The Last Starfighter

This minor gem from 1984 comes courtesy of Skatetown, U.S.A. and Escape from New York screenwriter Nick Castle, who also famously played Michael Myers (The Shape) in John Carpenter's classic Halloween. Inspired by the video arcade craze of the decade’s first half, screenwriter Jonathan R. Betuel fashioned this simple story about a teenager (Lance Guest) living in a trailer park with little to do but play the one video game he has access to. But it turns out Starfighter is no everyday game cabinet. An alien defense force has placed several of these game consoles in parts of the US to find someone who is able to play the game so well that he can win the actual interstellar war they are engaged in. When the teen reaches a certain level, he’s visited by an alien recruiter, in the form of Robert Preston, who tries to convince him to leave his home, his mom, and his girl to lead a cosmic fight against the evil Xur and the Ko-Dan Armada.

The premise is cute, but the film’s main joy is seeing Preston pay homage to his most famous role, the lovable con man Professor Harold Hill, in The Music Man. The picture is also notable for its early use of CGI. Like Disney's Tron, this film was an experiment in using computer-rendered 3D models to create spaceships, vehicles, and outer space environments. The attempt is not entirely successful, as the “real” space battles in The Last Starfighter look no different from the ones in the Starfighter video game. Still, there is an ironic handmade charm to this movie since the CGI is so primitive. The cast all seem delighted to be in this unapologetically youth-oriented picture, especially Preston, who was enjoying a late-career revival after his Oscar-nominated performance in Blake Edwards' Victor/Victoria in 1982. The Last Starfighter would be the actor's final big-screen role, and it’s a nice one to go out on.