Dark Star
Jack H. Harris Enterprises | Release Date: April 1, 1974 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
66
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
3
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
EmpireAdam Smith
In essence, Dark Star has what all great comedy has: a sense of desperation and pathos allied to an abiding humanity which elevates it high above the realm of mere spoof. Read full review
80
The GuardianPhelim O'Neill
It's a smart, cynical look at space travel, treating it as a blue-collar job and not a divine calling as Kubrick and others would have you believe. Read full review
80
Time Out LondonStaff (Not Credited)
Four bombed-out astronauts journey endlessly through the galaxy, whiling away the time with jokes, sunlamp treatment, personal diaries on videotape, and games with their own pet alien. Sheer delight. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
This is a fun movie, and a bright and intelligent one. It bears few signs of having been made on a low budget, and the special effects are reasonably slick. Read full review
75
Rolling StoneEric Hynes
The special effects vacillate between defiantly shitty and endearingly resourceful, and Carpenter and O’Bannon's sense of humor covers a similarly narrow ground between Loony Tunes goofiness and dorm-room stoned. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubNoel Murray
Dark Star has a stoner sardonicism: The movie feels like the product of long nights at the dorm passing around The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers comics and Arthur C. Clarke paperbacks. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
Carpenter creates a vision of the technological future that is both disillusioned and oddly affirmative in its insistence on the unscientific survival of emotional frailty. Read full review
50
The New York TimesJanet Maslin
There are some funny routines here, though Mr. Carpenter doesn't seem to have cared much about integrating or sustaining them. Mr. Carpenter makes his amateurishness unmistakable, especially when it comes to the film's four actors. Only one of them can act even crudely (fortunately, his is the largest role). The other three, neither photogenic nor particularly extroverted, look like well-meaning fraternity brothers helping out a pal with his class project. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
Carpenter's first directorial effort, an intermittently hilarious satire on 2001--A SPACE ODYSSEY. Carpenter's spaceship is piloted by four goofy astronauts who live like slobs and are bored out of their skulls by their long, uneventful mission. Read full review
40
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
Dark Star is a limp parody of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey that warrants attention only for some remarkably believable special effects achieved with very little money. The dim comedy consists of sophomoric notations and mistimed one-liners. Read full review
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