Navigator

In 1978, in Fort Lauderdale, the twelve years old David Freeman (Joey Cramer) goes through the grove to bring his younger brother back home. He slides, falls in a hole and faints. When he wakes up and goes home, eight years have passed and he has not aged. Meanwhile, NASA scientists find a spacecraft near to a fallen electric tower. David is brought to NASA to be studied and soon he realizes that he can communicate with the UFO. He finds out that he was sent to a distant planet in a very high speed and became the navigator of the spacecraft. In his life, he had lost 4.4 hours. On Earth, eight years have passed. This movie is a delightful entertainment, using good special effects and having a very reasonable story. It is a family entertainment, indicated for all ages. Sarah Jessica Parker, famous presently due to the show `From Sex and the City', has a minor participation as a trainee in NASA. My vote is seven.

David Freeman (Joey Cramer) was a regular 12-year-old boy living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida until he fell into a ditch and was knocked unconscious. When he awoke things had drastically changed. For him it was merely four hours later but for everyone else it was eight years later. He discovered this massive time shift when his house was occupied by new people.

At this same time NASA got a hold of a UFO with no discernible way of entering it until they became aware of David. David would eventually be drawn to the spaceship--which spoke--and the two of them went on a high speed adventure.

Along with giving us Paul Reubens aka Pee-Wee Herman as a voice for the ship we got some other 1980's specific nuggets. Carolyn McAdams (Sarah Jessica Parker) reminded us that from 1978 to 1986 music videos were created, rock groups had weird names like Twisted Sister, computers and robotics were on the uptick, and coke had at least four types (New Coke, Classic Coke, Cherry Coke, and Caffeine Free Coke). This movie should've been put in a time capsule.

The movie was really about David and the ship's adventure. The ship was standard robot speak for a bit until it began to sound more like Pee-Wee Herman. This was a fun mildly exciting movie that is perfectly suited for kids.

This movie is an entertaining fantasy, but there's quite a bit more to it just beneath the surface. The protagonist is a 12-y/o kid raised, as most are in Western culture, to be incompetent, overly dependent on adults, and untrusting of his own judgment. When he finds himself aboard an alien spacecraft, he naturally first attempts to transfer that dependency to the robotic pilot Max, which, all-seeing eye and all, represents the omniscient grown-up. As time goes on, though, David begins to realize that: 1) his own interests do not in fact always coincide with Max's, 2)that therefore he must advocate for himself to achieve a favorable outcome, and 3) that he's the one who has to decide just what outcome will best meet his needs. Much unlike most "kid movies," this character shows real growth, and in the end confronts a real moral and personal dilemma. Whether you agree with his choice or not, you have to respect him for what he has become.

Flight of the Navigator is one of those terrific adventure films for kids, even after all these years. It also falls into a long line of fun 80s sci-fi/adventure family movies.

Davey (Joey Cramer) goes into the woods looking for his little brother one evening in 1978. When he wakes up after a brief period of unconsciousness, he turns into a scientific marvel. Nothing is as Davey remembers it, but he can't figure out why because he only fell asleep for a brief period.

Davey is told that his parents reported the young boy missing in 1978, the evening that he went searching in the woods for his younger brother, referring to the incident in the past tense because it is 1985. Only Davey is still exactly the same age and everything he was from 1978, while time has passed for everyone else. His little brother is now his big brother (Matt Adler). His parents are old. Everyone is confused and the scientific world find the situation fascinating.

The scientists turn Davey into their personal guinea pig, running tests and probing him and all that junk. And soon they discover, that Davey was abducted. Davey, understandably a confused little kid, can't figure out what's going on and he sure doesn't want to be locked up in some lab where people prod at him all day long and tell him very little. So, he breaks lose, and hops aboard the spaceship that took him through time before. While it is an escape from the scientists and their security (briefly), it also holds the answers to what happened to him. It is also an opportunity for Davey to learn everything from this spaceship. And a kid's movie isn't complete without personifying inanimate objects. The spaceship is essentially controlled by Max, which is like it's CPU, a CPU with a cool sense of humor who likewise tries to learn about human emotions and condition from his passenger, Davey.

Filmed around Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, it is still a cool movie for kids...teenagers...whatever, having a little bit of something for everyone. Great humor, cool special effects, and the like.

Fun sci-fi family movie about a twelve year-old boy (Joey Cramer) who disappears and returns eight years later, still twelve years old and unaware he's been missing. At the same time, NASA finds a spaceship but are unable to open it. NASA attempts to hold the boy against his will, but he escapes on board the spaceship. Paul Reubens is great as the voice of Max, the ship's computer.

This is an awesome '80s movie. A good story told with nice special effects and lots of heart. The cast is terrific. In addition to Cramer and Reubens, there's Sarah Jessica Parker in an early role, Veronica Cartwright and Cliff De Young as the boy's parents, and Howard Hesseman as the film's antagonist.