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Dark Star [Region 2]
Price: $32.00 Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Audience Rating: G (General Audience)
Binding: DVD
EAN: 5022988020011
Format: PAL
Languages: English (Original Language),
Number Of Discs: 1
Region Code: 2
Theatrical Release Date: July 09, 1980
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Editorial Review:
The Dark Star's crew is on a 20-year mission to destroy unstable planets and make way for future colonization. The smart bombs they use to effect this zoom off cheerfully to do their duty. But unlike Star Trek, in which order prevails, the nerves of this crew are becoming increasingly frayed to the point of psychosis. Their captain has been killed by a radiation leak that also destroyed their toilet paper. "Don't give me any of that 'Intelligent Life' stuff," says Commander Doolittle when presented with the possibility of alien life. "Find me something I can blow up." When an asteroid storm causes a malfunction, Bomb Number 20 (the most cheerful character in the film) has to be repeatedly talked out of exploding prematurely, each time becoming more and more peevish, until they have to teach him phenomenology to make him doubt his existence. And the film's apocalyptic ending, lifted almost wholly from Ray Bradbury's story "Kaleidoscope," has the remaining crew drifting away from each other in space, each to a suitably absurd end. Absurd, surreal, and very funny. John Carpenter once described Dark Star as "Waiting for Godot in space." Made at a cost of practically nothing, the film's effects are nevertheless impressive and, along with the number of ideas crammed into its 83 minutes, ought to shame makers of science fiction films costing hundreds of times more. The DVD contains both the original 68-minute release and the director's full version. --Jim Gay
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Cheepnis
Four seventies style burn outs roam the galaxy in what seems like a weaponized version of a Volkswagen bus searching for unstable planets. Their government mission to destroy these planets with the help of a HAL style computer (undoubtedly running MS) and artificially intelligent bombs.
Anyone remembering the cartoon Colonel Bleep might appreciate Dark Star for the same reason Frank Zappa might have enjoyed it... cheepnis. Dark Star drips cheepnis from the special effects to the choice ... Read More
Rating: - Dark Star Shines A Bright Light
Who says you have to have a big budget to make a very funny 70's Sci-Fi movie spoof. The instrument panel on the spacecraft was egg cartons with lighting underneath. I have not seen many films before or since where the space alien is an oversized beach ball. And, as a surfer, I loved the ending. But I'm not telling. If you want to know how it ends, buy the DVD.
This would be a cult classic even if it had not been done by John Carpenter. Brian Narelle is now an Emmy award winning television ... Read More
Rating: - Hippie-era humor at its finest
I first saw "Dark Star" at a mid-1970s sci-fi convention, not long after it had come out. I was a kid back then, but I was instantly hooked, and 30+ years later I still appreciate the intelligence and mordant, dark humor of the script. The film is decidedly anti-establishment, with a crew of shaggy, longhaired astronauts working as science grunts for an expanding galactic empire, blowing up "unstable" planets to clear a path for colonization.
Although people often compare it to "Star Wars" (which ... Read More
Rating: - Dark Star- The Other One
"Dark Star" isn't a movie version of the beloved Grateful Dead song (just as "The Passenger" isn't a Phil Lesh biopic). It's John Carpenter's directorial debut, a darkly hilarious comedy about boredom in space. It was made on a shoestring budget, and rightly shines as a low-budget classic. A crew of planet destroyers have gotten incredibly bored. One longs for surfing. Another is in the deep freeze. Yet another contends with an alien that looks like a giant inflatable beach ball. There's an angsty bomb.
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Rating:  - Dark star
I liked it more 35 years ago, but it is still amazing how well it describes the engineering problem of maintenance under time pressure by ignorant management
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