Episode 302 - The Last Starfighter

The Last Starfighter is one of the most fun, mostly forgotten unsung heroes from the stacked roster of summer movies in 1984. A kid who dreams of escaping his dead-end life in a trailer park gets the high score on a video game, which ends up being a recruitment test for a fight against tyranny in a galaxy far, far away. Derivative? Yes. Dated effects? Sure. But fun? Most definitely! With (at the time) burgeoning state-of-the-art CGI, plus a breezy runtime and relatable characters, The Last Starfighter still wasn’t a huge hit - which is a shame. But it found new life on cable TV and at the video store well into the early 90s, until it just kinda disappeared into cult-filmdom. And now that it has turned 40, it is the perfect time to revisit one of our favorites and see if it still holds up. 0:00 - Intros 6:10 - Godzilla Minus One (2023) 15:20 - Superstar: Dare To Dream (1999) 21:10 - Peter Pan (touring) 24:50 - Stax: Soulsville U.S.A. (HBO / Hulu) 34:40 - The Last Fighter (1984)