The Last Starfighter (1984)

Featured Audience Ratings

• Thomas B

  
  Despite the obvious Star Wars overtones/wholesale rip-offs, this is a fun film with some great scenes. Full review later.

• AJ V

  
  Even for a sci-fi movie the story is really out there, and not in a good way. This movie is corny and predictable. I didn't care for it.

• Conner R

  
  I really don't care if this is a so-called rip off of Star Wars, it's too amazing and fun to be just as simple as that. This really takes the generation's mindset of the time, hoping to see what space and adventure had to offer. It has a very fun story, great acting and… More
  I really don't care if this is a so-called rip off of Star Wars, it's too amazing and fun to be just as simple as that. This really takes the generation's mindset of the time, hoping to see what space and adventure had to offer. It has a very fun story, great acting and characters, and enough early oddball cgi to keep anyone entertained and intrigued. I just find this to have some of the best qualities that both Sci-Fi and Fantasy have to offer.

• Tim S

  
  Goofy as can be, but enjoyable.

• Jason O

  
  A movie I've seen a few times, once recently, that my dad always had taped. I'm surprised he had it taped because he never cared much for video games, and after watching it, I was equally surprised that I wasn't that impressed, cause I usually love movies based off… More
  A movie I've seen a few times, once recently, that my dad always had taped. I'm surprised he had it taped because he never cared much for video games, and after watching it, I was equally surprised that I wasn't that impressed, cause I usually love movies based off video games, especially ones like "Tron". Not horrible, but not worth owning either....to me.

• Anthony L

  
  If this is a poor man's Star Wars I'm proud to call myself a poor man.

• Phil H

  
  Hmmm even when this came out it was a poor mans Star Wars and even a poor mans Battlestar Gallactica. Sure it was for kids but it was pretty lame stuff, the effects were crap back then and terrible now, the aliens were all unoriginal much like the starships and plot (very much like… More
  Hmmm even when this came out it was a poor mans Star Wars and even a poor mans Battlestar Gallactica. Sure it was for kids but it was pretty lame stuff, the effects were crap back then and terrible now, the aliens were all unoriginal much like the starships and plot (very much like Tron) and it was so cliched and predictable...even then. Jumping on the Star Wars, BSG bandwagon Im afraid.

• Dean !

  
  A poor 80's action film.

• Martin B

  
  What do you get when you decide to use CG effects before they're good enough to use? You get <i>The Last Starfighter</i>. Every time they go to a computer-created shot of a ship or planet, it's quite jarring - takes you right out of the film. Technology just… More
  What do you get when you decide to use CG effects before they're good enough to use? You get <i>The Last Starfighter</i>. Every time they go to a computer-created shot of a ship or planet, it's quite jarring - takes you right out of the film. Technology just wasn't up to where it needed to be yet. The movie felt like a giant cash-in attempt, trying to suck in kids based on both their love of videogames and their love of Star Wars. That Star Wars envy is most obvious in the score. While decent music, you can hear the SW inspiration in almost every piece, and a few cues almost sound like direct copies. 24-year-old star Lance Guest <i>looks</i> every bit of 24, though we're supposed to believe he and his friends are teenagers, getting ready to go off to college. But at least he's a passable actor, which is more than I can say for most of the supporting cast. I think if I saw this as a kid, i might have enjoyed it (as I was one of those kids into videogames and Star Wars), but I had never seen it until now; and as an adult, it's just another silly, mediocre Star Wars knockoff.

• Lafe F

  
  Cool story, but I just wasn't too thrilled with any of it. The main character (Lance Guest) seemed too old to be living at home and playing videogames. The aliens just weren't too interesting either. The ships looked goofy as well. It didn't have enough of an 80's… More
  Cool story, but I just wasn't too thrilled with any of it. The main character (Lance Guest) seemed too old to be living at home and playing videogames. The aliens just weren't too interesting either. The ships looked goofy as well. It didn't have enough of an 80's feeling to it. I wish they had shown more classic games from the era. The trailer park setting wasn't Spielberg enough.

• Michael G

  
  I loved it when I was 10, but I haven't seen it in over 20 years.

• Jason S

  
  A little light on the plot but what person wouldn't want to be recuited by Star Command.

• Curtis L

  
  Classic space fantasy movie. Centari is the man.

• xGary X

  
  A teenager completes an arcade machine in a backwater trailer park to find it was actually a test to find pilots to fight in an interstellar war. Enjoyable boys own sci-fi aimed squarely at kids with some nice old school CGI and a likeable cast of supporting characters. Good fun.

• Dean M

  
  Light-hearted and great sci-fi. A nice performance by Lance Guest as a video games whiz-kid, and he is extremely well backed up by girlfriend Catherine Mary Stewart and Robert Preston, as a happy salesman from another planet.

• Fascade F

  
  An incredible adventure of a video game that changes the destiny of a trailer park inhabitant. See this for the adventure of it all!

• Jason R

  
  One of the first feature films to heavily use computer-generated graphics. The Last Starfighter stands as one of the most imaginative and enjoyable Sci-Fi films of all time. Yes! It is dated, but I would take this movie over most of the CGI-filled bombs that have been dropped on us… More
  One of the first feature films to heavily use computer-generated graphics. The Last Starfighter stands as one of the most imaginative and enjoyable Sci-Fi films of all time. Yes! It is dated, but I would take this movie over most of the CGI-filled bombs that have been dropped on us over the past decade.

• Marion R

  
  I wished I would have liked it more, but for me it just okay. The "CGI" is dated and the ending is pretty corny.

• Angela A

  
  Cheesy geeky :D

• RJ M

  
  Before every movie started using computers for all it's visual effects, there was The Last Starfighter. It was the first movie to use computers to create all of it's outer space battles. It's a classic sci-fi adventure movie that speaks volumes about the power of… More
  Before every movie started using computers for all it's visual effects, there was The Last Starfighter. It was the first movie to use computers to create all of it's outer space battles. It's a classic sci-fi adventure movie that speaks volumes about the power of following your dreams. Lance Guest is perfect as the everyday kid that knows he was meant for something much bigger than his life in a trailer park. He gets the chance to find out when his skill at the videogame "Starfighter" leads to an encounter with an alien visitor, played by Robert Preston. Suddenly he's whisked away to a distant planet, where he finds that the events in the "Starfighter" game are real, and he has been found to have the gift to be a real Starfighter. Dan O'Herlihy is his alien navigator Grigg, and Catherine Mary Stewart is the beautiful girlfriend who waits for him back home, while encountering a robot duplicate of her boyfriend, left behind to cover up his being gone. The movie is really all heart. In the original Star Wars, there's a shot of Luke Skywalker looking out over the sands of Tatooine as the twin suns set. That iconic shot embodies the dream that every young person has of leaving home and dreaming of more than what they have. This movie takes that idea and runs with it. When every kid (of every age) plays a video game, this is the situation they are dreaming they are in. The story and emotions are moved along by what is really one of the greatest musical scores ever, by Craig Safan. It's an amazing piece of work. It's a groundbreaking movie that obviously looks dated today, but it's story is timeless.

Read all 20 featured audience ratings