i remember watching starman as a young tyke with my parents and loving it so much that i rewatched it numerous times until the vhs (or was it beta) tape had to be returned to the local video store. i had no idea until years later that it was a john carpenter film (which makes sense as i was very young and not into films or directors as i am now). anyways, since it is directed by carpenter (one of my favourites) i finally got to watch it again (although i have seen it many times over the years--and only once in widescreen back in edinburgh in 2005). the region 1 copy i now own is thankfully in widescreen which was damn near impossible to find. full frame versions are available a dime or dozen but i wanted and needed and would stop at nothing to get a widescreen version of this film (this was before the blu ray was released). i found it in a jeff bridges double feature along with jagged edge. i'm off the point here though so let's get down to the nitty gritty and review starman, john carpenter's tenth film. just like as a kid, i got a lot of enjoyment out of this movie. it is close to two hours of pure unadulterated science fiction cum romance cum adventure entertainment. it starts the same as carpenter's the thing with an alien ship crashing to earth but that's where the similarities end. while the thing is a horror film that is tense and scary and is a story that is very isolated in it's telling, starman is a romance and adventure film that is grand in scope and never stays in one location for a very long time. jeff bridges gives an amazing and well deserved oscar nominated performance and karen allen is adorable and sad and cute as the love interest. what man (or alien) wouldn't fall for her? the film is filled with fantastic scenery, a great and original (ish) story, phenomenal cinematography, out of this world special effects, fantastic music (95% of the time--the other 5% is a tad 80's dated), humour, romance, sadness, joy, love, emotions, action, adventure, intrigue and that carpenter goodness that very few other directors can deliver so well. this is carpenter's first non-horror film that he has made since hitting it big with halloween (not including elvis which seems like he signed on to do before halloween was a success). it's nice to see carpenter branch out and try something different and with starman he has fired on all cylinders. sure the film has dated ever so slightly due to some music cues and costume choices and maybe it's a tinsy weensy bit shmaltzy at times and fine maybe it's got another minor issue or two (that i cannot think of right now) that prevent it from being a masterpiece but with that said i can still say that starman is an amazing film that every sci fi or adventure or romance junkie could and should get behind. sometimes my childhood brain has steered me wrong when it comes to movies but when it comes to starman even back then i knew i was watching something special. 86/100