Amor do Futuro

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.

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.

Starcrossed had to be one of the better scifi telefilms to emerge in the 80's big three networks realm. This gem orginally airing on ABC had to be one of the more interesting pop scifi films of our time. Blending modern and contemporary art styles, light futuristic drama with familiar locales and most of all, a delicate to spirited electro-jazz score by Gil Melle that set the mood perfectly for the visuals and should have been released for sale. This is probably a movie that most hardcore scifi fans will want to pass on, It has action but not as robust as Star Wars, there are no high tech space battles but there is a good story to be found in Starcrossed. If you ever find yourself wanting a scifi love story, this is definately one of the better ones. It sometimes plays on SciFi channel so keep an eye peeled if you are interested.

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.

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.