Starcrossed

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.

We love you, James, so we will forgive you this one steaming pile of tripe -- but nothing further!

Belinda is fine to look at for the first 30 seconds. Then, her acting -- all the acting from everyone involved -- swirled down the toilet. Sixth-graders could have done better. To describe the acting as "wooden" gives a bad rap to actual wood.

My then-23-year-old self managed to miss this one in the theaters...and that was a real blessing.

One star for Belinda. One star for James.

Yuck.

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.

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.

As one reviewer has commented, this film is worth watching just for the luscious, talented Belinda Bauer alone, as the alien, which is a standout; or for James Spader's excellent performance as Boston-Irish Joey Callahan. Both were at the beginning of their careers in the mid-1980s and this film is a highly artistic work which has everything going for it except a dismal special visual effects budget which reduces the credibility of the film, script, characters and actors exponentially.

Jeff Bloom's script, direction, with acting, characters, costumes, makeup, performances, art direction, plus edgy electronic music score by Gil Melle are first-rate. With a bigger budget for scope and visual effects, this film could have succeeded as a theatrical feature. Unfortunately, its producers, Charles Fries Productions, cheaped out and made this a good little B-picture which is character-driven instead of effects-laden. Its style and substance make up for the almost nonexistent visual effects, which consist mainly of some early CGI animation which looks like 3-D CAD drawings, standing in for the alien spaceships which are only believable as nocturnal lights, especially at the end.

This film was available on VHS videotape in the late 1980s directly from Fries Entertainment, but was discontinued sometime in the early 1990s. As far as I know it has never been reissued on video. The soundtrack score by Gil Melle is worthy of a CD release also.

Highly recommended. A 7 out of 10.