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intric8
Seattle, WA, USA

Posted Mon Sep 12, 2016 6:56 pm

Night-ofthe-Comet.jpg
Catherine Mary Stewart plays the arcade game "Tempest". It's likely no accident she's playing a game named after a storm. The storm in "Night of the Comet" (literally red skies at night) is caused by a passing comet, which is about to wipe out the world.

If you’ve never seen the 1984 science fiction horror comedy B-movie (and B-movie spoof) Night of the Comet, critics might say you haven’t missed much. But if you do take a gander, and view at it as being a parody of B-movies, it’s quite a bit smarter than most care to realize.

In addition, the film is oozing with 1980s nostalgia. The music, the valley girls (who don’t act like valley girls), video games, the cheesy (but decent) effects and dramatic lighting effects make this a solid B-movie that tugs at the heart strings from folks who grew up in that decade.

Plus, the gorgeous Catherine Mary Stewart makes this film the kind you can play in the background for the umpteenth time for some fun background noise, but will demand your attention any time she’s on-screen. Her performance is that glue that holds the film together, and your eyes to the screen.

If she looks familiar, its because she was also in the ’84 summer sci-fi surprise blockbuster The Last Starfighter (in a minor role, but with the same hair).

But hold onto your hats. You also get in a staring role Robert Beltran. Who? You know, Chakotay from seven seasons of Star Trek Voyager.

The movie is often very highly rated on various sites, but it’s almost entirely due to the nostalgia and game the movie creates of calling out all of the homages the film pays along the way. No, it’s not an “amazing” movie. But it hits a lot of the right buttons, even if it exists in a UHF type of universe.

In any case, if you were an arcade rat of the 80s, or love vector-scan games (e.g. Tempest, Asteroids, anything from the Vectrex), check out the screen grabs I got of Mary Stewart being the top performer of her theatre’s Tempest machine.





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