Dark Star (1974)

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Low-budget story of four astronauts in deep space, whose mission is to destroy unstable planets in star systems which are to be colonised... (imdb)

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Directed By: John Carpenter

Written By: John Carpenter, Dan O'Bannon

Starring: John Carpenter, Nick Castle, Dan O'Bannon, Brian Narelle, Miles Watkins, Cookie Knapp, Alan Sheretz, Cal Kuniholm, Adam Beckenbaugh, Dre Pahich, Joe Saunders

Genres: Comedy, Sci-fi, Suspense/Thriller

Country: USA

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Dark Star belongs to 41 collections

1. Features under 91 minutes (collaborative: moderated by epiphany - 56 stars)

2. Psychotronic Film and Video Guides (collaborative: moderated by Gregzilla - 40 stars)

3. The Guardian's 1000 films to see before you die (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 30 stars)

4. AAA: Empire's five star movies (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 24 stars)

5. The 100 Greatest Sci-Fi Movies (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 19 stars)

6. Edgar Wright 1000 Favorite Movies (Aug 2016) (collaborative: moderated by Aron Ericson - 17 stars)

7. Directorial debut (collaborative: moderated by djross - 16 stars)

8. B-Movie (collaborative - 15 stars)

9. Spacecraft setting (collaborative: moderated by djross - 15 stars)

10. 101 Sci-Fi Movies You Must See Before You Die (collaborative: moderated by von krogh - 15 stars)

11. Films available in HD (collaborative: moderated by kubricksucks - 13 stars)

12. Future (collaborative: moderated by djross - 12 stars)

13. Alternate versions / cuts (collaborative: moderated by PeaceAnarchy - 9 stars)

14. Synth soundtrack or score (collaborative: moderated by Ag0stoMesmer - 8 stars)

15. Very Small Cast (collaborative: moderated by shalev - 5 stars)

16. Capsules, guest reviews, list candidates... (366weirdmovies) (collaborative: moderated by sesito71 - 4 stars)

17. edkrak films to see (public: edkrak - 4 stars)

18. Artificial Intelligence (public: djross - 4 stars)

19. robots and A.I. (collaborative: moderated by livelove - 3 stars)

20. Cult Movies (Danny Peary) (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 3 stars)

21. Djross best science fiction movies (public: djross - 3 stars)

22. Djross science fiction movie of the year (public: djross - 3 stars)

23. Interstellar (collaborative: moderated by djross - 2 stars)

24. List: Empire's 50 Greatest American Independent Movies (collaborative: moderated by KasperL - 2 stars)

25. Cinemag's Best Sci-fi Films (collaborative: moderated by hristos - 1 star)

26. Music by director (collaborative: moderated by iconogassed - 1 star)

27. Space Operas (collaborative: moderated by CosmicMonkey - 1 star)

28. Timeout 100 Best Sci-Fi Movies (public: Ozancan - 1 star)

29. Leaving Criterion Channel 6/30/20 (public: owen1218 - 1 star)

30. IMDB Ratings (collaborative: moderated by notyou)

31. John Carpenter (composer) (collaborative: moderated by djross)

32. Next (collaborative: moderated by davidysteph)

33. Age of Aquarius (collaborative: moderated by davidysteph)

34. To see (public: pcalado)

35. Owned (BD) (public: bizarre_eye)

36. 3: High Priority (public: KasperL)

37. Peliculas que tengo (public: escarta)

38. BF-70 (public: caffe)

39. Welcome to the Basement (public: donkeyjelly)

40. D:Movies (public: ptkw)

41. New Beverly Cinema (public: xmoffx)

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TCI | Percentile | Date Rated | # Stars (Reviews)

