I'm going to admit right now that this isn't the best movie I've ever seen, but it's still quite fun. I knew little about it except that it's plot was alluded to in the "South Park" episode "Best Friends Forever". It features a guy who gets the highest score in a video game, only to find out that the game was a test created by aliens to recruit people from all over the Universe to use starships to fight. Okay, I admit the premise is pretty goofy, but it's still a standard film. The makeup effects are quite good. This was in the very early days of CGI, so I can understand that those bits don't hold up well. The guy is replaced on Earth by a robot duplicate who meets up with his girlfriend, Maggie. The ending is really one of the most heartwarming I've seen in a long time. He goes back to Earth after finding out that they need him in space to rebuild the fleet. He decides he at least wants his girlfriend to join him on his adventures and eventually she goes. Honestly, these are some very heartfelt scenes and they more than make up for slower bits in the movie. I love how they set up the story to continue too. ***

This movie is so bad it's just bad. Really bad. Nothing even remotely makes sense, including space, government, military, engineering, interior design and espionage, the sets and aliens looks cheap and unimaginative and gray. The alien recruiter just fly straight to the super secret star base, yet the fresh prince of douche is valuable to the invaders because he has this knowledge. His recruit is never checked for quality and only filtered out when he says he never wanted to be there in the first place, yet Centauri has already been given his money. The dialogue is awkward "tell don't show" exposition most of the time without any effort to make it even remotely enjoyable, the acting is often awful, and the sequel baiting is cringeworthily woven into the main movie leading to 3 main bad guys who don't even do stuff enough for one. The bad guys are pretty much useless and do next to nothing, the heroic self sacrifice of the comic relief is ultimately completely useless, and the love interest pretty much declares to empty air with glittering eyes how much she loves the main character over the burning dead body of the poor shmuck.90 minute movie with end credits, and the main guy only stops caring about saving his own bacon at the 72nd minute and gladly puts everyone he knows and presumably loves in the crossfire to cover his tracks from alien assassins.They retcon the death of Centauri at the end, but never bothered to reshoot any scenes relating to his original death, so that feels super cheap too.

The film has a great script by Jonathan R. Betuel and it is nicely directed by Nick Castle, otherwise best known for playing Michael Myers in "Halloween" (1978). Along with "Tron", it is remembered for its groundbreaking early use of CGI and the special effects, state of the art for the time, hold up surprisingly well. Although the film has a comparatively serious plot, there is a great undercurrent of humour throughout the film.Lance Guest is a very engaging male lead as both Alex Rogan and his robot duplicate Beta Alex while Catherine Mary Stewart is likewise very good as his girlfriend Maggie Gordon. It's a shame that neither of them had any other big successes as they're both likable and talented actors. In his final film, Robert Preston is great as the interplanetary con man Centauri. However, in spite of his relatively limited screen time, the show is stolen by my fellow University College Dublin alumnus Dan O'Herlihy as Alex's alien navigator. His great voice and Irish accent were as recognisable as his face was unrecognisable and he gets many of the best lines in the second half of the film. His papers in the UCD Archives, where I seem to spend most of my working life these days, so I really must have a look at them one of these days to see if there is any Hollywood gossip! I think that part of the reason that the film works as well as it does is that the actors generally play it straight in both the dramatic and the comedic scenes rather than going over the top in the latter. There are several hints in the film that a sequel was planned but it never materalised, unfortunately.

Everyone dreams of being a pilot or an astronaut and this dream comes true for one kid from the trailer park. This wonderful tale brings out the kid in you and make you want to cheer on the good guys as they take on the universes evil. This was the first time a special effect team used nothing but computer animation in some scenes. So when you watch it just think all of this was done with 640K of memory on a 486 computer! This is a great popcorn flick filled with chases and shooting, good guys and bad guys, love and romance and growing up. It is fun, smart, great story line, and not at all predictable!If you have not seen this movie then grab your child or nephew and some popcorn and enjoy this.....Robert Preston is an absolute delight!