Dir: John Carpenter
1974
****
Dark Star is an intelligent and funny parody of Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, 2001--A Space Odyssey, one of my favorite films of all time. If you're going to parody a great film, you've got to do it well, and they did. The budget was visibly small but the inventive camera tricks really work well and also add to what is so charming about it. Space film parodies have been made since but this is the daddy. I've got no doubt at all that this was the inspiration for the great British TV sitcom Red Dwarf. The beginning is a little slow and you may wonder what the hell is going on but the last 20 minutes is cinematic gold. The beach-ball alien had me in stitches too.
No comments:
Post a Comment