ShangLuda
Admirable film.
Invaderbank
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Nicole
I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.
Ivan Lalic
Contact with alien races is one of the eternal SF themes, so not even the trash king John Carpenter resisted the temptation to tackle it.
What separates ''Starman'' from the rest of the b-production it shares the timeline is one of the best acting in the history of SF cinema (Bridges), as well as some decent production, albeit nowadays out of date and slightly naive.
On the other hand, the script just won't take the viewer anywhere specific, leaving the sense of unfinished business at the very end.
''Starman'' is a decent movie if you are a fan of the '80s movies, but not for much anybody else.
bheadher
The first time I saw this movie I was mesmerized in the first few minutes. Starman has a not so subtle message, that we are our own worst enemies...right from the start all the officials are trying to kill a visitor from the stars, except for one scientist who recognizes that the alien just might be here to learn about us.Jenny Hayden lost her husband recently, and when the Starman's spaceship is shot down while entering Earths atmosphere. He crashes rather near Jenny's home in the woods, and Starman explores Jenny's home. He's an energy being, so the filming is from his perspective. It was very well done...Anyway, Starman sees pictures of Jenny's husband, and "creates" a carbon copy of him. Jenny wakes up and the movie takes off from there...some will undoubtedly say the movie is rather slow, and indeed it is paced that way through much of their time together. What grabs onto you subtly is the awakening of a love that transcends the galaxy. The cinematography is excellent, the theme music outstanding, and the acting top notch...Yes, it will move slowly, but that is the real beauty of a really well done movie, from when movies were made well...
jcbutthead86
Starman is an excellent and underrated SCI-FI-Fantasy-Romance that combines terrific direction,wonderful performances,an amazing score and great special effects. All of those elements make Starman a great film that is John Carpenter and Jeff Bridges at their best.Starman tells the story of am Alien,a Starman(Jeff Bridges)who's space ship has crash landed on the property of widow Jenny Heyden(Karen Allen)and takes the form of her dead husband. With the government on their trail the Starman and Jenny go on a road trip to take him to Arizona where Starman will be able to get back his planet. While on the trip Starman and Jenny get to know each other and fall in love.During his career,master Director John Carpenter has made five films dealing with Aliens with Horror,Action and SCI-FI,his funny feature film debut Dark Star(1974),the excellent and terrifying The Thing(1982),the brilliant and thrilling They Live(1988)and the underrated and entertaining Ghosts Of Mars(2001). In between those four films came Starman in 1984,a wonderful SCI-FI-Romance that was a modest success at the Box Office,earned an Academy Award nomination for Jeff Bridges,spawned a short lived television series and next to Big Trouble In Little China is Carpenter's lightest film that remains underrated and gives people a different side to Carpenter that wasn't seen before this film. Starman is a movie that is while giving viewers a familiar tale remains re-watchable mixing together elements of not only SCI-FI and Romance but also Road Movie,Fantasy,Adventure with a little bit of Humor that is beautiful and amazing and told in a large scale that grabs viewers from the moment you watch it. Starman greatly mixes together the genres SCI-FI and Romance pretty well. The SCI-FI elements are dazzling leaving you with thrills and awe from a visual standpoint showing from showing how the Starman lands on earth and how he uses his power for good not evil because Starman is one of the nicest Aliens in movie history. One of the main reasons Starman works is the focus on the relationship and love that develops between Starman and Jenny despite being Alien and human. The moments of dialog,interaction and romance between Starman and Jenny keeps the movie going wanting you to see where it's going to go even though the government is after both of them. The love and Romance feels real and genuine with a lot of heart that connects with viewers on an emotional level and you would want Starman and Jenny to be together forever. If you watched Carpenter's other films you should already know he's never been the most sentimental or Romantic filmmaker but he does a great job with the Love and Romance in the movie. As the journey on the road goes along Starman not only starts to fall in love with Jenny but starts to act more human doing things that regular people do