Dark Star

Dark Star (1974)

Ranking: Yes
Trashiness: Moderately Trashy

Sci-fi comedy/spoof following the exploits of the crew of the space ship 'Dark Star'. Dark Star's mission is to travel through the Universe destroying unstable planets so that galaxies may be colonized (or something. I didn't exactly follow that but whatever). And they've been in space for way to long and are going quietly insane.

Of course, when people say 'sci-fi spoof' I tend to think of Spaceballs. This movie pwns Spaceballs. Then again, the SF film my friend made in his backyard pwns Spaceballs.

It wasn't obnoxious. It was fairly restrained, but just really odd. And funny. I laughed. Notably, one of the earlier films of both Dan O'Bannon and John Carpenter, both of who would go on to do great things, i.e., Alien, Return of the Living Dead, The Thing, Ghosts of Mars et cetera. Dan O'Bannon also features in one of the main roles and does pretty well.

Again, this is sci-fi for weird people. People who thought 2001 had great, unrealized comic potential. Actually, I don't think I've ever met anyone who didn't think that. I mean, come on. "You know I can't do that, Dave". Ho ho ho. Comedy masterpiece of the century. Last century. Whatever.

Oh my God. I should probably stop before I get totally off topic. Yes, the crew of Dark Star has several small, but humourous adventures involving a beach ball with feet, the cryogenically frozen captain of the ship, a rebellious bomb and so on.

Yeah, no, really, maybe, off-beat SF picture. I can't really think of too much else to write about it right now. I like to fill reviews up to 2000 characters or thereabouts for some neurotic reason. I'm only up to, like, 1682 right now so I'll have to talk about something else.

Right now I'm sitting around listening to Les Negresses Verte. My neck really hurts on account of my headbanging yesterday afternoon (don't ask). Ummmmm... I kind of want a cup of tea. I might go get one. I might not. Okay, that's about good.

END

Directed by: John Carpenter. Written by: John Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon. Starring: Brian Narelle, Cal Kuniholm, Dre Pahich, Dan O'Bannon.