Originally published at: 'The Last Starfighters' might get made | Boing Boing
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I hope so! I think. Hmmm… do I hope so? I mean, it could be good, right? Ok, yes, I hope so.
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Alex, however, spends most of the film whinging and moaning about all the reasons he can’t kick the shit out of those Kodan is beyond me. His Beta Unit is far more heroic than Alex ever will be.
Also, reminder: Alex saves the day and destroys the Kodan armada by… Pressing a button.
It’s sort of the ultimate wish fulfillment movie for sci fi nerds. “I play videogames, and I could also press that button!”
Wayyy less hard than learning to use The Force.
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By an odd coincidence I was only just musing about Catherine Mary Stewart, specifically her role in the movie Dudes.
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I never figured out the logic of that Death Blossom button.
All the time he’s been dog-fighting with enemy ships, his ship has been loaded down with a fuckton of missiles jammed into every cubic centimeter. Think of the upgrades to shields and engines that were sacrificed for that! Alternately, why not use those missiles gradually during normal combat, rather than saving them for a last-ditch bonehead maneuver that’s probably suicide?
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Grigg was a genius and defeated the Kodan with the help of Alex who pressed a button at the right time.
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My kind’a hero…
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I’m just glad Grigg survived to the end of the film. He tempted fate so hard by showing Alex that family-photo cube.
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Pffft! If they hadn’t crippled their Starfighters with that Death Blossom payload, they would have had overwhelming superiority and wouldn’t have needed Alex to push the button.
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Grigg and Centauri are amazing characters. I hope they find some way to honor both those actors.
If they don’t the sequel’s a non-starter for me. Dan O’Herlihy and especially Robert Preston – doing an intergalactic version of Prof. Harold Hill – are what made the original movie so memorable for me.
…and Louis. Honor Louis.
“Jolanda, baby!”
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I wish I could find the speculative announce trailer somebody wrote up the last time rumors of this started circulating, because it felt perfect to me for a sequel/reboot.
Ends with the main character pulling on the cover over an arcade-cabinet sized object making noise in storage at the trailer park, cut to black, “Recruitment Resumes [release season]” on screen and Centauri’s voice saying “Greetings Starfighter”
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Kinda reminds me of this scene from Iron Man 2:
Rhody: Wow. I think you should lead with that next time.
Stark: Yeah, sorry boss, I can only use it once.
(No further explanation given)
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His Beta Unit is far more heroic than Alex ever will be.
In a just world, “Beta Unit” would be an affirmative and “alpha” would be a pejorative.
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Yeah, this was one of the VHS tapes in constant rotation throughout my youth, besides other favorites like the Goonies, the Explorers, and Iron Eagle.
The soundtracks to all of them were also quite good and influential on my music tastes.
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As a kid I always thought Centauri was one of the coolest characters ever. I just don’t think it’s possible to replace Robert Preston, I think he added a little “Music Man” to his performance, and there’s just not too many people who can pull that off. Perhaps they keep the character going with a variety of identities.
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Night of the Comet…my absolute favorite.
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Well, it’s line-of-sight and short duration… probably needed them to converge for maximum ROI.
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a good spot for an aging Jim Carey.
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I went looking for this, found a modern trailer for the original that’s actually pretty good.
Also came across this article about an Atari arcade unit that got cancelled at around 75% completion:
Oh, hey, and here’s a “making of” for the CGI of the film!
And an interesting breakdown of why this hasn’t happened yet (Spielberg had tried a while back, but couldn’t convince the author… but the author’s had a change of mind and is now working with Rogue One scriptwriter and Universal)…
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