The Last Starfighter (1984)

The Last Starfighter's Alex Rogan (Lance Guest mirroring a young Tom Hanks) is the quintessential teen who's bored, bored, bored of his mundane earthly existence -- until he meets his lucky star. Alex not only lives in a "mobile home that never goes anywhere" but, rather than being able to go to the beach with his friends or go out with the girl of his dreams, his mother prevails on him to keep the trailer park in repair -- even as he murmurs sotto voce the same tedious daily palaver of the two retirees on the porch. One day, a truck delivers the vehicle of his salvation: a cool new arcade video machine called The Last Starfighter. Alex is exceptionally gifted at the game and soon earns what turns out to be the highest score -- in all of the galaxy. A signal is sent. In time, an emissary arrives in a Delorean-style spaceship: smooth-talking Alpha Centauri (Robert Preston in his last movie role) wants to recruit Alex as "the last starfighter" to save the galaxy from an insidious and advancing alien scourge. They have decimated all previous defenders and would be unstoppable but for one remaining Starfighter ship -- and Alex, if he will train and fly it. He agrees to go. He meets his amiable if reptilian copilot Grig (Dan O'Herlihy) and, through twists and turns, fulfills his destiny. This movie was groundbreaking since it had the first computer-generated graphics (20 minutes' worth as I recall and using no less than a Cray X-MP supercomputer). The Death Blossom battle was pretty suspenseful back in the day and the dialog is dated but still funny. See it for the nostalgia or as a fun family film. (The PG rating is for the little brother's language.) 4 stars.