The Last Starfighter | Full Movie | Movies Anywhere

The only question is whether the recent decline in arcade popularity will limit the audience this film deserves. The Last Starfighter has an ingratiating appeal that might carry it well beyond the video-game enthusiasts who are its core audience.

The Last Starfighter, a kind of intergalactic Alice in Wonderland, comes fully loaded: glowing performances, director Nick Castle's fine sense of balance and restraint, and Jonathan Betuel's screenplay, playful and bulging with arid wit.

An engaging enough comic fantasy for the post-'60s generation who've given up entirely on the Gutenberg Galaxy and are tracking Horatio Alger's footsteps via the video circuitry route.

Less crammed with unintelligible myth than Dune, and altogether less spectacular, Jonathan Betuel's screenplay is also less pretentious. By returning to earth... these adventures aren't ashamed of a human touch.

The Last Starfighter approaches its Wish Upon A Star fantasy with such aplomb and affection that we could almost see ourselves taking up residence in a tailer park.