The Last Starfighter

Well I guess I will review this because hey it's the 80's and it's sci-fi and I like movies like E.T. and D.A.R.Y.L. so I guess this one should be good. I hope you know how to fly because it's time to review The Last Starfighter.












We start in a trailer park where a boy named Alex Rogan (Lance Guest) lives with is little brother Louis (Chris Hebert) and his mother Jane (Barbara Bosson). He spends most of his time helping out his neighbors instead of doing what he wants like going to the lake with his friend Maggie (Catherine Mary Stewart) and her friends. When he isn't helping his neighbors, he plays an arcade cabinet with a game called The Last Starfighter on it. The game is about defending another galaxy from an evil army. One night Alex is playing The Last Starfigher when someone realizes that Alex might break the high score on the game. So this causes nearly all the people who live there to go and cheer Alex on.....was there really nothing else going on that day? Alex beats the high score and goes to tell his mom who tells him that she got him a loan so that Alex can go to college. Alex goes outside to think about this when a strange man driving the DeLorean from Back to the Future talks to Alex and says that he is the creator of the game and that he wants Alex to come with him.The man introduces himself as Centuari (Robert Preston) and he also reveals that HE IS NOT HUMAN. He is an alien from another planet and his car is a spaceship. Centuari takes Alex to a space station where he tells Alex that since he beat the game he passed the test and he is being recruited as a Starfighter.



Alex talks to a lizard alien named Grig (Dan O'Herihy) who says that Centuari recruited him without permission. Before Alex has a chance to respond someone hacks into the system and sends a message to the Starfighters. The person is Xur an evil overlord who wants to take over the universe. Xur says that there is no hope in defeating him and that he will destroy them all. This scares Alex away and Centuari takes him home. But it looks like Alex left just in time because meanwhile Xur and his friend Lord Kril (Dan Mason) are planning to attack the starfighter base. Now there is a bit of a problem with the movie I would like to bring up here. Xur is not a good villian: he sort of comes off as very whiny and even a bit annoying. Anyway, Xur and Kril kill all The Starfighters. Alex returns home and Centuari gives him a gadget that he can use in case he changes his mind about becoming a Starfighter. Alex finds out that while he was in space a robot named Beta (also Lance Guest) took his place. Alex also finds out that a bunch of alien assassins are after him which means that Xur thinks he is on earth. So Alex calls Centauri and they decide to go back to space where Alex will face Xur. They make it there where it turns out that Centuari was injured and he dies. Bur Grig says that they must move fast so they get in a new prototype ship and plan to take on Xur and Lord Kril.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

They need to make it through the troops of space soldiers and to the turrets to lower their defences. They come up with the idea of hiding in a hollow asteroid and when most of the soldiers pass by, they will jump out at them. Meanwhile back on earth Beta is revealed to be a fake Alex by one of the Assassins and they go to report it to Xur and Kril. But Beta stops him and all Xur and Kril get is "The last Starfighter...." which Xur assumes meant "The last Starfighter is dead". But he isn't dead and Alex ends up using the mega death ray (that's not what it's called but it's basically what it is) to defeat most of the troops. Kril is angry at Xur for assuming Alex is dead and has Xur locked up. Alex and Grig use the weapons to knock out the engine of the enemy ship which locks Kril's ship into the gravity field of a nearby moon which causes them to crash. Alex is declared a hero, Centuari is alive...somehow...and they want Alex to help rebuild the Starfighter league. Alex lands on earth to say goodbye to his friends and family. Alex asks his friend Maggie to come with him but it looks like she isn't ready to go...ah you faked me out with Nim's Island last time but I know that she will come....any minute now....she's going to change her mind....well I guess she is really going to stay...oh wait she's coming with Alex to have many adventures with Alex. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

I enjoyed The Last Starfighter. It had some pretty entertaining action and some relatively interesting characters. A lot of the effects are pretty impressive for the time and some characters like Grig, Beta, and Louis are actually pretty funny. Now like I said before Xur isn't a very good villian; he comes off like he got a double scoop of ice cream instead of a triple scoop and he won't stop complaining about it. Also there are quite a few 80's cliches. But I think that if you see this movie at your local video store it's definitely worth a rent. See you next time where I celebrate Christmas with freaky animation.

