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Man, can't any movie I remember from childhood turn to be good?

THE LAST STARFIGHTER is about a guy dead-ended in trailer park whose only claim to anything is the fact that he's really good at the local video game "Starfighter".  Lucky for him, that video game is actually a training module put there by an alien confederacy looking for new recruits in their galactic war.  He's recruited, and small planet boy makes good.

Contrary to my memory, this movie takes a really long time to get going.  It takes twenty minutes for the interstellar emissary to even show up.  There are no real starfights until an hour in.  What was the plan here?

But it's not a complete loss.  The scene where Alex, the hero, actually beats the high score is hilarious.  The entire trailer park shows up to witness the event.  He's close to a million and they're all there, cheering like madmen at the momentous occasion.  You'd think they all won cushy government jobs by the way they're hugging each other and gallavanting about.  I've made a few high scores in my time, but nobody ever cheered me and claimed me "hero of the trailer park".  I suspect it's because they never realized the true importance of video games.  Maybe that "murder simulator" accusation isn't so far off.  Heck, who needs a movie version of ENDER'S GAME with THE LAST STARFIGHTER on their hands.

But it's still a dissapointment.  The starfights have none of the coolness or spontaneity of STAR WARS.  They're all roundly a let down.

There's also a vaguely creepy sublplot having to do with Alex's beta unit, which I never liked and oddly takes up quite a bit of the movie.

Good for children, not much else.  Two slimes.

I like it a liitle more then Mofo Rising. Worth watching, if only to see Robert Preston as the intergalactic traveler and Dan O'Herlihy as the lizard. Say 3 slimes. Enjoy