Starcrossed

This movie was made for TV in Canada in the 80s and I remember stumbling across it in a video shop many years ago and loving it. It's a story of starcrossed lovers and a flight for freedom. As other reviewers have noted the production values aren't high, but for me the characters made up for the cardboard sets..and the spaceship was rather original for its time I thought. I've been looking for a copy of this on DVD for years without luck.

If you are a James Spader fan this is probably one of his earliest and hardest titles to get your hands on - and impossible to watch if you don't have a VHS system, but its worth taking the time to find if you like a decent B SciFi movie.

This movie reminded me of another alien romance move called "My stepmother is an alien" which was at least very funny. Overall this is a slow moving alien romance movie where alien girl meets boy and both are chased by evil alien dudes. The acting was good and the special effects was interesting at times. The ending left you hanging. Questions like, what did the boy do with his newly acquired alien mental powers? Did they have an alien kid as a results of their one night stand? What did the FBI do to the boy once they caught him in the end? Oh well, these questions will always linger. The lack of availability of this movie on DVD speaks volumes for its lack of popularity. You may luck out and see it on cable one day. Is it worth seeing? Sure it is, but be sure to have a pillow near by to crash on during the film.

As stated before, the film has some decent elements, but just does not quite make it.

It has a decent plot, but the film really drags through most of the film. The actors did a decent job, as far as what they had to work with. James Spader was very believable.

Although a dull film, it still held my attention to the entire end.

Weird and poorly made sci-fi romance TV movie about an alien (Belinda Bauer) with an 1980s Human League short haircut who is on the run from alien hitmen and is rescued and romanced by a young James Spader. The romance isn't all the compelling and the action elements are not all that exciting either. The only real point of interest is seeing Spader in an early leading role, getting to play the hero instead of his usual 80s smarmy jerk supporting parts (i.e. "Pretty in Pink," "Mannequin," "Less Than Zero," etc.), although I suppose he did get to play the hero of "Tuff Turf." For an actress I hadn't really heard of before, Bauer is quite good as the alien. After looking at her filmography, I saw that she played a memorable villain in "Robocop 2" and was in "Winter Kills" and "Flashdance," but I don't remember her in those two films. There's also a good score by the underrated composer Gil Melle. Overall, this is a pretty bad movie that's made watchable by two good leads.

While I had no real problems with the storyline of this movie, I'm surprised that no other reviewer has mentioned the incredibly shoddy production values. Sound levels and quality fluctuate wildly - sometimes even in the same scene. The same is true for lighting and color saturation. It was extremely distracting. I might have rationalized that perhaps my local TV station just got a damaged print or something, until one scene cut was so bad it looked like Spader teleported from one spot to another. The angle and focus were terribly off and the cut was anything but seamless.

I liked the emotional depth of this sort of dumb film, but the bad production values and quality control made it a nightmare to watch. Thankfully, I saw it on TV and didn't have to pay anything for it.