’s systems have never been tried before? Can one lone teenager face a army of a mad man set on taking over the galaxy?
This movie rocked! The plot was good,the actors were great and you really got behind Alex and his growth though out the movie. The special effects, which were all computer generated of course; were a little dated. But you were able to look past that and it did not take you away from the great plot. There was more than a few laughs as well, most supplied by Alex’s younger brother. And I felt the part about Alex having no choice in killing another being was well acted out. I loved the ending, which i wont spoil here. I would like to find maybe a book on this if one is out there. One thing too, Hollywood is always making remakes, yet here with this movie you can easily do more stories. Three people in it at least could go on to do more.
If you have not seen this, get it. If you are an adult, get this and watch with you kids. There were only two words in it that parents might find bad for younger viewers. But honestly, if it was me and I saw that, I would say the same thing. When you see the scene I am sure you will agree. This is a good one guys!
Darcy
Darcy’s fun fact:
Robert Preston was such a great actor. Everyone knows of his Harold Hill character in The Music Man. He won a Tony Award for it when he was in the broadway play version. He got his start in acting in westerns, and was also a intelligence officer in world war two. Yep he was a spy, makes you wonder if he did his fast talking back then, hehe. Sadly he died of lung cancer in 1986 at the age of 62.
OH! Dad gave me this trivia, back in 1961, year dad was born; Mr Preston made a recording called “Chicken Fat” which schools then went on to use in gym classes. I found a link for it, with a online mp3 file of it. I it is pretty funny, maybe some of you parents will remember it. 
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