and when we see the scenes with Starman being human it's funny as it is touching whether it's winning money on a Casino slot machine or trying to smoke a cigarettes. Starman also tells a character how he feels about the people on earth and one of the reasons he visited Earth. Some have compared Starman with Steven Spielberg's classic ET which came out two years before Starman some calling this movie ET for adults and while the two have similarities without a doubt both stand on their own. The ending of Starman is terrific,beautiful and matches the tone of the movie leaving viewers with optimism and hope. An amazing conclusion.The cast is great. Jeff Bridges is excellent and at his best as Starman,with Bridges being sweet and amusing. Karen Allen is wonderful and beautiful as Jenny Hayden,Starman's love interest. Charles Martin Smith is terrific as Mark Sherman,a scientist. Richard Jaeckel is great as George Fox,a National Security Director. George 'Buck' Flower(Cook),Dirk Blocker(Cop#1),M.C Gainey(Cop#2)and Ted White(Deer Hunter)give good performances as well;.The direction by John Carpenter is amazing,with Carpenter always moving the camera and bringing a great flare and style to the film. Terrific direction,Carpenter.The score by Jack Nlitzsche is fantastic,beautiful and awe-inspiring matching the movie perfectly. Fantastic score,Niezche.The Special Practical and Visual Effects are stunning and truly add to the film. Great special effects.In final word,if you love John Carpenter,Jeff Bridges,SCI-FI,Romance or Fantasy,I highly suggest you see Starman,an excellent,underrated SCI-FI-Romance-Fantasy that you will never forget. Highly Recommended. 10/10.
lasttimeisaw
John Carpenter's STARMAN is a sympathetic star-crossed romance between an alien aka. Starman (Bridges) and an earth woman Jenny (Allen), a rare item in his otherwise horror and action packed works, it is my second film from him, after the disappointingly topsy-turvy BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA (1986, 5/10). First of all, it is a cruel joke on our earthlings, we set off a welcome message into the outer space, and some unspecified highly-intelligent species responses by sending an explorer to our planet, however, the first thing humans do is shooting the vehicles down, then hunting down the e.t. in order to put him on the operation table for dissection. But don't worry, as annoying as the authoritarian NSA chief and the military ostentation and extravagance, things will not descend to that ground. Jenny is recently widowed and still overindulges in the then-sweet-but-now-tormenting memories of his dead husband Scott, so the intrusion of Starman who regenerates himself into a human form of Scott through his hair kept in Jenny's photo album actually gives an impossible chance for Jenny to fall in love with Scott again, thus despite the initial terror to witness the metamorphosis of an unearthly creature turning into Scott, Jenny accepts him almost instantly as subconsciously she knows that her dream comes true in a supernatural version. The pair drives across the country to reach the picking-up location in Arizona, where a mother-ship will take Starman back as it has planned.En route, the affecting binding progress between them takes a lion's share of the film and romance burgeons inevitably and a nice job done by generously allowing Starman some time to learn in his new form as a male human in this three-day span, the film never intend to be a taut action piece or a CGI-ridden arena for Starman to show off his superpower other than when the plot requires, emotion always comes first, even poetically, which one might find it unexpectedly against Carpenter's grain, Jenny and Starman are each other's savior, once they builds the trust and affections, they are inseparable. As corny as that he resuscitates her from death, cures her infertility and gives her a baby boy, whereas she has the relentless will power to bring him to the appointed venue, to eventually save his life, Carpenter and his two leads pull it off satisfactorily. Bridges garners a surprising Oscar-nomination here, he demonstrates a primitive method as a newcomer habituating, mimicking and grasping human behavior, impressively carries on his otherworldliness through the journey with advanced nuances in gesticulation and language capacity. Allen brings about a force of momentum in her more mundane part, overwhelmed by the frisson of regaining and losing again of her true love, she and Bridges share many intimately heartfelt moments in this fanciful tall-tale, its CGI effects inescapably seem dated, but the kernel of its message - to evoke the basic humanity within us, leaves viewers a somewhat palatable taste which injects the movie a vital strength to be finely appreciated.
