Dark Star (1974)
A group of scientists are sent on a mission to destroy unstable planets. Twenty years into their mission, they have to battle their alien mascot as well as a "sensitive" and intelligent bombing device that starts to question the meaning of its existence.
- John Carpenter
- J. Stein Kaplan
- John Carpenter
- Dan O'Bannon
- John Carpenter
- Dan O'Bannon
Rating: 5.924/10 by 560 users
Alternative Title:
Finsterer Stern - DE
John Carpenter: Dark Star - DE
John Carpenter's Dark Star - US
Dark Star (Director's Cut) - US
Aluniza como puedas: Dark Star - ES
Country:
United States of America
Language:
English
Runtime: 01 hour 23 minutes
Budget: $60,000
Revenue: $0
Plot Keyword: future, artificial intelligence (a.i.), boredom, space travel, destruction of planet, anarchic comedy
Hilarious, taking the mickey out of science fiction films but still honoring the genre. I love it
There was always a dearth of sci-fi movies on the television as I was growing up, and this one used to appear rather regularly - and rather disappointingly too. It's supposed to be funny, but somehow the humour is just too contrived to make for much to remember as a group of astronauts start their twenty-year mission into outer space tasked with destroying unstable planets. Over time, though, the crew start to question the morality of their quest and coupled with the antics of their pet (looks like a rubber space-hopper) they find themselves facing the ultimate, explosive, dilemma. In it's favour, it is quite short and it doesn't hang around, but the acting is all just bit bland and there's way, way, too much script with little else by way of action to pad out the thin story that aims for parody but falls well short. Maybe we'd all be this way after a couple of decades in deep space, but somehow I think I'd have reached for the airlock about ten years earlier. In many ways it reminded me of a sort of "Monty Python" does life amongst the stars only with some ropey, low-budget, visual effects and annoying characters about whom I really didn't care. It'd been a while since I'd seen it, and will probably be the same before I watch it again.
