Added to your basket
John Carpenter's pulp science fiction classic - this brilliantly clever and funny parody of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, follows a warped intergalactic mission to blow up unstable planets. Four bored astronauts fill in time between missions catching up on their tans with the help of a sun-lamp, playing with a suspiciously plastic-looking alien mascot they are taking back to Earth and conversing with their female version of Hal. Things start to go horribly wrong when the spaceship computer misfires and a 'smart bomb' thinks it is God.
This all new Blu-ray edition has been sourced from an original 16 x 9 35mm theatrical print. The film was shot originally as 16mm, then blown up to 35mm for theatrical distribution. This new master has been subject to a new grade and extensive manual frame by frame digital restoration. This we believe is the finest presentation ever of this science fiction classic...
Special Features:
- Original Theatrical Version - 83 mins
- Original John Carpenter Director's Cut - 73 mins
- Let there be light: the odyssey of Dark Star - An all new, feature-length documentary exploring the controversial making of the John Carpenter (Halloween) and Dan O'Bannon (Alien) student film. Includes exclusive interviews with actor Brian Narelle, cinematographer Doug Knapp, art director Tommy Lee Wallace, visual effects artist Greg Jein, voice artist Cookie Knapp, film director Jack Harris, Diane O'Bannon, USC alumni director Jeff Burr, as well as archival interviews with John Carpenter and many more! Plus the final interview with Dan O'Bannon, Directed by Daniel Griffith 2010.
- Theatrical Trailer
- Stills Gallery
- Poster Gallery
- Lobby Card Gallery
- Cast and Crew Biographies
- CGI Menus
- Reversible sleeve with 3 original film poster covers
- Revelation Films
- John Carpenter
- PG
- Brian Narelle
- Cal Kuniholm
- Dre Pahich
- Dan O'Bannon
English, Spanish
- 1974
- English
- 1
- B
John Carpenter's pulp science fiction classic - this brilliantly clever and funny parody of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, follows a warped intergalactic mission to blow up unstable planets. Four bored astronauts fill in time between missions catching up on their tans with the help of a sun-lamp, playing with a suspiciously plastic-looking alien mascot they are taking back to Earth and conversing with their female version of Hal. Things start to go horribly wrong when the spaceship computer misfires and a 'smart bomb' thinks it is God.
This all new Blu-ray edition has been sourced from an original 16 x 9 35mm theatrical print. The film was shot originally as 16mm, then blown up to 35mm for theatrical distribution. This new master has been subject to a new grade and extensive manual frame by frame digital restoration. This we believe is the finest presentation ever of this science fiction classic...
Special Features:
- Original Theatrical Version - 83 mins
- Original John Carpenter Director's Cut - 73 mins
- Let there be light: the odyssey of Dark Star - An all new, feature-length documentary exploring the controversial making of the John Carpenter (Halloween) and Dan O'Bannon (Alien) student film. Includes exclusive interviews with actor Brian Narelle, cinematographer Doug Knapp, art director Tommy Lee Wallace, visual effects artist Greg Jein, voice artist Cookie Knapp, film director Jack Harris, Diane O'Bannon, USC alumni director Jeff Burr, as well as archival interviews with John Carpenter and many more! Plus the final interview with Dan O'Bannon, Directed by Daniel Griffith 2010.
- Theatrical Trailer
- Stills Gallery
- Poster Gallery
- Lobby Card Gallery
- Cast and Crew Biographies
- CGI Menus
- Reversible sleeve with 3 original film poster covers
- Revelation Films
- John Carpenter
- PG
- Brian Narelle
- Cal Kuniholm
- Dre Pahich
- Dan O'Bannon
English, Spanish
- 1974
- English
- 1
- B
Other customers bought:
Customer Reviews
Top Customer Reviews
Customer reviews are independent and do not represent the views of Zavvi.
Dark Star
Dark Star is not the best carpenter movie, but its a must see if your a fan.
Was this helpful?
Dark Star
Hadn't seen this since fine bit of sc-fi/black comedy since it was last on terrestrial TV quite a few years ago, however it stuck in my memory well enough to snap it up on BluRay for the modest asking price. 'Dark Star' is a low budget sci-fi comedy Dan O'bannon made as a film student ages before he hit fame with the 'Alien' thing. Shot on 'Super 8!' film, yeah! super 8!, it tells the story of a spaceship called 'Dark Star' out in deep space on a l-o-n-g! mission that sees the crew blowing up unstable rogue planets using intellegent 'smart bombs' with a view to colonizing the system in the near future. Having been in space for nigh on twenty years the crew are bored with the dull nature of their task, slowly succumbing to a numb creeping apathy they mostly rely on the sexy voiced female computer to direct and look after them. The captain, Commander Powell after being killed in an accident is preserved in cryogenic stasis. Still retaining a limited capacity to think and speak he's extremely lonely as none of the others in the crew seem come to visit him. Resorting to pranks or hobbies to fill their time, work aside, the other crew members slowly fragment into their own individual activities. Doolittle plays music by tapping on water filled bottles n' jars while dwelling on his surf bum past. The spaced out 'Talby' spends all his time in the observation dome gazing out at the universe looking for mythical glowing nebula. Boiler likes to trim his Zapata mustache n' smoke cheroots while indulging in dangerous target practice in the cramped on board conditions using the ships laser rifle. Dan O'bannon's character Sgt Pinback much to the irritation of the others in the crew fills his time devising weak practical jokes. While recording his video diary Sgt Pinback drops the bombshell that he's not Pinback at all!, just a middling fuel technician called Bill Frugge. At the launch site he'd tried to rescue the real 'Pinback' who had gone crazy n' jumped into a tank of liquid nitrogen just before take off. Wearing Pinback's space suit to protect himself Frugge tried to fish Pinback out but ends up getting 'Press Ganged' into the capsule by the rest of crew who assume he's Pinback. The highlights aren't the effects which to be fair are showing their age n' shoestring budget under BluRay's unforgiving gaze, nonetheless they manage to remain fairly convincing . It's the comedy element that does it for me, especially Pinback chasing the escaped alien mascot a 'beach ball' kind of creature with flippers, claws and a wicked sense of fun!. Pursuing this improbable creature around the ship Pinback ends up hanging off the bottom of an elevator over a near bottomless shaft with the alien hanging on his back n' tickling him, hilarious!. Finally cornering this fun lovin' gas filled balloon of a mascot Pinback comes up with the idea of shooting it with a tranquilzer gun whereupon the poor thing bursts n' flies around the cabin farting like a balloon. The ending sees one of their malfunctioning smart bombs developing a God complex after being taught Phenomenology by Doolittle with disastrous results!