AND THE GHOST OF ELIAS KINGSTON REALLY IS.....

Nims Island

Well I don't exactly have reason to review this other than I didn't have time to review the movie I wanted. I guess I don't have much else to say. Let's go to a small island in the South Pacific where I review Nim's Island.

We start with a girl named Nim (Abigail Breslin) who lives with her father Jack (Gerard Butler) on an island. Her father studies plankton agile and other single celled organisms. Nim likes to read a series of books called The Adventures of Alex Rover (Also Gerard Butler). If you want to know what these books are about think The Adventures of Tintin meets Indiana Jones. The author of these books is a cowardly germ fearing woman named Alexandra Rover (Jodie Foster). Back on the island Jack is going away to research some nano plankton and he is leaving Nim by herself for two days. Alexandra is doing research for her next novel when she comes across an article written by Nim's father. Alexandra emails Nim's father Nim gets the email and says he will be back on Thursday. There is a horrible storm and the father is lost at sea. Nim just thinks her father is late right now and continues to talk to Alexandra thinking she is the actual character Alex Rover.

Alexandra asks Nim what the inside of a volcano looks like and Nim goes up to the volcano to see what it looks like. Meanwhile Jack is lost and he since he is apparently related to MacGyver he builds a pump for draining water out of his boat out of some materials lying around. Nim injures herself while climbing and tells Alexandra asking her what to do about the cut. Nim mentions that she is Jack's daughter and this get's Alexandra worried. She gets even more worried when she hears that Nim's leg is swollen so she decides to go to Nim's island to help her. Meanwhile back on the island a cruise line is planning to set up a resort on the island. Nim starts to put together a plan for defending the island and while Alexandra trys and get to Nim. Alexandra has to get on a boat after a plane and it looks like there is another storm coming. Meanwhile back on the island, the cruise ship comes and people start enjoying activities and such. Nim needs to find a way to stop the tourists so she catapults some lizards but unfortunately this doesn't work. She then tries to trick people into thinking the volcano is erupting but she accidentally causes some real smoke and ash to come out of the volcano but no lava. This causes the tourists to leave.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

The tourists left just in time because another huge storm is on its way. Alexandra tries to ride a helicopter to the island but the storm forces the pilot to land on the cruise ship. Meanwhile Jack builds a propeller out of some more wreckage in order to try and get home. Alexandra steals a lifeboat from the cruise ship and rides it to the island. She washes up on shore and Nim realizes that she isn't who she thought was coming. Nim asks Alexandra to leave the island and runs back to the house. Alexandra wanders through the woods and finds Nim's camp and Nim decides to help her out and let her stay the night. The next day it looks like Jack died at sea....yep they aren't faking us out...he's totally dead....there is no chance of him coming back.....oh look Jack is alive. So with Jack returned and all three of them live on the island together. The End.

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

Nim's Island is...not as good as I remembered. When I first saw it before I started my blog I thought it was good. But looking back on it seems kind of cliched, and they try to hammer in the environmental message a bit too hard. But for what it's worth I still recommend seeing this. I don't know what it is it just seems to have some sort of charm that's keeping me from disliking it. So overall I recommend Nim's Island as a family film for when nothing else is available.

Big Hero 6

Well the last time I reviewed a movie that's currently out in theaters was a while ago, so I might as well review another one. This movie is based on a Marvel comic that I don't know anything about. So let's dive into the world where San Francisco and Tokyo are the same city with Big Hero 6.

