The Last Starfighter--The Musical! 345
nomadic writes "Yes, seriously. Some people have decided to remake everyone's favorite obscure 1980's Star Wars ripoff into musical form. Definitely sounds like a Troy McClure role..."
There is very little future in being right when your boss is wrong.
Ripoff? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Ripoff? (Score:2, Funny)
I liked that movie you insensitive clod!
Forget The Last Starfighter: The Musical (Score:2, Interesting)
Only if there would be a run on off-Broadway. That would be worth my $40 in bus fare.
Re:Forget The Last Starfighter: The Musical (Score:2)
Re:Ripoff? (Score:5, Funny)
Me too.
It was a decent movie, but what really brings back the memories is that...
...I got my first kiss ever after watching a replay of it...
...at a science fiction convention...
...while dressed as a "medieval" priest...
...from a girl I'd met the day before by going up to her and "blessing" her.
Yes, I am an unrepentant geek.
;)
That was, what, some nineteen years ago.
And as an unrepentant geek, I hope one day to get my second kiss.
In all seriousness though, Sandi Lynn E., here's to you, wherever you are after all these years.
Re:Ripoff? (Score:3, Funny)
Coming into Slashdot to brag about how big of a geek you are... geez, it's like walking into a biker's bar screaming about how you're the toughest guy around.
I expect the barrage of geeky, each-more-pathetic-than-the-previous stories to start about... now.
Let the fun begin.
Re:Ripoff? (Score:3, Funny)
Oh never mind, I don't think anyone wants to know more about unrepentant geeks.
I watched it 5 times in a month! :-P (Score:5, Interesting)
In Last Starfighter, the guy is simply a good space pilot because he trained (read: videogame addict
Some elements were kinda unrealistic, but I still liked the movie. Maybe because it portrays the fantasy of every teenager: You play videogames, and now you have the chance to save the universe.
(somehow reminds me of typical teen fantasies in anime shows like Love Hina, Tenchi, Chobits etc - is that why these shows are favorites? fulfilling a secret fantasy?)
Re:I watched it 5 times in a month! :-P (Score:3, Funny)
You, sir, are the undisputed lord and master of understatement.
Or you live in a different world. I can't really tell from here.
Re:I watched it 5 times in a month! :-P (Score:5, Insightful)
Both stories revolve around a young, male geek/nerd.
In both stories the young man is "trapped" in a going-nowhere existence
In both stories the young man knows there is something bigger and more important out there waiting for him to discover it
In both stories an older man approaches him and tells him that he's more than he thinks he is and that he may be the key to saving the world/universe
Both movies feature (for their time) incredible special effects of a kind never seen before
The young male geek gets a once-in-a-lifetime chance to not only live out his dreams but to save all of humanity
I could probably go on, but that seems like enough for now.
Re:Come on... (Score:5, Interesting)
And how was Star Wars original in any way?
Re:Come on... (Score:2)
Jason
ProfQuotes [profquotes.com]
Re:Come on... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Come on... (Score:2)
George Lucas took an archetypical storyline and added "in space".
He didn't even do that, though he'd like you to think it was "inspired" by Campbell's hero theories. It was based on 1900s-40s sword-and-spaceship pulp sf, (like Burrough's Barsoom stories, EE Smiths' Lensmaan et al)and also owes much to the cinema serials like Buck Rogers, Flash Gordon and of course Dune. Not that there's anythong wrong with that, but the intellectual pretentiousness of claimin
Re:Come on... (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't know why EVERYTHING with a well-armed
space hotrod in it has to be considered a Star-Wars ripoff.
Geezus Christ.. Is STAR WARS all the SF you people know?
Get a life.. wait.. on second thought, maybe you HAVE a life
and that's why you don't know anything about SF.
Ok. GET RID of your life.. Cancel those party plans and
stay home reading E.E. "Doc" Smith "Lensman" novels. Then
play some "SpaceWar" and rethink the StarWars ripoff question.
