Dark Star

Dark Star

John Carpenter's 1974 sci-fi comedy, Dark Star is a light-hearted film poking fun at overly serious space travel movies like 2001 and Silent Running. A parody of sorts that utilizes a silly cast and plot in order to have a bit of fun with the typically not so funny realm of deep space. A crew of 5 guys are out in space blowing up unstable planets Sergeant Pinback, Lieutenant Doolittle, Boiler, Talby and Commander Powell who was serious injured then cryogenically frozen, which actually looked very cool, if not the best special effect of the film. It is obvious that the crew has grown sick of each other after 18 years in space together, at moments bickering at each other like brothers. The plot is simplistic, making the dynamic of the low budget film impress with its character development, interaction, acting and dialogue. The different personalities of the crew members work well with and against each other; apathetic introverts and extroverts stuck on a spaceship has a way of creating some funny memorable tension filled moments.  A couple scenes really stick out like Pinback's adventure with the ship's pet alien, which resembles a tomato and a beach ball offspring, also the scene with Doolittle attempting to reason with the onboard bomb is great, and last is Doolittle surfing and burning up into the atmosphere of a nearby planet. Overall Dark Star is a great low budget sci-fi comedy that is nothing short of fun and ridiculous. This is the kind of movie that you can't go into expecting to be going away, the lower the expectations the better this movie is.