We start in the city of San Franokyo where a boy name Hiro (Ryan Potter) built his own tiny robot and uses it to fight with other robots. However Bot Fighting is illegal and Hiro gets himself and his older brother Tadashi (Daniel Henney) arrested. Fortunately Hiro's Aunt Cass (Maya Rudolph) gets them out. They go back home where Tadashi takes Hiro to his school. Tadashi introduces Hiro to his friends with really weird nick names. He meets Go Go (Jamie Chung), Wasabi (Damon Waynans Jr.), Honey Lemon (Genesis Rodriguez) and Fred (T.J. Miller). Tadashi shows Hiro his project that he was working on. He made a robot named Baymax (Scott Adsit). He says that he made Baymax to be used as a robotic nurse and for him to seem harmless and huggable he is a giant balloon. Hiro meets the head of the school, Robert Callaghan (James Cromwell), and decides he wants to go to the school. Tadashi says that there will be a school fair and if Hiro can build an amazing invention for the fair he might get into the school. So Hiro spends all his time making a new invention. When it is time for the fair Hiro shows off his new invention Microbots, which are basically Nanobots, only you control them with your mind when wearing a special helmet. Everyone loves Hiro's invention and a man named Alistair Krei (Alan Tudyk) wants to buy the Microbots. Callaghan advises Hiro not to sell his invention.





Hiro and Tadashi are exited about Hiro's invention but all of a sudden the school bursts into flames and Callaghan is still inside and Tadashi goes to save Callaghan but dies in an explosion. Hiro is very upset about this and spends most of his time in his room. One day Hiro accidentally activates Baymax and they both find one of Hiro's Microbots that seems to be trying to go somewhere. They follow the Microbot and it leads them to an abandoned warehouse where someone is mass producing Microbots.  The person producing the Microbots is a strange man in a mask. They narrowly escape him, and Hiro and Baymax report him to the authorities. But the cops don't believe them so Hiro goes home where he comes up with an idea: he will upgrade Baymax so that they can find the masked man and get revenge. They find the masked man at the docks where he is seen picking something up from the bottom of the sea. Go Go, Wasabi, Fred, and Honey Lemon find Hiro and Baymax and they help them escape from the masked man. They go to Fred's house (which turns out to be a huge mansion) to come up with a plan to stop the masked man. They build super hero suits to find the masked man. Baymax had already scanned the masked man so all they have to do is fly over the city and scan the whole city. Baymax finds the masked man's DNA signal coming from a small island. They go to the island to find and defeat the masked man.

***SPOILER ALERT STOP HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT THE END RUINED***

They make it to the island where they find some sort of abandoned science lab. They find some security  files that show that the machinery there was used as a teleportation device. But the device malfunctioned and ended up sending one woman (Katie Lowes) into the portal forever and the project was shut down. The man in the mask attacks them and the man is revealed to be...Callaghan...I...kind of saw this coming. This fills Hiro with rage and he tries to kill Callaghan but Callaghan escapes and Hiro returns home. Hiro and his friends figure out that the portal was built by Krei, and the woman that got stuck in he portal was Callaghan's daughter. Which means that Callaghan is trying to get revenge on Krei by rebuilding the portal and throwing him into the portal. They find Callaghan who attacks Krei in the middle of a lecture he is giving. Hiro and his friends try and stop Callaghan. They manage to defeat him but Baymax finds signs of life coming from the portal which Hiro and Baymx believe to be Callaghan's daughter. They save Callaghan's daughter. Callaghan is arrested and Hiro, Baymax, and the rest become super heroes. The End

***SPOILERS OVER KEEP READING***

Big Hero 6 is a great movie. The animation looks very nice and has it's own style to it. All the characters are very interesting and funny, and Baymax is just so likable it's hard not to love him. Now if there was something I didn't like it's that the identity of the masked man was a bit obvious...for me at least. But if you get the chance see Big Hero 6 while it's still in theaters. See you next time guys.

LOCK NESS MUNSTER