Re:Come on... (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Come on... (Score:2)
When it comes to a story of a geek suddenly plunged into a video game world, Tron is a much closer match than Star Wars. Watch Space Balls some time if you are into ripoffs/parodies of the later.
Not a ripoff (Score:2)
Re:Come on... (Score:2)
Troy! (Score:5, Funny)
Hi, I'm Troy McClure. You may remember me from such other medical films as "Mommy, What's On That Man's Face?" and "Alice Doesn't Live Anymore".
Hi, I'm Troy McClure. You might remember me from such self-help videos as "Smoke Yourself Thin", and "Get Confident, Stupid.".
Welcome to the Knowledgeum, I'm Troy McClure. You may remember me from such automated information kiosks as "Welcome to Springfield Airport" and "Where's Nordstrom?" While you're enjoying our Hall of Wonders, your car unfortunately will be subject to repeated break-ins and... [Fades]
Hi, I'm Troy McClure. You may remember me from such educational films as "Two Minus Three Equals Negative Fun" and "Firecrackers: The Silent Killer".
I'm actor Troy McClure. You might remember me from such TV series as "Buck Henderson, Union Buster" and "Troy and Company's Summertime Smile Factory". Today I'm here to tell you about "Spiffy.", the 21st century stain remover. Let's meet the inventor, Dr. Nick Riviera.
etc...
Re:Troy! (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Troy! (Score:4, Funny)
Chimpanzee 1: Help! The human's about to escape. Troy: Get your paws off me, you dirty ape!
Chimpanzee 2: (gasp) He can talk!
Orangutans: He can talk! He can talk! He can talk!
He can talk! He can talk! He can talk!
Troy: And I can siiiiiiiiiiing!
Chimp Nurse: Oooh! Help me, Dr. Zaius! Orangutans: Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
O, Dr. Zaius!
Orangutan 1: Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
Troy: What's wrong with me?
Dr. Zaius: I think you're crazy.
Troy: I want a second opinion.
Dr. Zaius: You're also lazy.
Orangutans: Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
O, Dr. Zaius!
Orangutan 1: Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
Troy: Can I play the piano any more?
Dr. Zaius: Of course you can!
Troy: Well I couldn't before.
(plays piano)
Orangutans: Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
Dr. Zaius! Dr. Zaius!
Troy: I hate every ape I see,
From chimpan-A to chimpanzee,
No, you'll never make a monkey out of me!
(Statue of Liberty rises)
O my God! I was wrong!
It was Earth, all along!
You've finally made a monkey,
Apes: Yes we've finally made a monkey,
Troy: Yes you've
& Apes: finally made a monkey out of me!
Troy: I love you, Dr. Zaius
Re:Troy! (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Spoiler alert? (Score:3, Funny)
Like Alex Rogan's mobile home... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Like Alex Rogan's mobile home... (Score:2, Funny)
Wait, what's really really wrong with this is that I can remember his girlfriend's name.
Re:Like Alex Rogan's mobile home... (Score:4, Funny)
I think I'll pass, or... (Score:5, Funny)
...just have my beta unit go watch it, and tell me about it later.
Phil Hartman (Score:3, Funny)
On HBO This month! (Score:4, Insightful)
Even by today's standards the CGI isn't too bad.
LK
its awesome (Score:3, Interesting)
death blossom = fucking awesome
anyone know what kind of hardware they used to render those scenes?
is there soem reason we can't play 3d arcade games using them now 15 years later with bad ass nvidia and ati cards?
Hardware used to render The Last Starfighter (Score:4, Informative)
The same hardware was used on a number of other films from that era (2010, Ice Pirates, Labyrinth, etc) and numerous commercials.
The IMI 500 was a UNIX box and the VAX ran Interactive's Unix On VMS. The Cray had a small permanent on-site support staff to keep it alive.... along with some BIG AC units.
