Age: 40 years
GRS Rating: 5 of 5

Notable Cast:

Lance Guest Robert Preston Chris Hebert

Duration: 1 hr, 41 min
Infractions: None.

Comments: I grew up with this movie and watched it many times as a child. The special effects were state of the art then, and still impressive more than twenty years later. The producers had the funny notion of using computer-generated models. Hmm, what a crazy idea? It'll never catch on!

This movie describes a guy from a trailer park in mountainous central California (or some other middle-of-nowhere) who beats a video game. So a visitor from outer space arrives to recruit him to be a starfighter. The premise sounds far-fetched but is very well-done and plausible.

As I said the effects are very impressive. I appreciate the small technical effects like seeing redshift when the Starcar breaks the speed of light. Neither the plot nor special effects are dumbed down so the average viewer (a child or young adult, most probably) can understand them. Furthermore this wonderful effect isn't harped on. Today such an effect would be described till any reasonably smart person in the audience has bleeding ears!

This is a superb movie using science fiction and action to keep the plot rolling along. It never bores. Very highly recommended.