Alicia I love this movie so much

Actuakers One of my all time favorites.

Humaira Grant It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Adeel Hail Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

fxo369 For the original work that this is based on and several others, pick up a copy of the anthology "The Reel Stuff" edited by Brien Thomsen and Martin Greenberg, Daw Books Inc. 2008. This, "The Minority Report" by Philip K. Dick and "Who Goes There" ("The Thing") by John W. Campbell are the best of the lot. I'm sure Amazon has it.

gpeltz Nightflyers (1987) directed by Robert Collector, and written for screen by Robert Jaffe, from the novel by George R.R, Martin. Before I begin, I should mention I saw this as an upload on You Tube. The choppy sound quality almost made the film unwatchable, it always drew attention to itself and was very distracting. None the less, I shall attempt to be objective in my review.It stunk.But in a grand overblown manner. Should you watch it? Sure give it a try but keep in mind, it gets worse. Spoilers ahead, I will be mentioning plot details, to a degreeThe concept of a computer running a spaceship, and going out of control had been done many years before, with much more élan. Still, I will give this attempt credit where credit is due,First a mention of the plot details, A Professor, played by John Standing, Rents out a Space Freighter, "Nightflyer" to pursue his research: To trace an Alien signal, and have a crew that could interpret it, He hires a handful of professionals, from all fields, to assist him in his research. The group that he assembles is a rag tag bunch and few seem very gungho on the missions success, especially when they discover that the pilot, "Royd", is isolated and connected to ships mother board. No pun intended. The term Mothership takes on a new perspective, here.Actually until the computer turns homicidal, the movie works quite well; In it's favor is the set and production design. these are the real heroes here. They gave us a Art Nouveau set design a throwback to the Thirties, Even the ship itself is styled like a classic car, Smooth curved lines, The interior set piece is elegant, a drawing room more akin to Nemo's Nautilus then to the Enterprise lounge. Pipe organ included. The Computer display stuff was pretty advanced for it's dayThe score was composed by Doug Timm, and was performed on synthesizer. It reminded me of the works of Alan Parsons, and Rick Wakeman. too bad the upload sound quality was over all crappy. So much for the good.The movie was overall stupid, repetitious and juvenile. It becomes evident that the cast is to be fodder for the Killer Computer. Things get much worse when the computer is aware of attempts to shut it down. The overuse of the "Wind Machine is almost comical. It should get top billing. By the time we get to Royd shooting blue beams out of his head to combat the red beams being shot from the mother computer, do we realize how ludicrous the movie ultimately is. out of Power rangers, man! There was no way to edit this monster short of blowing up the ship after the first forty minutes. Six out of Ten Stars for the design crew, ,

Noah Oskow Having recently revisited George RR Martin's haunting and intelligent novella NIghtflyers in his anthology Dreamsongs, I decided to finally put in the effort to find a copy of this mostly unknown film adaptation. I didn't even have to read the few reviews out there to know it most likely was not going to be fantastic; the fact that it has never been released on DVD combined with the author's warning about the quality of this film was enough of a hint towards what to expect. Still, I went in with a open mind and hoped to enjoy a probably mediocre rendition of a great novella. And there were good parts to it; that classic atmosphere of loneliness that only 80's sci-fi seems have to it, aided by a enjoyably camp and moody synthesizer score. And the very few scenes that used dialog lifted straight from George's novel got across a tiny bit of the engrossing story and character of the novella. Other than that, the story and characters get mostly butchered, sad to say. The story becomes both extremely simplified and extremely convoluted, and the strange editing doesn't help. A staggered set-up quickly dissolves from intro into a prolonged climax that takes up the time that could have been used for a proper second act, destroying the chance for any real character to develop. And the films ending itself is perhaps the greatest disservice to the novella it was based on, being mostly non-sensical and maintaining only the smallest resemblance to the original story. So yes, not a great movie by any stretch, not even a good movie. And certainly not a good adaptation. But still, I'm glad I saw it.Seeing Uncle Phil from Fresh Prince in a space suit made it all worthwhile.

gridoon The silly, uninteresting story (a computer that has the mind of a mother with a fixation on her son?) and the annoying overacting of some of the players are the two most important - but not the only - problems with this very, very minor sci-fi flick. However, the effects are good for what they probably cost, and Catherine Mary Stewart shows indications of being a strong female lead - she deserves a better movie. (*1/2)