The
Last Starfighter [Blu-ray]
(Nick Castle, 1984)
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Coming to 4K UHD
from Arrow in May 2023:
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Review by Leonard Norwitz
+ Colin Zavitz
Studio:
Theatrical: Lorimar
Blu-ray: Universal Studios Home Entertainment
/ Arrow
Disc:
Region: ALL
/ Region 'A'
Runtime: 1:40:34.194
/ 1:40:29.898
Disc Size: 36,514,128,886 bytes
/ 48,319,229,722 bytes
Feature Size: 28,233,154,560 bytes
/ 32,840,066,496 bytes
Video Bitrate: 31.31 Mbps
/ 31.93 Mbps
Chapters: 18
/ 12
Case: Standard Blu-ray case
/ Transparent Case
Release date: August 18th, 2009
/ October 27th, 2020
Video
(both):
Aspect ratio: 2.4:1
Resolution: 1080p
Video codec: VC-1 Video
Bitrates:
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Universal - Region FREE - Blu-ray
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2)
Arrow - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
BOTTOM
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Audio:
DTS-HD Master Audio English 3929 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz /
3929 kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 1509 kbps /
24-bit)
Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz /
192 kbps / Dolby Surround
DTS-HD Master Audio English 1557 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 1557
kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 2.0 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
DTS-HD Master Audio English 3305 kbps 4.1 / 48 kHz / 3305
kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 4.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
DTS-HD Master Audio English 3730 kbps 5.1 / 48 kHz / 3730
kbps / 24-bit (DTS Core: 5.1 / 48 kHz / 768 kbps / 24-bit)
Commentaries:
Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
/ DN -31dB
Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
/ DN -31dB
Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 2.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps
/ DN -31dB
Subtitles:
English (SDH), English, French, Spanish, none
English (SDH), none
Extras:
• Feature Commentary with Director Nick Castle & Production
Designer Ron Cobb.
• Crossing the Frontier: Making of The Last Starfighter – in
SD (32:02)
• Heroes of the Screen: a retrospective documentary with
cast & crew - in HD (24:19)
• Image Gallery: Production photos, Promotional material &
an Alternate Ending.
• BD-Live 2.0
• D-Box Motion Enabled
•
Brand new audio commentary with star Lance Guest and his son
Jackson Guest
•
Brand new audio commentary with Mike White of The Projection
Booth podcast
•
Archival audio commentary with director Nick Castle and
production designer Ron Cobb
•
Maggie’s Memories: Revisiting The Last Starfighter – a new
interview with actress Catherine Mary Stewart (09:28)
•
Into the Starscape: Composing The Last Starfighter – a new
interview with composer Craig Safan (12:20)
•
Incredible Odds: Writing The Last Starfighter – a new
interview with screenwriter Jonathan Betuel (09:27)
•
Interstellar Hit-Beast: Creating the Special Effects – a new
interview with special effects supervisor Kevin Pike (10:14)
•
Excalibur Test: Inside Digital Productions – a new interview
with sci-fi author Greg Bear on Digital Productions, the
company responsible for the CGI in The Last Starfighter
(07:46)
•
Greetings Starfighter! Inside the Arcade Game – an interview
with arcade game collector Estil Vance on reconstructing the
Starfighter game (07:24)
•
Heroes of the Screen – archival featurette (24:19)
•
Crossing the Frontier: Making The Last Starfighter –
archival 4-part documentary (32:02)
•
Image Galleries
•
Theatrical (02:47) and Teaser (01:33) Trailers
•
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned
artwork by Matt Ferguson
FIRST PRESSING ONLY
– Limited Edition O-Card
– Limited Edition Reversible Poster featuring original and
newly commissioned artwork
– Collector’s booklet featuring new writing by Amanda Reyes
and sci-fi author Greg Bear’s never-before-published Omni
magazine article on Digital Productions, the company
responsible for the CGI in The Last Starfighter
The Film:
One of the perks about writing for my fellow Beavers is
that I can expect a certain level of familiarity with
movies made before The Bourne Identity. I dare say many
of you out there know more than I about classic and
obscure films, so when I relate The Last Starfighter to
Tron, Toy Story 2 or This Island Earth, you all know
what I'm talking about without my having to detail the
allusion. Galaxy Quest did not leap out of the head of
its creator without films like Starfighter dancing
around the brain like sugarplums.
Once called "One of the best B-movie ever made"
The Last Starfighter lives up to its calling even 25 years later.
