Dark Star (john carpenter 1974)

[lester1/2jr]

Stay far away  from this film unless you are either a stoned MIT student, a sci fi geek, or have a very good sense of humor.  This is not like any movie I've seen before.   It was apparently a film school project for future superstar director John Carpenter which a promoter saw and added to his cult / b movie circuit bunch of films.  There are elements of Carpenters future greatness here as the crew struggles a la 2001: a space oddysey (which this is more or less a parody of)  to deal with the highly intelligent Hal 9000 type robot ship voice person.  The first half hour is laughably bad, virtually nothing happens.  Soon we are visited by a ridiculous alien beach ball, which is brilliant in it's contempt for the audience and special effects in general.  This was clearly not meant to play in theatres and as such is really absurd on some level.  I fast forwarded through some of it, just too many ridiculous 70's beard guys talking to each other.  But again, there is a masterful hand behind the camera and you can see his potential in many places, particularly the much stronger second half where Dark Star magically coalesces into an actual film.

[ghouck]

I have to second that. It is IMO, a pile of poo, it feels like they were taking a dry run at movie making, just kinda going through the motions. I'm not sure how this film got 4 stars, I would say two or MAYBE even three is more appropriate. I've watched it through a couple times, and the urge to fast-forward through it was astounding. There was so much film burned up while absoloutely nothing interesting was happening. The dialog sounds so un-emotional that the cast sounds like they are on lithium and reading it off a teleprompter.

[lester1/2jr]

it picked up when pinback got stuck in the elevator and from there it moved alot better.  But obviously it's not going to make anyone forget "the thing" or "assault on precinct 13"

[Torgo]

For a student film project (which it was), I think that it's quite good.  It's got some dull stretches at times but overall I found it to be quite funny in a dry, dry, dry way.

The part with the alien beach ball is classic.  Dan O'Bannon is great in those scenes.

[Derf]

I actually saw this one in the theater. It is definitely low budget, but I enjoy it; I even own it on dvd now. There are a few edits on the dvd (the one that pops to mind is that in the theatrical release, the walls throughout most of the ship were covered with centerfolds, and on the dvd those have all been smudged out in order to keep a G rating). The humor is slower than many movies, but it is still a fun movie for me. And I am about as far from a hippie (or a 70s bearded guy) as you can get, and I've never been high (okay, there was once, when I had whiplash and took a muscle relaxer. Then I decided pain was better than floating a few inches off the ground). I guess that would make me a sci-fi geek with a good sense of humor. Eh, I've been called worse. 

[Him]

I have mixed feelings about this movie. I enjoyed the opening scenes and the closing scenes as well as the song.

The middle of the film on the other hand is crap. That alien beach ball bit just wasn't funny.

[Dave Munger]

I love this movie, I have it on DVD. I kind of think of it as a parody before the fact of Alien.

I do not like the men on this spaceship. They are uncouth and fail to appreciate my better qualities. I have something of value to contribute to this mission if they would only recognize it. Today over lunch I tried to improve morale and build a sense of camaraderie among the men by holding a humorous, round-robin discussion of the early days of the mission. My overtures were brutally rejected. These men do not want a happy ship. They are deeply sick and try to compensate by making me feel miserable. Last week was my birthday. Nobody even said "happy birthday" to me. Someday this tape will be played and then they'll feel sorry.

Spent years looking for that "Benson Arizona" song.

The clip on this site from this movie gets an out-loud laugh from me, just from pulling a beach-ball back a little bit, as if it's disgusted or something.

[Pilgermann]

I love Dark Star!  The only Carpenter films I like more are The Thing and Halloween.  It's horribly low budget and the acting is kinda poor, but there's something about it that makes me happy.  Plus the ending is based on Ray Bradbury's short story Kalaidoscope which I thought was pretty cool.

[Doc Daneeka]

This is actually one of Carpenter's best films IMO, like other people have said in far less favorable light, it truly captures the essence of spending twenty years in space, having to blow up entire planets in a far less flamboyant way than Grand Moff Tarkin. What Carpenter did with such limited material was excellent, and continues to be an inspiration to me and my hopeful film career.

I disagree with others, the beach ball alien was funny, but really could have been skipped entirely. The dialogue-y parts are excellent, the phenomenology scene and the part with the captain directly before it are choice!

I also suggest the novelization, which keeps most of the best parts and adds some more interesting stuff, which makes some parts of the movie even better!

[ulthar]

I really liked DARK STAR as well.  However, I will add that I saw it AFTER becoming a John Carpenter fan.  If I had seen it before THE THING, ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13, etc, etc, I don't know if I would have liked it as much.

That's probably a no-no type of confession from a movie-buff, but there it is.  Just trying to be honest...