DP was bought by Omnibus Computer Graphics in 1986. Shortly afterwards Omnibus bought Robert Able Associates, thus merging 3 of the top 5 computer animation houses of the time.... and promptly went bankrupt. BofA had a 11mil loan on the Cray, and discovered that Cray had one in storage they couldnt unload for $3mil. They found out the landlords had taken the keys and the security company stopped sending guards 'cause of non-payment. This being the neighborhood where the LA Riots were several years later, BofA immeadiately sent a truck and crew to yank out the Cray.... Some of the animators pleaded with the workers to let it run just an hour more so they could complete some pieces...
Btw, Omnibus was the first commercial company not doing network development to have an Internet connection. Of course back then it wasnt called the Internet.
its a bit odd to have lots of 20-somethings tell me how much they loved that movie... i still remember creating the short proof-of-concept animation that got DP the job.
Re:its awesome (Score:3, Informative)
Re:On HBO This month! (Score:2)
Jar-Jar Binks.
Need I say more?
LK
Re:On HBO This month! (Score:3, Insightful)
More Proof... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:More Proof... (Score:3, Funny)
The Stellar Acting Career of Troy McClure (Score:2, Informative)
or here [tripod.com]
or google [google.com]
Oh and I need more characters per line
Hmmm... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hmmm... (Score:3, Funny)
...Wow... (Score:4, Funny)
I guess I was wrong...
Star Wars ripoff? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Star Wars ripoff? (Score:3, Interesting)
And a great movie.
Re:Star Wars ripoff? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Star Wars ripoff? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Star Wars ripoff? (Score:2)
Star Wars is a prototypical Hero's Journey story. It is not original in Star Wars, or The Lord of The Rings, or The Neverending Story, or The Last Starfighter, or Beowulf, or The Odyssey,
I really think TLS was a pretty creative movie, and "rip-off" is neither fair nor even helpful in understanding what it was about...
Re:Star Wars ripoff? (Score:2)
Re:Star Wars ripoff? (Score:3, Informative)
Obscure? (Score:5, Interesting)
I can't help but think it would make a pretty kickass space sim, now that we have the GPU power to render in real-time even higher quality than they had originally. The one arcade game I remember didn't compare well to the classic Star Wars 3D polygon arcade game in terms of sheer fun (damn that game was fun).
Re:Obscure? (Score:5, Informative)
Star Trek II was the first CGI scene (the genesis project filmette). Young Sherlock Holmes was the first to have cgi in a live action shot (the stained glass window knight)
Ripoff (Score:2)
Can anybody explain to me how The Last Starfighter was remotely like Star Wars?
Re:Ripoff (Score:2)
Re:Ripoff (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ripoff (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Ripoff (Score:2)
lasers and shit=="starwars ripoff".
of course it isn't so simple, but the funny thing is that it probably got the green light and got produced because of starwars.
so, while not being a direct ripoff in the real sense, it was a direct ripoff in the movie moguls heads("kids really seem to be into this space stuff now, maybe we should do a movie with space fighters and stuff").
Re:Ripoff (Score:2)
At least one scene had a starfield as a background.
Star Wars ripoff? (Score:5, Insightful)
It has acting and writing at a level that George Lucas can only dream about.
Yeah, it's a genre film, but so was battlestar galactica.
Re:Star Wars ripoff? (Score:2)
The plot has hardly been Lucas's problem -- it's the dialogue, script, & directing. Plot-wise, he's fine.
It has acting and writing at a level that George Lucas can only dream about.
It [The last starfighter] is a "kid goes into video game" story, with a corney super-maguffin that would never fly in a real video game and makes Lucas's plot twists seem genius.
OTOH, it [s
Re:Star Wars ripoff? (Score:2, Insightful)
The plot has hardly been Lucas's problem -- it's the dialogue, script, & directing. Plot-wise, he's fine. :)
No, his plots suck pretty badly too.
