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Brian Narelle, Andreijah Pahich, Carl Duniholm, Dan O'Bannon, Miles Watkins ... see more see more... , Joe Saunders , Pahici-Cal Kunholme , Cal Kuniholm , Dre Pahich

The directorial debut of horrormeister John Carpenter comes in the way of Dark Star a parody of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, 2001--A Space Odyssey. The story follows four hippyish techno-nerds in th... read more read more...eir mission through deep space to destroy planets and ward off boredom and loneliness as they attempt to hold on to what little they can remember of Earth. When their weapons system malfunctions, they are forced to deal with a "smart" bomb trapped in the launching mechanism, and the acting captain must debate phenomenology with the device in order to dissuade it from destroying them all. The film also features an imaginative and amusing struggle between one crew member and an inflatable alien he attempts to keep as a pet, a long reflection on the virtues of surfing, a series of personality struggles, and a cryogenically-frozen captain whose brain is preserved on computer for the purpose of consultation. ~ Jeremy Beday, Rovi

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63% liked it

9,945 ratings

Critics

79% liked it

24 critics

G, 1 hr. 23 min.

Directed by: John Carpenter

Release Date: January 1, 1973

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DVD Release Date: March 16, 1999

Stats: 726 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (726)

  • StarCrossedVoyager
    September 24, 2011
    StarCrossedVoyager
    I suppose it would have been entertaining for its time (despite Star Wars) and I did find it a slow but thoughtful and interesting piece. I can see the similarities between this and 2001 which is not a bad thing. It was well thought out and had some great comedy moments (intended... read more or not). A good watch but not something you could view again and again.
  • kenstachnik
    March 12, 2011
    kenstachnik
    Probably the best space satire featuring a crazed beach ball. Loved the ending.
  • ajv2688
    December 30, 2010
    ajv2688
    Carpenter's first movie is a dud! It's supposed to be a spoof of 2001, but it's even more boring, as the jokes are obvious and unfunny. I hated this movie, and I've been trying to sell my copy ever since!
  • ythelastman89
    November 29, 2010
    ythelastman89
    It's really sad, I wanted to like this movie so much. You'd think a sci-fi John Carpenter movie would be at least fun, but this is really just a lame attempt at spoofing 2001: A Space Odyssey. In its defense, this is an extremely low budget movie with little talent outside John C... read morearpenter. The theme song is actually my favorite part of the whole thing, the hippy nature to it is hilarious. This should at least be viewed by diehard fans of Carpenter, but otherwise it's clearly not a great movie.
  • mumby1988
    January 24, 2010
    mumby1988
    John Carpenter has earned a reputation as a director who constantly breaks the rules of Hollywood cinema. From the unexplained serial killing of Hallowe'en to the gory paranoia of The Thing, his work has constantly challenged what is acceptable to put on screen. This tendency to ... read morepush boundaries has made him the most accidental of pioneers, with the films which he created to pay the bills now among the most revered of cult hits. Dark Star, his debut feature, is fitting company to these works, bridging the gap between the old school and new wave in mainstream sci-fi filmmaking.

    It is this unintentional mix of old and new which make Dark Star a lot more interesting than other sci-fi comedies such as Spaceballs and Galaxy Quest. The film is primarily a parody of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, with references scattered throughout both the plot and the visuals. We still have some oddly-designed spacesuits and a man floating off in space, only this time HAL is a self-aware bomb (just as destructive but in a different way), and the monolith has been replaced by the Phoenix Asteroids. That said, the film can't quite make up its mind as to whether we should hear the ship's engines. In 2001 we don't, since there is no air in space and therefore no sound; in this we start off quiet and become noisier as we go on.

    There are also more subtle and comedic references to other great dystopian works. Early on the film, Talby and Doolittle meet in the observation dome and talk about what they miss most about life on Earth. In a tongue-in-cheek nod to Solaris -- in which the central character misses his family -- Doolittle says that he misses surfing more than anything else, and wishes he had a board there with him even if he could only wax it. It's a poignant exchange which is typical of both the offbeat, goofy nature of the characters and the affectionate level of parody present throughout.

    Equally interesting, however, is the extent to which Dark Star has influenced later sci-fi works, for good or ill. The connections with Alien are writ large -- not only does it feature Dan O'Bannon, who would write the screenplay, but the subplot involving the beach ball-like 'ship's mascot' could be read as a shorter, more comedic version of Ridley Scott's masterpiece. John Carpenter's subsequent sci-fi ventures, like The Thing and They Live, owe a lot to this film in their grungy visual edge, and there are traces of Hallowe'en in the use of synthesisers to create tension, just as Kubrick did in A Clockwork Orange. Most disturbingly, so much of Dark Star seems to have ended up in Star Wars. Not only does it share a plot point (a ship designed to blow up planets), but much of the art direction is reminiscent of the original trilogy, right down to the look of the ship.