Was this helpful?
Dark Star
Hadn't seen this since fine bit of sc-fi/black comedy since it was last on terrestrial TV quite a few years ago, however it stuck in my memory well enough to snap it up on BluRay for the modest asking price. 'Dark Star' is a low budget sci-fi comedy Dan O'bannon made as a film student ages before he hit fame with the 'Alien' thing. Shot on 'Super 8!' film, yeah! super 8!, it tells the story of a spaceship called 'Dark Star' out in deep space on a l-o-n-g! mission that sees the crew blowing up unstable rogue planets using intellegent 'smart bombs' with a view to colonizing the system in the near future. Having been in space for nigh on twenty years the crew are bored with the dull nature of their task, slowly succumbing to a numb creeping apathy they mostly rely on the sexy voiced female computer to direct and look after them. The captain, Commander Powell after being killed in an accident is preserved in cryogenic stasis. Still retaining a limited capacity to think and speak he's extremely lonely as none of the others in the crew seem come to visit him. Resorting to pranks or hobbies to fill their time, work aside, the other crew members slowly fragment into their own individual activities. Doolittle plays music by tapping on water filled bottles n' jars while dwelling on his surf bum past. The spaced out 'Talby' spends all his time in the observation dome gazing out at the universe looking for mythical glowing nebula. Boiler likes to trim his Zapata mustache n' smoke cheroots while indulging in dangerous target practice in the cramped on board conditions using the ships laser rifle. Dan O'bannon's character Sgt Pinback much to the irritation of the others in the crew fills his time devising weak practical jokes. While recording his video diary Sgt Pinback drops the bombshell that he's not Pinback at all!, just a middling fuel technician called Bill Frugge. At the launch site he'd tried to rescue the real 'Pinback' who had gone crazy n' jumped into a tank of liquid nitrogen just before take off. Wearing Pinback's space suit to protect himself Frugge tried to fish Pinback out but ends up getting 'Press Ganged' into the capsule by the rest of crew who assume he's Pinback. The highlights aren't the effects which to be fair are showing their age n' shoestring budget under BluRay's unforgiving gaze, nonetheless they manage to remain fairly convincing . It's the comedy element that does it for me, especially Pinback chasing the escaped alien mascot a 'beach ball' kind of creature with flippers, claws and a wicked sense of fun!. Pursuing this improbable creature around the ship Pinback ends up hanging off the bottom of an elevator over a near bottomless shaft with the alien hanging on his back n' tickling him, hilarious!. Finally cornering this fun lovin' gas filled balloon of a mascot Pinback comes up with the idea of shooting it with a tranquilzer gun whereupon the poor thing bursts n' flies around the cabin farting like a balloon. The ending sees one of their malfunctioning smart bombs developing a God complex after being taught Phenomenology by Doolittle with disastrous results!
Was this helpful?
A classic, but a bit weird.
This is a sci-fi classic that I wanted to see for a while. Dan o Bannon wrote the story before he wrote Alien, and John Carpenter (Halloween, Fog, The Thing) directed it, so it's kind of something you have to see to understand how these two people started in the film industry. The story is about a ship and its crew having spent too much time in space cleaning up (destroying) unstable planets. Now I'm not a big fan of funny sci-fi. For me science fiction (apart from maybe Galaxy Quest) is mostly serious, but this is not too self referential as humour can go, so I can live with it. The references to 2001 are not so much the point of the film, it's just one scene with the talking planet annihilator device that starts having an existential problem. More weird than funny in my opinion. Special effects are obviously not the point here, since the budget was about as high as it can get for a student film, still there are a few interesting design ideas and effects that have probably left their mark. Dan O'Bannon's performance is probably what I will remember most, some sort of inadvertent Mister Bean in Space is probably the closest description I can make up of it. In the end, I'm still glad to own it in my collection, but this is not my favourite sci-fi film of the period. Still an interesting one to watch (with the extras) to understand how these two influential film makers have started their career.
Was this helpful?