Movie Review: Starman

Directed by John Carpenter, 1984

IMDb listing 

Pros: excellent soundtrack, some incredible acting, realistic human response

Cons: not sold on the romance, one special effect looks terrible

An alien comes to Earth in response to the Voyager welcome message. Shot down by the military, the alien takes on the form of the deceased Scott Hayden and forces the man’s wife, Jenny Hayden, to drive him to Arizona where he’s supposed to meet up with another ship. All the while being hunted by the military and a SETI agent.

I saw this once as a kid and remembered a lot more of it than I expected. While a few of the special effects didn’t age well (specifically the alien growing from a human baby into Jeff Bridges) most of them were low key and so still carry a bit of wonder to them. 

Jeff Bridges does a remarkable job as an alien who can’t walk right, talks with extra clear enunciation, demands explanations of unfamiliar words, and just feels OFF. It’s a challenging role and he sells it completely.

I was impressed how the minimalistic soundtrack ended up emphasizing the theme song - played when the alien uses ‘magic’ or when something sad or touching happens. It’s a masterful piece of conditioning, much like the shark theme in Jaws.

I wasn’t entirely sold on the romance. Everything happens so fast that I have trouble believing Jenny could go from one extreme to the other. Especially considering how child-like the alien is in some ways.

Unfortunately I suspect that if aliens were to visit the Earth this is the treatment they’d get. It’s sad that while we’ve come so far in some ways, we haven’t changed at all in others.

While not a movie I’d watch often, it is worth seeing once. It’s slow moving and character driven, but you really feel for the alien at the end.

Movie Review: Escape From New York

Directed by: John Carpenter, 1981

IMDb listing

Pros: great sets

Cons: poor world-building

Set in 1997, super high crime rates required turning Manhattan Island into a walled prison. When Air Force One crashes inside its boundary, ex-soldier and recent convict Snake Plissken is given a chance at a pardon. To get it, he has to go in and bring the president out alive.

This is one of those influential ‘80s films that I somehow missed growing up. 

I suspect the acclaim for the film is due to nostalgia, because it’s quite a boring film to watch. The light techno music was an odd touch for the opening credits, with the theme sounding much like Halloween’s at times (which isn’t surprising when you note that both were composed by John Carpenter). Given the theme of the film I was expecting something more heavy metal.

The acting was decent, though the story left a lot to be desired. There were so many world-building questions left unanswered. Questions like: Why does everyone know who Plissken is? Why did he rob a bank? What’s on the tape? Does the ending mean there’s going to be another war (or renewed war? I believe the summit was to end the current war with China and Russia).

The sets were amazing. The building where Plissken gives the woman a smoke was creepy, and contained the only 2 scares in the whole movie. I loved the old library turned Brain’s base, and the Duke’s subway hideout.

The action was ok. Having only recently seen They Live for the first time too, I’m guessing Carpenter was enamoured of the WWF (both films have a protracted fight scene, I also remember the WWF being huge when I was a kid, and knowing all the major fighters).

Snake Plissken was a surprise. I was expecting someone like other 80s heroes (or anti-heroes). Brash, noisy, in your face. So his soft voice and complete lack of interest in the mission was interesting. I wish the film explained more of his past, as he sounded like an interesting person.

I have to admit, this isn’t a movie I’d watch again.

Movie Review: Dark Star

Directed by: John Carpenter, 1974

IMDb listing

Pros: existential bomb, humorous diary entries

Cons: cheesy special effects, pointless story, boring

Things start to go disastrously wrong for the crew of a space ship, 20 years into its mission of locating and destroying planets with deteriorating orbits around potentially colonizable star systems.

I was wondering, as I turned on this film, what makes some movies classics and others forgettable.  Why have I seen Alien numerous times, but never heard of Dark Star until fairly recently?

Then I watched the film.  Ah, that’s why I’ve never heard of it.  It’s not very good.  Passing over the special effects, which would have been decent for their time, if cheesy for modern viewers, the movie itself is pretty bad.  The plot is thin, the dialogue insipid and boring, and the action often nonsensical.  

According to IMDb it’s a comedy sci-fi film.  It might have helped had I known that going in.  I can see how a lot of the things that didn’t make sense might have been that way for comedic relief, but I wouldn’t say anything in the film struck me as particularly funny, aside from the smart bombs and Sargent Pinback’s diary entries.  There’s an alien that’s made up of a painted beach-ball with rubber hands.  To get to the airlock you have to crawl over a wooden plank across the elevator shaft (which became the location of 20 minutes of footage).  No one on the crew really talked to each other, which causes one of the major conflicts at the end of the film.  And the whole ship is covered in junk I doubt a real space mission crew would have brought on board.  

I’m not sure if my impression of the film would have benefited knowing it wasn’t meant to be a serious film before hand, but it couldn’t have hurt.  I like a lot of John Carpenter’s other films and was expecting something more serious/horror.  If you decide to see this, go in with low expectations.