Stars	User	Rating
8	Barthalen	71 _59th
The comedy elements are very hit-or-miss and kind of remove any sense of consequence from the first 70 minutes or so; when you have beach ball aliens and 20 minute dangling-from-a-ledge scenes it's hard to take any of the other stuff semi-seriously. But the creative use of low budget special effects, the Philip K. Dickness of the talking computers and the sense of tongue-in-cheek nihilism won me over in the end. The kind of B Movie In Space I wish we had more of.
3	djross	76 _86th
Some day people will read this review, and then they'll feel sorry! Rewatched in 2017, just after watching ALTERED STATES, two movies that have in common the use of the word "phenomenology".
3	caiman	75 _48th
On one hand it's undeniably amateurish, disjointed, and silly. But on the other hand it's filled with creative ideas and a fun spirit. I could sense the passion that went into it, and I can't help but recognize its importance in the development of 70s science fiction. Despite its technical shortcomings, it's hard not to like this movie.
3	Paxton	67 _50th
This movie is one of only two movies that I hated until the final minutes. The end here mixing Asimov's The Last Question with Point Break (just kidding) is opinion swaying awesome. One of my favorite finales ever. The other film that I hated until the end was Crash. The whole time I was really offended and put off and then that ending drops and it's like, oh, you think racism is BAD! Okay, you had me for a while there movie.
2	driscarpin	86 _80th
Esse filme é maravilhoso!
2	Stain	80 _68th
Dopey, and zero-budget, but there's something about this movie that's thoroughly endearing
2	amerigo	70 _26th
Cartoonishly awful effects stand out in this micro-budget tongue-in-cheek satire. Sure, it does have some charm in its amateur novelty, but it's often a bit of a slog. There are scenes that are overshadowed by jokes that fall flat because they resemble the kind of humor you'd see in a high school video production class. But on the other hand, there are moments of delightful absurdity straight out of the corpus of Philip K Dick's work. A very mixed bag this.
2	empiremag	5 _93rd
"...approximately a thousand times better than the director's last 15 years of utter crapola."
2	ribcage	53 _29th
Dark Star is a mash-up of 2001, Philip K Dick, Alien, Douglas Adams thrown into a blender, poured into a glass with an extra twenty minutes (mostly of Dan O’bannon chasing a beach ball in a short, weird comedy version of Alien). I recommend it for fans of its creators, but it is strongly a rough draft museum piece.
2	backwardsuit	71 _53rd
Fun but you may need some good will towards its low-budget indie spirit to get along with it. As creative as it is amateurish in places and can't help but feel like a student short film extended for a feature release. Despite its many flaws (pace, tone, structure) I still find it very compelling & laudable. Basically some kind of prolonged absurdist gag on workplace safety and morale in a dehumanizingly mechanical futuristic context with more genre awareness than probably necessary.
2	rosenritter	9 _95th
Makes 2001 look like Dark Star.
1	DavidKahane	60 _39th
Shot on the cheap and in the spare time of the collected cast and crew, the film is jubilantly amateurish as it simultaneously spoofs and pays loving homage to the science fiction genre. It's not exactly something that can be called good, but it's surely enthusiastic, coming across as a scrappy precursor to any number of YouTube mini-epics made by people who love movies so much that they too want to point a camera and yell, "Action!"
1	x-human	77 _53rd
A really fun film which seems to be able to tell an entertaining story with no real plot.
1	irvinejump	85 _91st
Made for about $60,000 over a period of year's this is a fantastic comedy about a bunch of Astronauts FAR more unstable than the planets their supposed to be blowing up. The work gone into the film gives the impression of a film ten times it's actual budget. O'Bannon would later write Alien and I think farscape too, but I'll have to look into that
1	pilgermann	85 _87th
Low budget and amateurish but I love it! More creative and clever than most sci-fi films, and I liked the ending ripped from Ray Bradbury's KALEIDOSCOPE. The beach ball alien with Gillman hands is awesome.
1	wokelstein	33 _6th
It's like a buttermilk biscuit that has been left out in the dry air for so long that it has petrified. So deadpan, so much the "anti-2001" (or to contemporary audiences perhaps, the anti-Star Wars) that it's positively sadistic. I respect what it's doing, but it's not exactly preferable to staring at a blank wall for the same amount of time.
1	vlmecc	99 _99th
My all time fav sci fi movie!! Wait til you see the alien! One of the BEST special effects I've ever seen!
1	quinlan_vos	81 _40th
Campy, cheesy, and hilariously low-budget, this film more than makes up for its shortcomings with a heaping helping of wit and intelligence.
1	Danilolopes	77 _47th
great!
1	cinema_hell	70 _33rd
I love this sci-fi spoof! I don't care for Star Wars or Star Trek, I much prefer these spacefreaks.
1	Joeyjay	75 _49th
Strange movie. Some will hate it others really enjoy it.
1	janus	70 _51st
Darkly funny directorial debut with lots of low-budget charm. The beach-ball monster is more memorable than a whole horde of today's computer-generated creatures. I wish the monster segment had been tied in more closely with the sentient-bomb A-plot, because as it is it seems like a short film expanded into a feature via an unnecessary (though very welcome) comic-relief detour.
1	moraesfelipe	64 _56th
There are so many crazy man vs machine situations here that, despite its rudimentar look, it is certainly worth your time: a ball-alien stalking an astrounaut, the computer system of the ship having an argument with a bomb, an astronaut talking to the same bomb about philosophy -- eventually, it explodes after some Genesis quotes --, and a guy entering the atmosphere of a planet surfing on ship remains. There is also a great, typically Carpenter-like build-up of suspense throughout the picture.
1	yesistasty	74 _29th
You'll think it's absolute shit until it dawns on you that it's a parody.
1	freqflyer	75 _36th
Carpenter's first. Pretty decent. Very original. Shows what you can do with a shoestring.
1	wetwillies	80 _37th
When this is good, it's really fucking good. And when it's bad, it's bad in a way where you're still pretty interested in what's going on. Took me a while to lock into its comedic rhythms, but once I did, I was on board. I wish this was as popular as Star Wars.
1	DavidBlast	50 _44th
Low budget science fiction comedy, that beyond its cult status, can be enjoyed as a weird plotwise prequel to 'Alien'.
1	by Devol	80 _72nd
surprising (and awesome!) seeing a gazillion reviews for this! I always think of the confessional thingie that the cast gets more and more wigged out on throughout the film. I also identified with that big, menacing ball thingie in the elevator shaft.
1	KramYessev	73 _65th
Despite some serious pacing issues, Carpenter's debut is creative no-budget sci-fi fun, and is surprisingly influential. Who would have guessed a beachball would be the basis for Alien?
1	DesertPunk	85 _87th
I absolutely hated this movie until the last ten minutes. Now I'm convinced it's an overlooked masterpiece. Hey man, I like my sci-fi low-budget and satirical.

Average Percentile 45.41% from 857 Ratings