The Last Starfighter

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Year:	1984
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Nick Castle
Genre:	Star Wars Vs. Tron
Starring:	Lance Guest, Dan O'Herlihy
Rating:	3/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087597/
Tagline:	He's got one extraordinary chance at the dream of a lifetime.
Favourite line:	"Death is a primitive concept. I prefer to think of them as battling evil, in another dimension."

This was one of my favourite movies when I were a wee bairn, so it was with some trepidation that I hit play once more, some twenty one years since last it was viewed.

The plot:
A young man, obsessed by video games in general, in particular one stand up arcade machine called The Last Starfighter, is inadvertantly plunged into an intergalactic war, a real life version of the very game he was playing, as pixelated fiction becomes reality and he is given the opportunity to be a hero in real life.

You know, I get the distinct impression that the makers of this movie had seen Tron. I also suspect that they had seen Star Wars, as well as the odd episode of classic Star Trek and thought to themselves one day, thorugh a fugue of cannaboids "Why don't we make our own version of Tron Trek Wars."
And it's a decent effort, though somewhat undermined by a moderate budget, that hindered it not at all to the eyes of a child but, through the scaled and jaded eyes of an adult just cheapens the whole thing Entertaining in it's own way, it hasn't quite stood the test of time, particularly with regards some of the creature designs and robotic creations, most of which seem very silly and far too child-like to be taken seriously.
Unlike R2D2, of course. Very mature.
Special mention must be made of the computer graphics which, though primitive, were certainly pioneering and thus historically important.
From a nostalgic point of view, I'm glad I watched it again, but I doubt I'll be checking it out again in too much of a hurry.