Product Description

Contains: feature commentary with director nick castle crossing the frontier: the making of the last starfighter documentary with a look at the groundbreaking computer generated visual effects plus behind-the-scenes footage and production photographs. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 08/12/2003 Starring: Lance Guest Kay E. Kuter Run time: 101 minutes Rating: Pg Director: Nick Castle

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21929 in DVD
• Brand: Universal
• Released on: 1999-06-08
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Collector's Edition, Color, Dolby, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 101 minutes

Amazon.com
At the time of its original release in 1984, this modestly budgeted sci-fi excursion had the distinction of offering some of the first examples of purely computer-generated animation, an apt (and frugal) special-effects solution for a movie with a plot line rooted in computer games. Both the computer-generated visuals and the arcade game now look quaint, but writer-director Nick Castle's affable, good- hearted adventure holds up nicely, thanks to a clever premise--the title game is actually a test for prospective starship pilots, planted by embattled aliens under siege from an evil invader. When a restless teenager (Lance Guest) racks up an impressive score, he finds himself spirited away to the besieged planet and thrust into the midst of an intergalactic war. Apart from Castle's skill at contrasting his extraterrestrial settings with the mundane details of his hero's earthbound life, the movie gets lift-off from two thorough pros, Robert Preston, who makes the alien recruiter, Centauri, a planet-hopping cousin to The Music Man's Harold Hill, and Dan O'Herlihy, the alien copilot, who suggests a scaly Walter Brennan. Older fans will snicker, but kids and young teens will find this rite of passage absorbing, while their folks will savor Preston's brash charm. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews

"You have been recruited by the Star League!"
In 1984, Lorimar Film Entertainment and Universal Pictures joined forces to create a very engaging and entertaining sci-fi film entitled "The Last Starfighter". Directed by Nick Castle, the story begins in the dreary and dusty "Starlite Starbrite" trailer park where the teenager Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) lives with his mother Jane Rogan (Barbara Bosson) and his inquisitive little brother Louis Rogan (Chris Hebert). Alex has very little free time for himself as he has become the de facto trailer park maintenance man, repairing various problems in neighbors' trailers. He would like to go to college and leave the trailer park behind, but his mother's meager wages make that impossible. His girlfriend Maggie Gordon (Catherine Mary Stewart) also lives in the trailer park. When not with Maggie, Alex's favorite enjoys playing a videogame called Starfighter located next to the trailer park's office. Alex becomes very skilled at beating the videogame to the delight of trailer park residents. One night, a mysterious, fast-talking man named Centauri (Robert Preston, 1918-1987) pulls up in a fancy car. After asking about who beat the videogame, he invites Alex to join him in his car for a meeting. To Alex's dismay, Centauri drives them away from the trailer park and then into outer space, where he takes Alex to the planet Rylos so that he can become a real starfighter to fight the evil Xur (Norman Snow) and the Kodan armada.

With inspiration from the first three "Star Wars" films (which were released in 1977, 1980 & 1983), the highly successful 1982 videogame-based film "Tron" and the overall popularity of videogames in the 1980's, "The Last Starfighter" is a fun film to watch and was one of the earliest films to use computer-generated graphics to depict outer space scenes. As always, Robert Preston did a magnificent job of acting in what unfortunately was his last big-screen appearance. Lance Guest's portrayal of Alex was probably not as good as Mark Hamill's portrayal of Luke Skywalker in the 1977 "Star Wars", but it was good enough to keep the film's momentum going. Catherine Mary Stewart did do a good job with her portrayal of Maggie. Other memorable characters in the film include Alex's lizardy copilot Grig (Dan O'Herlihy), trailer park manager Otis (Vernon Washington, 1927-1988), trailer park resident Elvira (Peggy Pope), Maggie's grandmother (Meg Wyllie, 1917-2002, who played the Talosian Keeper in the original 1965 "Star Trek" TV series pilot "The Cage" that was later refashioned as the two-part episode "The Minagerie"), Lord Kril (Dan Mason) and Enduran (Kay E. Kuter, 1925-2003). Memorable scenes include Alex at the trailer park, Alex beating the videogame, Centauri's arrival and trip into space, Alex's arrival on Rylos, meeting the other starfighter pilots, the surprise attack, Alex talking with his beta unit, the Kodan spy, Alex's time with Grig, the battle scenes and the final scenes. Overall, I rate "The Last Starfighter" with 4 out of 5 stars.

Transfer of classic movie with average PQ and AQ on Blu-ray
Has it really been 25 years since this movie was released?
That was my first thought when I heard this movie was being released on Blu-ray. My second thought was that my ever burgeoning Blu-ray collection would be increasing by at least one more movie in August.
I will discuss the plot later in this review but I am suspecting that most customers checking this Blu-ray catalog item out on Amazon are perhaps more interested in the Picture and Audio and the special features.
I have never seen the HD-DVD but have read that the HD-DVD transfer was simply horrible and was bracing myself to be disappointed with the quality of the Blu-ray release.
While the transfer is a far cry from anything that anyone would cite as reference quality with a lot of the scenes suffering a smoky look at times, the colors are OK with some distinct black and white levels, but on other occasions muted too much. Still it is an improvment over the previous DVD release, though it''s questionable if this should be enough to double-dip.
The audio has some nice surround and great bass but again is also somewhat average, so if you are expecting an audio track to rival more recent movies you will likely be disappointed.
The highlight of rhe special features is the audio commentary between director Nick Castle and production designer Ron Cobb. This is evidently an old audio track but the two seem to have an enjoyable time. There is also a Making of featurette called "Crossing the Frontier" and, as one would expect with a movie touring itself as a 25th Anniversary Edition, a new featurette that includes cast and crew looking back on the movie and their roles as mentors.
The movie follows the adventures of Alex Rogan (played by Lance Guest). Living in a trailer park and with a beautiful girlfriend Alex spends his time mastering a video arcade game in between doing oddjobs for his neighbors. However, after a particularly successful game at the controls, he is visited by a mysterious character. It turns out that the video game is used as a recruiting tool of sorts to locate those who would be great intergalactic fighter pilots.
Before Alex knows what has hit him the bewildered teen is whisked off across the galaxy and discovers that what was once just a video game is now all too real.
Yes, it's good old 1980s cheese and the early CGI effects are much less impressive now than they were 25 years ago, but for a pure fun movie that does not take itself too seriously you can do much worse :)

A good film and presented better than ever on DVD.
Quite a good film, especially for kids, although older viewers will find it appealing. Yes it does jump on the Stars Wars bandwagon and there is a bit of dialogue in the eariler space scenes which is a blatant rip-off from Star Wars... but its a good enough film in its own right, pioneering some excellent Cray Super computer graphics, which were very impressive in its day, and still looks good now. This film is really done justice on DVD. The picture quality is good overall, but is a bit grainy throughout and the colours are a little pale. Its widescreen (2.35:1) and anamorphic, the best this film has ever looked for home use. The sound though is the real surprise, its Dolby Digital 5.1 and impressive. For a film of its age and considering it was originally in Dolby Stereo, the sound engineers have done an excellent job for this DVD presentation, the music is excellent, great clarity and quality. The dialogue sounds fine and is clear. The sound effects are good and quite well placed in this new sound mix. The rear speakers are used where necessary and the sound surrounds you at times quite well. Overall, good enough picture quality, excellent sound and well worth owning on DVD. The extras on DVD include a "making of documentary" with some interesting comments from ILM who did Star Wars.