The Last Starfighter (1984) Review

When a young man dreams of escaping his dreary life an unexpected trip to the stars leads to adventure and heroism. Sound familiar? It should for this is a cheesy, formulaic, and derivative movie. Yet it is easy to forgive this due to an excellent cast, endearing characters, and a complete lack of pretention. Combining all of the above with cutting edge effects that changed the industry resulted in one of the best B-movies of the 1980s. UPDATED March 2013 with HD screen captures and Blu-ray details.

These days we are accustomed to seeing photorealistic computer generated images (CGI) in everything from commercials to major motion pictures. It wasn’t always like this and somebody had to pioneer the field. This is the movie that dared to attempt what was then thought impossible. Without The Last Starfighter we would not have had the Lord of the Rings, Pixar, or Marvel superhero movies.

Greeted by a stately symphonic score and a planet that is clearly not Earth, we zoom away from it while the title and credits roll. After going through what appears to be a wormhole in space, the camera pans down to a small trailer park in the hills of California. It’s a run down place that has seen better years, but the park is filled with a variety of people happily living their lives.

How Time Flies

Another year gone and another closer to the grave. My birthday was a low key affair as usual, but I did score some impressive loot thanks to a gift certificate from my sister and cash from the ex-sister-in-law (one of those cases where the ex was kept in the family anyway since we all loved her). Then there was the now traditional event of being treated to snow crab legs which were a particularly good batch at the local Red Lobster.

So my chosen birthday loot is all movies -- surprise, surprise. I also purchased a couple for ridiculously cheap at Target last night:

• Monty Python’s 16 Ton Megaset on DVD – This complete TV series set is long overdue since it is part of the family heritage.
• High and Low on Blu-ray – Kurosawa at his best in a modern setting and a personal favorite just behind Ran and Ikiru.
• The Third Man on Blu-ray – A favorite shared with my late mother it is one of the best Cold War movies and possibly the best. Welles and Cotton together again, ‘nuff said.
• Requiem for a Heavyweight on DVD – Brilliant movie and I believe the first tentative effort at any kind of movie review on the blog. Yes, there will be a full review of this coming.
• Gorgo on Blu-ray – Restored from recently found negatives in a salt mine it is going to be released on the 19th. I’ll have to rewrite the review once I have it and initial word is that it looks great.
• Dr. No on Blu-ray – The only real cinema James Bond in his debut, it should be spectacular if it is as good as the Goldfinger BD.
• The Last Starfighter on Blu-ray – As nice as the DVD I had is, this blows it out of the water. Currently working on rewriting the recent review thanks to this $7.00 purchase.

I was dead tired for the trip out last night, yet managed to survive it. I attribute it to the power of crab legs. Oh and the tastiest meat is not in the claw like most think. It can be found in the largest segment of the arm next to the claw arm. Every time I’ve had crab this has been true.

Rodan (1956) (Review)

aka Sora no daikaijû Radon

Ishiro Honda and his crew from Gojira returned with another giant monster film after the mediocre results from another director on its sequel. More of a mystery movie than its predecessors, Rodan is a very different beast that features a more human driven storyline. You won’t find Godzilla in this movie, but Rodan did go on to costar with the more famous beast in multiple films after his destructive debut.

When the hastily put together Godzilla Raids Again disappointed, Toho came up with a new monster tale that kept the kaiju genre going. Better effects and the use of color injected life into the story about a mutated pteranodon and a group of coal miners. Succeeding at the box office in Japan, Radon winged its way over the Pacific as Rodan in the American edit a few years later. Both edits will be covered in this review, so let’s get going!

The movie opens with colorful credits accompanied by sinister music which is immediately identifiable as being in the same style as Gojira’s. Sure enough Akira Ifukube composed the score and it sets the tone for the entire film. Once the lengthy credits end we are introduced to the main setting of Mount Aso in Japan.

A mining community is starting its day with another shift of workers making their way into the mine. Harsh words exchanged between two miners escalates into a brawl between the two men, Goro and Yoshizo. Having been separated by their coworkers, the fight ends inconclusively before all head deep into the bowels of the earth to search for “black diamond.”

Later at the engineer’s office, we are introduced to our main protagonist, Shigeru Kawamura (Keni Sawara). A discussion of global warming melting the polar ice and endangering the world is interrupted by dire news – one of the tunnels has flooded. This is impossible according to the engineers, but that’s experts for you.

Of course when Shigeru arrives on the scene he finds a tunnel filled with water and further bad news that two miners are missing. I wonder which two? Yep, it’s the feuding ones and only one is found. The fact that Yoshizo is found floating face down and has been killed with something like a very sharp sword is a wee bit suspicious.

Turkey Day in March

Hey, if you can have Christmas in July events this should be allowable, right? Anyway, this was the scene outside the house during the snow storm that dumped a fair amount of inches earlier today.

I first caught side of the flock of wild turkeys outside the kitchen window and by the time I could get the camera ready they had crossed to the west yard. The little parade eventually made its way to a small stand of pine trees for a brief rest.

Given how dirty the window I was shooting out of and the snow still coming down, this was the best pictures that could be hoped for.

The turkeys have been getting bolder this winter, so seeing them around the property has gotten more common. Ah, country living – you never know who will stop by.

Health 3-4-2013

I burned myself out on Saturday to participate in a youth temple trip to the St. Paul Temple. It was worth it to be of service to those who have passed away and it was something the Spirit had prompted me to do. Good thing too, since we would have been one priesthood holder short for the trip.

As a consequence, yesterday was not a day where I was able to get out and about. Though I missed stake conference, I used the opportunity to watch The Ten Commandments on Blu-ray and ponder the importance of Judaism and Christianity in regards to the slow rise of freedom for all men. Ne entries to Mamie's Life were also put up, so the day was not a complete loss.

Healing from the infection and resulting abscess is still going on. It’s winding down and there is considerably less pain now that it no longer is pressing on a large nerve. It will be nice to be completely healed and not have to worry about it anymore. Meanwhile, the sinuses have decided to misbehave since last Wednesday.

You win some, you lose some.

Lord of the Rings, Donnie Darko Style

This is impressive on multiple levels. Now we need WETA to provide the CGI to finish it!

Piracy and Anime

Being the type to delve into how industries operate when I’m interested in their products, I’ve been watching the problems with the anime industry – especially in the United States. Boom and bust cycles are fascinating to observe and the anime here in the States managed to do that in in the space of one decade. So an interview with the former Bandai Entertainment USA director of marketing gives a rare insight to how things actually work. Be warned, there is profanity in the podcast.

As I’m listening to it, the brief mention of how online piracy damaged sales caught my attention. It got me thinking on how a niche industry can be devastated by people stealing the product and never paying for it. Disclaimer: It isn’t right to steal from the big industries like Hollywood or music too. Also, I won’t get into the manga side of things.

Many are the mistakes that have caused companies to fold or retreat from the anime market in the U.S., but the explosion in file sharing coincided with rise and fall in my eyes. Once broadband saturated the country around the middle of the 2000’s, piracy of videos increased. That was also when anime imploded.