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Dark Star -
Peter Gibbons said it best: "human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day." Based on this movie, they also weren't meant to be stuck in tiny spaceships for dozens of years. That's the situation of Doolittle, Boiler, Talby and Pinback in this odd and silly sci-fi comedy that marks John Carpenter's directorial debut. Their mission: destroy unstable planets that put colonizable ones at risk. Besides having to do this on a spaceship that makes Apollo 13 seem roomy, the crew have to contend with a naughty alien, various deadly astrological phenomena, too smart for its own good AI and crushing boredom.
This movie is also notable for being the feature screenwriting debut of Dan O'Bannon (Alien). The moments that have his distinctive stamp on it are its brightest spots, especially when Pinback, the most anxious of the four (who O'Bannon plays) contends with the beach ball with chicken legs that is their stowaway. As that description implies, this is essentially a student film, but there's ingenuity to be found, whether it's the graphics in the space storm and the computer readouts or the use of ordinary objects like muffin trays and model kits as ship components. Most importantly, though, due to O'Bannon's flustered performance - it's too bad he didn't act more - and his wry dialogue, the movie is quite funny. With that said, this still isn't the easiest movie to watch. The close-quartered camerawork, while effective at conveying how cramped the ship is, is a bit on the ordinary side, so much so that the tedium the crew experiences became my own and not in a good way. Also, as wrong as it seems to criticize the performances in a student film, I wish the rest of the cast showed up like O'Bannon did. I still had a pretty good time overall, especially for the experience of getting to see how two of the late 20th century's best entertainers started out. Oh, and if it succeeds at anything, it's at conveying what Alien and Office Space also prove: work sucks.
Peter Gibbons said it best: "human beings were not meant to sit in little cubicles staring at computer screens all day." Based on this movie, they also weren't meant to be stuck in tiny spaceships for dozens of years. That's the situation of Doolittle, Boiler, Talby and Pinback in this odd and silly sci-fi comedy that marks John Carpenter's directorial debut. Their mission: destroy unstable planets that put colonizable ones at risk. Besides having to do this on a spaceship that makes Apollo 13 seem roomy, the crew have to contend with a naughty alien, various deadly astrological phenomena, too smart for its own good AI and crushing boredom.
This movie is also notable for being the feature screenwriting debut of Dan O'Bannon (Alien). The moments that have his distinctive stamp on it are its brightest spots, especially when Pinback, the most anxious of the four (who O'Bannon plays) contends with the beach ball with chicken legs that is their stowaway. As that description implies, this is essentially a student film, but there's ingenuity to be found, whether it's the graphics in the space storm and the computer readouts or the use of ordinary objects like muffin trays and model kits as ship components. Most importantly, though, due to O'Bannon's flustered performance - it's too bad he didn't act more - and his wry dialogue, the movie is quite funny. With that said, this still isn't the easiest movie to watch. The close-quartered camerawork, while effective at conveying how cramped the ship is, is a bit on the ordinary side, so much so that the tedium the crew experiences became my own and not in a good way. Also, as wrong as it seems to criticize the performances in a student film, I wish the rest of the cast showed up like O'Bannon did. I still had a pretty good time overall, especially for the experience of getting to see how two of the late 20th century's best entertainers started out. Oh, and if it succeeds at anything, it's at conveying what Alien and Office Space also prove: work sucks.