    Leaving aside the film's place in history, it is perfectly possible to enjoy Dark Star as a goofy if uneven low-budget comedy. The comedy is grounded in a number of well-rounded, believable characters, and like John Carpenter films there is no clunky back-story to distract us from what they are doing on screen. This emphasis on characters rather than simply flagging up the references a la Tarantino, means that after a while we don't worry about or even notice the creaky effects. Many sci-fi films made today seem to take the opposite approach, dazzling us with mind-bending effects and CGI to take our minds of slightly creaky characters, and watching this you can't help feeling that modern filmmakers are missing something.

    The performances are all pretty decent, though Dan O'Bannon's is the standout, largely because he has the most screen time. Pinback is the most interesting member of the crew, being anxious, talkative and self-conscious. The scene of him playing extracts from his electronic diary is one of the film's highlights; you watch him alternating paranoid anger with childlike hysteria and you can't stop yourself from creasing up. The running joke about the lift is also inspired: the stunts look real and the different sequences are well-edited into the rest of the story so that it stays funny all the way through.

    Sadly, Pinback's witty routines illuminate one of the central flaws with Dark Star, which is its sound design. Much of the longer sections of dialogue are picked up poorly, so that we can't quite make out certain jokes or instructions. This is particularly a shame during Pinback's lengthy anecdote about impersonating another officer. The joke is that the story isn't funny, but it's executed in such a way that we are meant to listen intently for each little twist of the story. When we get cracking instead of dialogue, or fuzz from the actors being too loud, we lose the comic momentum of the scene.

    The film is undoubtedly funny, but the script is also undeniably patchy. On the one hand, there are several individual sequences which work superbly, such as Pinback's long and battle with the alien, or the diary scene; on the other hand, there is the ending, which seems too simple and rather more cavalier than is necessary. Somewhere in-between these two extremes is the scene of Doolittle negotiating with the Bomb not to detonate, and indeed the previous scene with Commander Powell being cryogenically frozen. The film suddenly in these scene decides it wants to be intellectual, which in itself is not a bad thing. But there is too little build-up or fade-out to these discussions of phenomenology to pull an audience in completely, or to make them realise its validity.

    Dark Star remains an interesting and important science fiction film and a testament to the virtues of low-budget filmmaking. The film manages to overcome obstacles relating to both the script and its technical execution, and can still make for an enjoyable 90 minutes. It is by no means perfect, consistent, or Carpenter's best work, but its influence is assured through its continuing potential for mirth and its impact on Carpenter's sensibility. If all else fails, there is enough off-beat humour hidden within to keep any sci-fi fan chuckling warmly.
  • flixsterman
    November 13, 2009
    flixsterman
    Director John Carpenter cut his proverbial teeth on this 70's Space Odyssey spoof about a crew of hippies cruising deep space in search of 'unstable planets'. Held to the same standards as other sci-fi comedies (i.e. Sleeper, Spaceballs, etc..), Dark Star... read more doesn't quite cut the mustard. A comedy should be funny. With the possible exception of the climactic conclusion, this one is, at best, only mildly amusing.
  • FilmFanatik
    July 4, 2008
    FilmFanatik
    Wonderful film. Superb camera work, very funny and a great performance from Dan O'Bannon. Why didn't he do more acting?
  • adammahler1
    September 4, 2007
    adammahler1
    John Carpenter's big student film has way more presence and more to say than most sci-fi features
  • YosemiteSamFan
    August 8, 2007
    YosemiteSamFan
    A cool, quirky, dark, intense, timely and well-set movie. It expands on the Space Odyssey atmosphere in a pre-Star-Wars world. It's not bad at all, but set within small confines, so not very expansive.
  • stuartb1234
    July 26, 2007
    stuartb1234
    Weird but funny

View All Dark Star Reviews

Critic Reviews

Dave Kehr
June 6, 2007
Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

By introducing human eccentricities into the cold structure of SF, Carpenter creates a vision of the technological future that is both disillusioned and oddly affirmative in its insistence on the unsc... Full Review

Variety Staff
June 6, 2007
Variety Staff, Variety

The dim comedy consists of sophomoric notations and mistimed one-liners. Full Review

Janet Maslin
May 9, 2005
Janet Maslin, New York Times

There are some funny routines here, though Mr. Carpenter doesn't seem to have cared much about integrating or sustaining them. Full Review

Roger Ebert
October 23, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

A berserk combination of space opera, intelligent bombs, and beach balls from other worlds. Full Review

Dennis Schwartz
November 15, 2010
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews

An enjoyable lightweight outer-space hippie spoof. Full Review

Sean Axmaker
November 4, 2010
Sean Axmaker, Parallax View

... a grungy, darkly humorous declaration that, in the end, boredom and human slovenliness trumps technology and high ideals. Full Review

John J. Puccio
October 26, 2010
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis

The acting is amateurish, the pace is awkward, the special effects primitive, the jokes sophomoric. Yet there is a certain endearing charm about it. Full Review

Fernando F. Croce
June 21, 2010
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion

John Carpenter's guerilla undermining of the pomposity of space odysseys Full Review

Adam Smith
June 6, 2007
Adam Smith, Empire Magazine

Hats off nonetheless to young whippersnapper John Carpenter, whose studenty tale of space tedium, aliens and molasses-black humour remains approximately a thousand times better than the director's las... Full Review

June 6, 2007
Film4

Uneven but enjoyable. Full Review

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