Frequently Bought Together
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Product details
|
Reviews
Amazon.co.uk Review
Dark Star is absurd, surreal and very funny. John Carpenter once described it as "Waiting for Godot in space." (It's also, surely, one of the primary inspirations for Red Dwarf.) 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 story concerns the Dark Star's crew who are on a 20-year mission to destroy unstable planets and make way for future colonisation. 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. --Jim Gay
Product Description
United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 0 DVD: LANGUAGES: English ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), ANAMORPHIC WIDESCREEN (1.78:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Anamorphic Widescreen, Biographies, Filmographies, Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, Special Edition, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: What would you be like after 20 years aboard DARK STAR the spaced-out spaceship. The ultimate cosmic comedy! In the mid twenty-first century, mankind has reached a point in its technological advances to enable colonization of the far reaches of the universe. Dark Star is a futuristic scout ship traveling far in advance of colony ships. Armed with Exponential Thermostellar Bombs, it prowls the unstable planets. But there is one obstacle that its crew members did not count on - one of the ship's thinking and talking bombs is lodged in the bay, threatening to destroy the entire ship and crew! Director John Carpenter and writer Dan O'Bannon combine their writing, creative, and technical talents to bring you this thrilling and extraordinary science fiction parody. ...Dark Star (1974) ( John Carpenter's Dark Star )
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
I bought both DVDs, Anniversary edition and DVD on its own,
By
This review is from: Dark Star -- 30th Anniversary Special Edition [DVD] (DVD)
Dark Star [DVD] [1974]Dark Star -- 30th Anniversary Special Edition [DVD] [1974] Having bought the straight DVD I was immediately disappointed at the poor visual and sound quality. I even concluded it might be a bootleg. My reason for that is that scenes that were obviously recorded as stable still shots actually noticeably wobble, as if recorded by some unsteady copying device or camera. Since I really wanted this film I bought the anniversary edition, which has the same low quality. However the latter has two versions of the film, so is the one to keep. Don't let this take away from the fact that this is a great little film, which is still enjoyable, even with the defective mastering. I have been waiting a long time to get this so no regrets. If a better master comes along I will buy it. This film is now old but still works well. It was a kind-of take-off of the revolutionary 2001, with it female equivalent of 2001's HAL, which found it needed argue with an intelligent bomb. Best appreciated for its irony back then, but still relevant now. Note that the anniversary edition would not play on my Sony Blu Ray, until I got a later driver update.
49 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Very Disappointing,
By The Supercargo (Gothenburg, Sweden) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Dark Star -- 30th Anniversary Special Edition [DVD] (DVD)
Have just tried to watch my newly received copy of the Dark Star 30th Anniversary Special Edition. What a disapointment. In what sense is this edition "Special"? No digital remastering, dreadful sound, and not even subtitles for the hard of hearing (and believe me, you need them to follow what the actors are saying). The "extras" are simply short biographies of some of the actors. There's nothing "Special" about this, the use of the word is just a con to get you to pay for something substandard. This is NOT a "Collector's Edition" unless you go out of your way to collect bad film-to-DVD conversions. My advice: don't waste you money.
41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great little film let down by careless DVD mastering,
By A Customer
This review is from: Dark Star [1974] [DVD] (DVD)
I'm fond of this film, which shows just how much can be done with how little, but I really can't recommend this region 2 pressing: the sound is very distorted, and the picture is soft and murky. Unless you're a die-hard fan, hang on until somebody finds a better print and makes a new master from it.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
