source: Dark Star

Trailer—Dark Star

Dark Star

Director John Carpenter's DARK STAR takes deep space exploration in a whole new direction. The story by Carpenter and Dan O'Bannon is slyly hysterical, while still maintaining a sense of ultimate doom. A crew on a 20-year mission to destroy rogue planets finds that boredom has pretty much driven them nuts. They're sick of space, sick of each other, and have all turned into apathetic numbskulls. Can the threat of their own annihilation shake them from their doldrums? The monotonous computer voice, talking bombs, and beachball alien are all brilliant touches. Carpenter and O'Bannon have created the perfect antidote to the action-packed, modern day space opera...

Very tedious, I still don't get why people enjoy this annoying piece of garbage. There really isn't anything too funny in it. Saw it for a second time at the Boston Sci-Fest this year, for the first time in 1989 - still don't see what's so special about it - got bored, and I don't get bored easy when it comes to a movie. 3 out of 10.

Comedy is as subjective as anything gets. It all depends on the persons preference of humor. Personally, I never laughed once during this movie. I get the fact they were playing off of cheap effects and sci-fi cliches, but humor is just really thin and bland. It came to the point were the film became bothersome and ultimately boring, as I was waiting for something amusing to slip through. It wasn't completely terrible, being because John Carpenter, even in 1974, possessed an good eye for camera work and visual shots. The f/x isn't bad for it's time, and Carpenter at least makes the film nice to look at. Some may find it funny, but I found it dreadfully repetitive, boring, and void of anything funny. Stay away unless your interested in seeing how Carpenter got his start. 2/10 0 / * * * *

A Great Movie, i think it was made in Film School and is the first Movie available by John Carpenter.. The great thing besides the Humor, are those little typical low-budget Mistakes like the actor in the "lift" scene who is pretty clearly just lying on a common Floor.. The "mOnster" is amazing too its funny to see how a Ball with gloves can actually act, and a little music makes it scary.. The Last Scene is clearly inspired by Ray Bradburys (Fahrenheit 451) Short Story "Kaleidoscope".. Sorry for my poor English, but i just had to write something to this incredible piece of film..

John Carpenter's first film. Must be horror you say, but you'd be wrong in that account. Dark Star is a parodied view of future, in where a group of astronauts travel in space, destroying unstable planets in danger of hitting in to the sun, thus making them in to novas. One would think there's lots of special effects in a movie like this, and one would be right. Those special effects just aren't extremely good in any standard, but they do have lots of charm. And I actually do believe, that if this movie would have any better specials it wouldn't be as funny as it's now. I won't spoil the movie for you, but if you like sci-fi this just might suit for you then. It gave me couple of laughs.

Well OK this may not the most enjoyable film I've seen but it is certainly one of the most unique and cynical films ever. I find myself pulling out the tape and watching it again every couple of years just to give myself a reality check with all the Hollywood tripe you get these days. To make the most of it you need to watch a couple of Star Trek episodes first and then watch this. Instead of the clean-cut, politically correct, join-the-dots films that are so common now, you get a feeling that this might just be the way life on a space ship would really be. It was really way ahead of its time. People now comment that films like Star Wars and Alien were the first to make sci-fi more 'realistic' but Dark Star pre-dates both of them by several years. I have a sneaking suspicion that this is where Scott Ridley and George Lucas got some of their ideas.

John Carpenter's feature debut 'Dark Star' is an absolutely brilliant little curio, that'll make you laugh and laugh. I first saw the film on England's Channel 4 a few years back, and remember wondering what the hell I was watching. I quickly tracked down a copy and rewatched it to see if it was really THAT good... The story involves a bunch of astronauts who have been in space for many years: they spend their time blowing up unstable planets and rocking out to surf music. During this time, an alien (that looks suspiciously like a beach ball) runs riot, and an unruly bomb threatens to blow everyone to smithereens. 'Alien' screenwriter Dan O'Bannon wrote 'Dark Star', and clearly borrowed from it for the 1979 Ridley Scott film - taking the hilarious beach-ball sequence and playing it out for tension rather than laughs. Also a big influence on the TV series 'Red Dwarf'. Check it out if you're a fan of science fiction or a fan of John Carpenter. 10/10. An underrated classic.