Latex is scary

Yesterday I watched The Last Starfighter, and it was the first time I have ever watched it from start to finish. When I was a kid they used to show it on TV all the time, but I never got past the first 20-30 minutes. See, when I was a kid I was a gigantic movie-pussy. Special makeup and creature effects used to give me the worst nightmares, and walking out of theaters in the middle of the movie became sort of a habit (The Neverending Story sequel, Gremlins 2 and Batman Returns come to mind. or was it just a fear of sequels?) I guess that's part of why I like that kind of movies today. Weird makeup and creature effects used to creep me out as a kid, and some of them still sort of creep me out now, only as an adult I just love being creeped out. It's probably my favorite thing ever. So back then I tried watching The Last Starfighter on several occasions, and that scene where that old guy literally wipes his face off to reveal his alien face was usually where I'd cover my eyes and go to the other room, but even when I somehow managed to get through that part somehow there was still that shot of the jelly covered robot/clone before it's fully formed that warped my little mind in ways I guess I couldn't handle. Years went by, and I never really bothered to come back to it. I just figured it was yet another cheesy '80s kids movie, and I was never a big fan of those, not even during the '80s. So yesterday I finally sat down and watched it for the first time, and guess what? It really is basically just another cheesy '80s kids movie, but a pretty enjoyable one, with slightly cooler creature effects and a whole lot of primitive '80s CGI. That part was a pretty weird surprise for me. Some of it is pretty good for its time (the hero's spaceship in particular) but the rest is just Tron-bad, looking more like an '80s video game than a movie. I don't really see the point of an '80s sci-fi/fantasy movie without any miniature sets and models. lately I've been slowly learning how to like certain aspects of that doomed decade, especially some of the music, but I can't help feeling like there was a good reason why I hated it so much in real time.

Creeeeeeeepy!

Also, hot '80s chicks just weren't all that hot. It's a miracle how I managed to live through most of that decade and come out sort of straight.