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GregJ

The Last Starfighter

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A teenager living in a trailer park beats a arcade game (which seems to be the biggest thing thats ever happened in this trailer park). Apparently if you can beat this game your qualified to be a real starfighter and defend the galaxy from an evil alien invasion. Loved this when i was younger and watched it recently thinking it would be a nice nastolgic movie but i was wrong, it was just bad.

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When I was a small child, I would run to the local library to read a handful of books. I loved the picture books of Dracula, The Wolf Man, The Mummy, and Creature from the Black Lagoon. Then, I graduated to reading the reprinted first editions of Fantastic Four #1, and most importantly, Amazing Fantasy #15. Right around this time, I found a book called The Last Starfighter. Holy shit, did it blow my little Nintendo-loving mind. (80's!) Loved it. Just fucking loved it. I watched the movie for the first time since then, and it had been a while, last year. While a part of me still dug it for nostalgia's sake, the, you know, adult side of me went, "Wow, what a forgone shit turd." This is a great suggestion. I fully endorse it, because I'd love to hear the HDTGM crew view this...dated...piece..of..DEATH BLOSSOM.

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A teenager living in a trailer park beats a arcade game (which seems to be the biggest thing thats ever happened in this trailer park). Apparently if you can beat this game your qualified to be a real starfighter and defend the galaxy from an evil alien invasion. Loved this when i was younger and watched it recently thinking it would be a nice nastolgic movie but i was wrong, it was just bad.

 

Disagree. The Last Starfighter is one of the better 80s science fiction films that actually holds up. Great CGI animation (one of the first films to have it), a killer score by Craig Safan, and Robert Preston. What's not to love.

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The Music Man was really an alien. Would be a great choice.

 

My grandparents lived out in the country when I was a little kid, the TV reception was terrible and this was one of the only VHS tapes they owned for some reason; my siblings and cousins and I must have watched it 50 times. The creepy clone Robert Preston leaves cooking in the dude's bed used to freak me the fuck out when I was 7 years old.

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Was just watching this and thought, "why hasn't this been on How Did This Get Made"?

 

It is definitely an 80's cheesefest. Some pretty bad jumps in logic. Some weird character choices. And you get the feeling they wanted it to be a space epic but didn't have the cash for the real "epic" part.

 

But there's a really great concept in there and a lot of fun. Honestly, with Hollywood re-making so many movies, this is one that had a concept and story that - with some tweaking - could be reimagined into something amazing.

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Disagree. The Last Starfighter is one of the better 80s science fiction films that actually holds up. Great CGI animation (one of the first films to have it), a killer score by Craig Safan, and Robert Preston. What's not to love.

 

Agreed! Sure it's cheesy, sure the CGI doesn't hold up to today's standards, but it's actually a really fun movie. And fun fact, Grig the alien navigator is played by Dan O'Herlihy, known to HDTGM fans as the evil warlock from Halloween 3.

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That is a ridiculous premise, agreed. Along the same lines is Cloak & Dagger, where a kid beating a spy video game gets him stuck in the middle of international espionage.

However, that being said, I loved both of these movies :)

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