A couple of examples: Obi Wan stashes Luke on the same planet where Anakin grew up. Oh yeah, DarthAnakin would never think to look there... And Leia is supposed to be Plan B should Luke fail but Darth can't sense that the Force is strong in her, even when he's personally overseeing her torture?
Remember, Lucas invented the Chewbacca defense.
Re:Star Wars ripoff? (Score:2)
Well apparently he didn't. Luke grew up fine. Whiny as hell, but fine.
Re:Leia's force wasn't strong... (Score:2, Informative)
> undetectable (as per the plan).
It's exactly that "force juice" in hre blood that is a BIG part of the problem.
Leia was in Vader's direct custody for quite some time in ANH. With hardly a doubt, she had to undergo a medical examination at some point during her time in custody; if only to determine just how far they could go in extracting the location of the rebel base from her. (After all, it wouldn't do if she turned out to have an al
Re:Star Wars ripoff? (Score:3, Insightful)
Ditto that. Some big differences:
The villian. A ravaging horde kept at bay by a barrier wall (the frontier) is not the same as your own imperial government stomping out the last of the political dissenters.
The hero. The Starfighter is a kid living on obscure planet who is deliberately recruited against his will to save life as he knows it. Luke is a kid living on an obscure planet who stumbles into a bit part in an adventure; only later does he
On learning of the musical... (Score:5, Funny)
Storm theatre serious artist #1: Damage report!
Storm theatre serious artist #2: Our credibility is shot! Our theatre is a laughing stock! What do we do now?
[dramatic pause]
Storm theatre serious artist #1: We die.
what about... (Score:2, Funny)
i can see it now, opening night, the helmets glistening under the lights. ahhh...
i predict it will come out the same year as history of the world, part II
"Definitely sounds like a Troy Mclure role" (Score:4, Funny)
Re:"Definitely sounds like a Troy Mclure role" (Score:5, Funny)
His part was cut?!?!??! I saw his name in the end-credits, and I watch the movie several tiems trying to find him! And now, years later, I find out that his part was in fact cut!
And all these years I thought I was blind and/or idiot for not finding him! Damn you all! Damn you to hell!
Oh come on. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Oh come on. (Score:3, Insightful)
And T.S Elliot's cat poems really are a bit of alright.
You've got me on Starlight Express though.
KFG
Re:Oh come on. (Score:2)
To Paraphrase The Movie (Score:5, Funny)
***Eye piece swings over friend's eye***
My Friend: "We die."
Last Starfighter Star Wars (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Last Starfighter Star Wars (Score:2)
I want to see it... (Score:2)
Seriously, wasn't Death Blossom just the coolest thing ever when you first saw The Last Starfighter? All I know is, every single Lego spaceship that me and my friends built from that point on had a Death Blossom device somewhere on it. Some had s
Re:I thought Death Blossom ruined the movie (Score:2)
Except then they were left helpless, without power, while the big mothership nearly smashed them to bits. They only narrowly escaped that, due to (as I recall) Grig's quick rewiring of the [insert technobabble here], which was hardly a deus ex machina, since Grig could
First CG movie (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:First CG movie (Score:2)
Re:First CG movie (Score:2)
Re:First CG movie (Score:2)
A musical isn't the worst they could do (Score:5, Insightful)
If you think about it, taking a sci-fi movie such as TLS to the stage will probably test the cutting edge in theatrical and lighting effects. This would be very challenging. I would love to see this just to see if they're capable of pulling it off convincingly.
As for TLS being a rip-off of Star Wars, that's BS. Star Wars is as derivative of dozens of other films that came before it. The two movies may have shared some plot similarities, but they both had their cheesy moments.
However, IMO, the cinematography in many scenes in The Last Starfighter is far better than Star Wars. The trailer park scenes were brilliantly shot. The acting and character development was superlative and nowhere near as pressured as Star Wars.
