Alden Bates' Weblog

This would have been AVP2, but the cinemas are failing to play it at a convenient time for me.

Dark Star is a 1974 John Carpenter movie about four men 20 years into a mission to clear the galaxy of unstable planets. The special effects are roughly on a par with 60s television.

Although Dark Star's supposed to be a comedy (a quote on the back of the case describes it as "riotously funny") most of the comedy sequences are pretty lame - at one point one of the characters begins producing comedy props and annoying his mates with them - and there's more amusement spawned from the low budget special effects. Possibly the highlight is the sentient bomb #20, which keeps receiving false signals telling it that it's time to launch. The best thing about the movie is that it inspired co-writer and actor Dan O'Bannon to write another movie about chasing an alien around a spaceship.

Speaking of, may I introduce Dodgy Alien #7...

The alien in Dark Star looks like this:

Yep, an inflatable ball with claws. WTF?

Previously: Lost in Space's Carrot Man, WOTW's Potato, General Vishishnou, Turdy, and Thing.