• Genre: Science Fiction
• MPAA Rating: PG
• AMG Rating:
• Regional Coding:
  Unspecified

Trailer-park teenager Lance Guest regularly escapes from his humdrum existence by playing the video game Starfighter. His expertise at this recreational endeavor attracts the attention of affable stranger Robert Preston. Before he knows what's happening, Guest is whisked by Preston into the outer reaches of the galaxy! It turns out that the Starfighter game is being played in deadly earnest in outer space, and that Guest is expected to join Preston's Star League, then do battle with the wicked Kodan forces. Guest's principal ally is the lizardlike Grig (Dan O'Herlihy--and we didn't recognize him either). His great rival is the traitorous Xur (Norman Snow). The contrast between Guest's earthbound life as the son of single-mother Barbara Bosson and his new position as Starfighter is daunting at first, but soon the boy is manning a spacecraft and zapping the baddies as though he's been doing it all his life. The Last Starfighter was clearly designed with "sequel" in mind: giveaways include the resurrection of a "dead" character and the surprisingly casual escape of the villain. While the film didn't stir up enough business to warrant a sequel, the Starfighter video game remained a much-sought-after commodity by joystick-happy "warriors" all over the country. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bonus Features

• Heroes of the Screen
• All-new retrospective documentary with the cast and crew as they revisit the scripting, casting and ground-breaking computer effects
• Additional Features
• Crossing The Frontier: Making of The Last Starfighter
• An original documentary on the creation of the film and its innovative visual effects
• Image Gallery
• Rare production photos, promotional material and an alternate ending
• Feature Commentary with Director Nick Castle and Production Designer Ron Cobb
• D-Box Motion Enabled

Actors

Lance Guest, Robert Preston, Dan O'Herlihy, Catherine Stewart, Barbara Bosson, Norman Snow, Kay Kuter, Dan Mason

Director

Nick Castle, Jr.

Producer

Gary Adelson, Edward O. Denault

Mild Violence, Questionable for Children, Adult Language, Sci-Fi Violence, Suitable for Teens

• Sound : DHMA/DD2
• Language : Eng
• Subtitles : Eng/Spa/Fre

• Dar : 2.35:1

Review

At the time of its release, The Last Starfighter attracted a strong following among critics (if not viewers) because it used state-of-the-art effects to create a world separate enough from Star Wars to escape accusations of plagiarism, yet magical enough to inspire wonder. The passage of time has not elevated it to the level of common cultural reference, nor did it result in the franchise the producers clearly wanted. But the film's efforts toward originality are still appreciable. For one, instead of taking place in the future, The Last Starfighter imagines that intergalactic strife and epic gallantry are concurrent with the humdrum lives of American teenagers in trailer parks, and it shifts between these two realms with ease. It provides a satisfying logical leap for those who have dreamed themselves away into video games. It cleverly substitutes a robot doppelganger for the departed Alex Rogan, creating a deft subplot about the infiltrator's attempts to sidestep suspicion. It casts an eternally wise Robert Preston as an interstellar mentor/tour guide, and a boyishly charming Lance Guest in the hero role that should have earned him a lot more film work. The CGI spaceships look crisp, too, even if they stand a little too cleanly against the background. The best explanation for the popular failure of The Last Starfighter is that it caught the audience on a downtrend away from science fiction, which went through a period in which it was box-office poison compared to escapist alternatives like sleek thrillers and action-adventures. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi

• Release Date : August 18, 2009
• Length : 60 Minutes
• Dvdsides : 1
• Dvddiscs : 1
• Upc : 025192019975