That's one of the nice things about B-movies –
production values are not so high that we go crazy
picking at this or that shortcoming. In the commentary,
Director Nick Castle and Production Designer Ron Cobb
speak at length about this movie being on the cutting
age of cinema digital effects. These effects look
primitive now. So too is the Atari vintage video game
that our hero plays outside his trailer. We can but
smile.
With consciously applied cues from Steven Spielberg
(especially CE3K and E.T.) especially in his portrayal
of Americana (familiar and comforting) and the music
scoring (unimaginative and repetitive), Castle and
writer Jonathan Betuel have fashioned a thoroughly
likeable fantasy about an unlikely – and, of course,
reluctant – hero who saves the day and the galaxy. Throw
in a little romance with the girl next door, some outer
space combats and Voila!
Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) is the son of the manager of a
rural trailer court, who aims to quit this place and go
on to bigger and better things – like college or
something one can actually wrap one's mind around. In
between fixing the plumbing and the occasional smooching
with his girlfriend (Catherine Mary Stewart), he
challenges the record for the arcade video game "Starfighter,"
which was accidentally dumped here instead of Vegas. One
night, as neighbors crowd around to cheer him on, Alex
breaks the record, which, in turn, signals a visit by a
dapper man driving a slick gull wing car in a stylish
hat. He calls himself Centauri (Robert Preston) and
claims to be from the Star League of Planets, for whom
he invented Alex's video game to test the skills of
potential starfighters - as well as a novel method for
learning to play to tuba, we should imagine.
A short ride, and Alex is transported to Centauri's home
planet to be inducted into a desperate fight against the Ko-Dan.
Alex gets the deadly point of all this rather quickly and
chooses necking over fighting. So back home he is whisked.
Meantime the Ko-Dan levy their first attack, pretty much
wiping out the defenses of the guys in the white suits. One
thing leads to another and back Alex goes, where he, still
very reluctantly and fearfully, fine-tunes his craft with
the help of his navigator/guru/mentor, Grig (Dan O'Herlihy).
The Last Starfighter makes for a thoroughly likeable popcorn
movie - but, even with the assistance of Preston and
O'Herlihy (both of whom are priceless here), this is not
major league material. Clearly, it doesn't pretend to be,
and for that reason succeeds beyond its wildest imagination.
Image:
NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were
obtained directly from the
Blu-ray disc.
Alas, I have not seen Universal's early HD-DVD transfer of
this movie but, from all reports, it was not representative
of the medium - probably about as good as how I remember
seeing it in not so good projection at the local dollar
cineplex. My, that was an unhappy experience! From the look
of the Blu-ray, I would guess that some effort went into
re-imagining this movie for
high-def. Colors are bold, Blacks are deep. Everything looks
clean and sharp. I can say with some certainty that I've
never seen The Last Starfighter looking this good. But, hold
on a moment – perhaps, too good. A little too smooth,
perhaps. Could this be the dreaded DNR at work! I daresay.
Still, I am not deterred. The spongy look seems to fit
somehow with the territory. Perhaps I am merely making
excuses. Doesn't matter.
According to Arrow Video, this new Blu-ray is newly restored
from a 4K scan of the original negative and is presented in
its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1 (though it looks more
like 2.35:1 to my eyes). Most importantly, the old Universal
Blu-ray's excessive digital noise reduction (DNR) is gone,
gone, gone. What now shows up is an image with beautiful
fine grain, even in some of the special effects sequences
(this was one of the first films to utilize CGI, and
although some shots are a tad corny, the effects hold up
quite well and aren't any more conspicuous than they were
with all that DNR. Faces appear natural, with a certain
warmer (yet more varied) color tone. Detail is also
amplified due to the absence of DNR smoothing. The film is
housed on a dual-layered Blu-ray with a rather high bitrate.
This benefits the film allowing deep blacks to shine (so to
speak) during various nighttime/space exterior shots. You
can most definitely get rid of your old Blu-ray. The image
alone is worth the upgrade. Arrow includes the following
info in their accompanying booklet, "The original 35mm
camera negative was scanned in 4K resolution at EFILM. The
film was graded and restored at R3Store Studios in London."
CLICK EACH
BLU-RAY
CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
Subtitle Sample
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Audio & Music:
6/6
Dynamic and clear though the uncompressed audio mix is, the
great majority of it plays stereo front, even in the battle
sequences, which are not many. In such moments, there is
some localization of effects as we should hope when Alex's
starfighter is under attack by a small armada. Dialogue has
some treble boost to it – for the sake of clarity, one
imagines - making it more unnatural than it needs to be.
