To celebrate the 100th post, here’s a very special movie I must’ve watched a hundred times as a kid, so this was definitely a good time see it once over again.

The Last Starfighter tells the story of Alex Rogan (Lance Guest), a young guy who’s only way to escape the dullness and woe of living in a trailer park is by playing the Starfighter coin-op game, which unbeknownst to him is actually a test for recruiting the best space pilots in the known universe. When finally beating the game he gets some unexpected visitors from outer space.

Much of the games art style is due to the space action scenes and establishment shots being computer made and the movie is among the first full length feature films to feature CGI in this scale. The coin op game itself is also done with love and the whole idea of video games being this awesome and possibly taking you to unknown worlds and exciting adventures really captivated me back then. 

I’m a small town kid as well, you know.

The Last Starfighter has it all: Humor, adventure, thrills, scifi in a very well balanced package, and to top it off, it also features an actually likeable and memorable cast of aliens – something virtually non-existent in scifi movies up to this date. 

The movie isn’t usually listed among the eighties great adventure movies along with the likes of The Goonies, E.T. and Gremlins.

But it sure as heck belongs there.

80s-o-meter: 98%

Total: 101%