Back in the day I was a big fan of video games played in an arcade and when The Last Starfighter came out at the movies I found it was hard to get a ticket. Today it may not look as high tech in today’s CGI world, but it still has the fun and adventure of a lot of today’s space films. The film has been restored using the 4K process and released on HD Blu-ray. If you’d like a bit of nostalgia or are just a Si-Fi fan at heart, check out the The Last Starfighter that has a whole lot of Bonus Features.
The story follows teen video gamer Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) who has been trying to get to the top level of the arcade game at his family’s trailer park. A wiz at the space game, but he just can’t score enough points to get to the final level to defeat Xur (Norman Snow) and the Ko-Dan Armada. However, the arcade game is not only an entertainment module, but unknown to Alex it’s a communications test machine sent to Earth to find a special person who would join the opposition allied forces as a Starfighter.
Thus begins an exciting adventure for Alex when he gets a visit from Centauri (Robert Preston), a recruiter for Rylos, who offers him a chance to save the universe “for real”. I like the transitions from the Earthling to his newfound job of Starfighter to save his fellow humans. Director Nick Castle makes his film fun and a bit over-the-top so it can easily be watched by the whole family 8 and up. His use of CGI that early is commendable even though Star Wars had an earlier start on the visuals with Lucas’s ILM.
BONUS FEATURES:
“Brand new audio commentary with star Lance Guest and his son Jackson Guest”
“Brand new audio commentary with Mike White of The Projection Booth podcast”
“Archival audio commentary with director Nick Castle and production designer Ron Cobb”
“Maggie’s Memories: Revisiting The Last Starfighter” – a new interview with actress Catherine Mary Stewart
“Into the Starscape: Composing The Last Starfighter” – a new interview with composer Craig Safan
“Incredible Odds: Writing The Last Starfighter”– a new interview with screenwriter Jonathan Betuel
“Interstellar Hit-Beast: Creating the Special Effects” – a new interview with special effects supervisor Kevin Pike
“Excalibur Test: Inside Digital Productions” – a new interview with sci-fi author Greg Bear on
“Digital Productions” the company responsible for the CGI in The Last Starfighter
“Greetings Starfighter! Inside the Arcade Game” – an interview with arcade game collector Estil Vance on reconstructing the Starfighter game
“Heroes of the Screen” – archival featurette
“Crossing the Frontier: Making The Last Starfighter” – archival 4-part documentary
Image Galleries
“Theatrical and Teaser Trailers”
“Reversible sleeve: featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Matt Ferguson
“Limited Edition O-Card” – FIRST PRESSING ONLY
“Limited Edition Reversible Poster” featuring original and newly commissioned artwork – FIRST PRESSING ONLY
“Collector’s booklet” featuring new writing by Amanda Reyes and sci-fi author Greg Bear’s never-before-published Omni magazine article on Digital Productions, the company responsible for the CGI in The Last Starfighter – FIRST PRESSING ONLY
A fun film for the whole family (3.5 out of 5 Stars). Recommended
Specifications and additional video information:
Cast: Lance Guest, Robert Preston, Kay E. Kuter, Catherine Mary Stewart,
Directed by: Nick Castle
Written by: Jonathan R. Betuel
Genre: Sci-Fi, Adventure, Action
MPAA Rating: PG for space adventure violence, some torture, gross scenes, a disturbing image.
Running Time: 1 hr. 41 min.
Video Release Date: October 27, 2020
Original Theatrical Release Date: July 13, 1984
Language: English
Reviewed Format: Blu-ray
Audio: Uncompressed 2.0 stereo, 5.1 DTS-HD MA and 4.1 audio
Video: High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Subtitles: English SDH
Distributed by: Arrow Video
Released on: Blu-ray
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
Hi Mike,
To answer your question, I do not know what the 0 card looks like. The studio sent me the film but not in the original packaging so I did not get a card. If you get the the Blu-ray with all the packaging please let me know what it looks like. LOL