I think the two movies are really dramatically different in their approach. Star Wars whisked you off to a far-away place where you vicariously watched someone else save the world. Whereas The Last Starfighter brought the battle to Earth and make the viewer feel like it could really happen to him - it was much more realistic.
If you haven't seen The Last Starfighter in awhile, rent it and watch it again. It holds up better than the original Star Wars now.
Troy's Scandal (Score:2)
Hey! (Score:4, Funny)
But I still think this is a fun movie to catch on TV. I mean, yeah, it's really cheesy, but does this deserve the Road House treatment [roadhousetheplay.com]? It probably has the best "lizard guy in human mask gives stirring speech to guy from trailer park that's secretly a great space pilot" scene I've seen, although the one in The Wedding Planner comes pretty close.
Oh, man. Now that I think about it... the second-in-command lizard guy whose eyepiece thing closes after every line he has? The scene with all the Gunstar pilots that's a direct, totally unapologetic ripoff of the Death Star briefing in Star Wars? That half-bald badguy leader that practically breaks a tooth chewing so much scenery? Aaaaugh! You're killing my childhood, Slashdot!
(As a sidenote, I always thought somebody should make a Last Starfighter videogame today, on the latest 3d hardware, that exactly mimcs the really stylized CGI from the movie. Say what you will, those scenes still look cool.)
Re:Hey! (Score:2, Funny)
Hm. How about The Last Starfighter: The Musical: The Game. Some levels might be like space combat, while others are like DDR or Parappa or something.
Re:Hey! (Score:2, Funny)
Certainly not. I guarantee there is no line in The Last Starfighter as disturbing as Swayze's rival delivers before their big showdown... "I used to fuck guys like you in prison!"
Thank goodness for Robert Preston (Score:2)
Re:Thank goodness for Robert Preston (Score:2)
Last SF on DVD re-release special edition (Score:2)
That's right! Everyone's favorite: "The Last Starfighter" is scheduled to be re-re-released on DVD special edition. In addition to polished visuals and THX sound re-engineering, TLS:DVD:SE will include 5 minutes of digitally re-created footage!
Oh wait... I'm thinking of that "other" DVD... uhhh, what about SW:epIII Springtime for Sithboys. [cue music] Springtime... for Sithboys... in Mos Eisley
For all you naysayers... (Score:2)
The Last Starfighter vs Cobra The Musical (Score:2)
Evil Dead: The Musical (Score:5, Funny)
I am not one for musicals. But this was godamn funny. With such musical numbers as What The Fuck Was That? and (All Of The Men In My Life Keep Getting Killed By) Candarian Demons, you really can't go wrong.
I hope to see it again.
Re:Evil Dead: The Musical (Score:2)
There have been plenty of oddball musicals; the genre itself inspires flights of fancy and a strong suspension of disbelief. Science Fiction in musicals is a good match.
Now excuse me, my cast has a handful of performances of Rocky Horror this month...
--
Evan
Re:Evil Dead: The Musical (Score:3)
http://www.evildeadthemusical.com/
Speaking of musicals (Score:2)
This can't be anywhere near as wierd as... (Score:2)
Cobra: The Musical [geocities.com].
No, really.
Considering that Star Wars.... (Score:3, Informative)
cya,
john
Pioneers (Score:2)
Totally regardless, despite some brilliant successes like 15 minutes of that movie and a bunch
The special effects (Score:2)
(The watch PCB was placed beneath the starfighter's collar just before or after he stepped on the alien's tenticles)
PS. It was a good movie and my spelling sucks.
Re:New dance or song opportunity? (Score:2)
Re:That's nice (Score:2)
Re:Doesn't sound like the same people . . . (Score:2)
Re:I can just imagine snooty theater crowd watchin (Score:2, Insightful)
Typecasting people that enjoy certain arts is the same bs as people that typecast me as antisocial because I like techno