"STARMAN" is probably the one film from Director John Carpenter that won over more female fans than male, due to its romantic angle. While far from perfect, it looks and feels more like a "hollywood" film than any of his other films before or since, and holds up very well almost 25 years later! A terrific opening sequence, revealing the Voyager Satellite careening through space, while showcasing for the audience, the video, audio, and other forms of communication within it, explains its purpose: to begin contact with alien life!  An alien reply is given, when an alien crashes his craft on earth, and assumes the appearance of a widow's dead husband.  The widow, Jenny, played by Karen Allen, is still mourning her loss, and while it's obvious that although the being she finds lying beside her one morning can't be her husband, can't help but be somehow drawn to him. The relationship between these two is well constructed. At first, the being(Jeff Bridges) appears to be semi-kidnapping her, but, it's not long before feelings grow between the two. Surprisingly, Carpenter handles the romance aspect of the film much better than one could expect from his mainstay of horror films. Things seldom feel forced in this film, and the script is generally, quite good.  While some might find the government agents in pursuit of the alien, to be old fare, it feels logical, and generates suspense as played out here.

The only thing negative that can be said about this film, is that it spawned a crappy tv spin-off.

SONY has provided the correct aspect ratio for this 1080p/AVE MPEG-4 blu-ray.  While the image generally appears natural, colors tend to be restrained, and never rich. Contrast is adequate, but blacks are never deep enough to convey the kind of detail in darker scenes one hopes for. Even brighter scenes, never appear with great depth. The image has a few moments of "jump off the screen" detail, but for the most part, this image appears flat. It's notably better than the dvd, however it's just about average for a catalogue blu-ray release.

SONY has provided a Dolby TrueHD 5.1 mix.  This mix wows the audience in its improvement over dvd. This lossy mix sports a lively environment, making great use of discrete effects, in a smart way, generating the added tension and poignancy to various scenes. While not the most aggressive of mixes, this one's so well constructed, whenever effects are utilized, they make one appreciate the nuances. Notably better than previous 2.0 mixes.

SONY has included a pan&scan trailer.