Alex Rogan is an ordinary teenager who lives in a trailer park with his parents, tries to get into a prestigious college, and spends his evenings at a “Last Starfighter” slot machine that happens to be in their settlement. On another of his dreary days, after another rejection for tuition money from another bank and another fight with his girlfriend, Alex manages to score a record number of points. As a result, with the help of an alien recruiter named Centauri, he gets into the thick of the galactic war between Rylos and the Ko-Dan Armada.

4k movies reviews
The Americans have a great Heinlein series of fiction for young children. That’s because Bulychev, Krapivin and Veltistov are the best examples of CHILDREN’S FANTASTICS. Not fairy tales. Not fairy tales, just fantasy.

It’s harder with movies. Children’s fiction we have masterpieces about Alice and the “adolescents in the universe. For teenagers – ‘Through thorns to the stars’.

Americans made a lot of crap for adults. And good stuff too, but then again – the main characters in ‘Star Trek’ (beloved by the young!!) are quite grown up. Yes, I’m talking about THAT era – videotapes and video parlors. It’s nowadays ‘Transformers’ or ‘Trek’ which may please THE YOUNG AGE (sorry for the frequent use of the term).

So – a very simple plot, acting, with simple (by today’s standards) special effects ‘Fighter’ is very fit for purpose. It is not a blockbuster, but it has all the traits of a great blockbuster – a big star war, space, aliens. And the relationship between the characters. Everything is naive, very childish (age just entering adulthood). ‘Star Wars’ is cool! But we also watched this movie in video parlors with great pleasure. Why? Because Harrison Ford or his princess was older than we were, and the characters in ‘The Fighter’ matched us! And the cute naivete coupled with the roguish alien and the lizard navigator was very much to our liking. The movie is short enough, the characters don’t pull the blanket over themselves – the cast is very harmonious. And none of them are great actors, and all the roles are character parts. That is, there is no megastar, who clobbers everyone, all are just extras. No – just an ensemble.

And the gags – the ship circling in the firefight, the conversation between the robot copy (an excellent character, even somewhat stronger than the pilot’s image) and the original, the head on the table (this is a dream! Go back to sleep). The heroics and humor come together nicely. And we found it funny. And most importantly – you know for sure that by the rules of such a fantasy we will win! And without a sea of blood and guts. Which is good for young adult fiction.

But also without the sugar-coated snot (which fantasy young adult foreign films are guilty of). So the kissing is ‘almost like’… Well, not quite real, but still.

Now the movie made me deeply nostalgic. How naive and young we were! And the movie was young and naive! And thank you for that!

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (89.3 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: FLAC 2.0
English: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles
English SDH, French (Canadian), Spanish (Latino).