For a movie that was no doubt jumping on the E.T. and Star Wars bandwagon, The Last Starfighter manages to carve a niche for itself. Teenager Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) wins the high score on a mysterious video game and is suddenly recruited by an alien to defend the universe from some cosmic bad asses. What counts here is charm. The Last Starfighter oozes with the stuff, and it’s not forced. I love the trailer court setting and the depiction of the tight-knit community that live there. Casting “The Music Man” himself, Robert Preston, as a charlatan recruitment officer named Centauri is a stroke of genius. You can’t help but love Preston, even when he’s peddling bullshit. Dan O’Herlihy also does a commendable job acting through heavy prosthetics as Grig, Alex’s lizard-like trainer and shipmate.
Cary Grant stars in this post-war feel-good flick about three beleaguered naval officers whose precious 4-day shore leave is threatened at every turn. At first, it’s disappointing to see Grant slumming it in a party movie, but then there’s a little anti-war sentiment that threatens to elevate the material… before ultimately sinking it. Kiss Them For Me is ultimately an overbearing message movie, with Grant’s character repeatedly explaining to lay people and press alike that war isn’t glorious. Maybe the film served an important function counterbalancing war propaganda from the ’40s, but taken on its own, the message gets tedious very quickly. The line should have been drawn after Grant’s first dramatic outburst (a fine moment for him and the movie), and well before a wounded soldier is wheeled out for exhibition, full of hope and oblivious to his terminal diagnosis.
Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Alien) directs this lavishly mounted fantasy film that’s high on style but low on action. The sets are jaw-dropping, whether it’s the huge, scintillating fairy forest or the fiery underground dungeons of hell. Makeup artist Rob Bottin (The Howling, The Thing) showcases some spectacular Oscar-nominated work. Just look at Tim Curry (The Rocky Horror Picture Show‘s Dr. Frank-N-Furter) as Darkness, in his head-to-toe prosthetic makeup, red skin, cloven hooves, and immense black horns. It’s one of the most breathtaking achievements in the history of movie makeup.