Craig Safan's music score is unabashedly stolen from John
Williams' Raiders of the Last Ark.
Not to be outdone by the stellar image, Arrow Video's new
Blu-ray of "The Last Starfighter" also features 3 audio
choices (well, 6 if you include the 3 commentaries). The
following DTS-HD Master audio tracks are available from the
audio menu; 2.0 stereo, 5.1 audio and a 4.1 mix created for
the film's 70mm release (this 4.1 mix was originally created
for the film’s 70mm release and never included on previous
home video formats). Purists may normally consider the
original stereo, but this 4.1 track is a rather welcome
inclusion here, and is more than just a curiosity. When
going back and forth between the 4.1 and 5.1 audio tracks on
my home surround system, I was rather shocked at how
different moments can sound. To be fair, I think the 5.1 is
the most evenly balanced choice of the 3, with the 4.1 track
sometimes veering into excessively bombastic territory.
Craig Safan's playful music shines on all three tracks, and
dialogue is never too muddled and justifiably foregrounded.
There are optional English subtitles on this Region 'A'
Blu-ray from Arrow Video.
Extras:
7
The commentary by Director Nick Castle & Production Designer
Ron looks back fondly at the good old days, how this project
came into being with its special, special digital effects,
unique for its day. The on again, off again train of thought
covers casting, characters, story and filming philosophy.
With the stellar picture, multiple audio choices, Arrow
Video could have had a winner on their hands, even without
many extras....but alas, this thing is loaded to the brim
with bonus features. The old commentary with director Nick
Castle ('The Shape' aka 'Michael Myers' from John
Carpenter's "Halloween") and production designer Ron
Cobb is included here, as are 2 brand new commentaries. The
first is with star Lance Guest and his son Jackson Guest,
the second with Mike White of The Projection Booth podcast.
While only diving into these tracks momentarily, they
certainly cover different aspects of the film and its
production, and I look forward to listening to the rest of
these in the near future. Up next are a handful of
interviews (mostly audio with behind-the-scenes footage and
split screen visuals). The first is the 10-minute "Maggie’s
Memories: Revisiting The Last Starfighter" with actress
Catherine Mary Stewart. "Into the Starscape: Composing
The Last Starfighter" is a 12-minute interview with
composer Craig Safan. "Incredible Odds: Writing The Last
Starfighter" is a 10-minute interview with screenwriter
Jonathan Betuel. "Interstellar Hit-Beast: Creating the
Special Effects" is a 10-minute interview with special
effects supervisor Kevin Pike. "Excalibur Test: Inside
Digital Productions" is an 8-minute interview with
sci-fi author Greg Bear on Digital Productions, the company
responsible for the CGI in The Last Starfighter. "Greetings
Starfighter! Inside the Arcade Game" is an 8-minute
interview with arcade game collector Estil Vance on
reconstructing the Starfighter game. The previous Blu-ray's
making-of featurettes also appear here, "Heroes of the
Screen" and "Crossing the Frontier: Making The Last
Starfighter". There are a ton of image galleries, a
theatrical and teaser trailer, and the first pressing
features a collector’s booklet featuring new writing by
Amanda Reyes and sci-fi author Greg Bear’s
never-before-published Omni magazine article on Digital
Productions, the company responsible for the CGI in The
Last Starfighter. Also, there is a limited edition
reversible poster featuring original and newly commissioned
artwork by Matt Ferguson.
Universal - Region
FREE - Blu-ray
Arrow - Region
'A' - Blu-ray
Recommendation : 8
I can't help liking this movie, for all its limitations.
It's playful, witty, and a bit romantic. It has nothing
important to say and never takes itself seriously. The movie
has never looked this good, even with what I take to be DNR
which, accountably, I don't seem to mind all that much.
Fans of "The Last Starfighter" should not hesitate to
pick up this new
Blu-ray
from the folks at Arrow Video. The original 35mm camera
negative was scanned in 4K resolution, and the DNR-less
image is worth the upgrade alone. Add to that, the gazillion
extras (both new and archival) and the 3 very different (and
all enjoyable) audio tracks.
Leonard Norwitz
August 5th, 2009
Colin Zavitz
November 9th, 2020
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Coming to 4K UHD
from Arrow in May 2023:
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