It's been such a hell of a long time since I've received any hate mail, I almost forgot what it was like. Thank God that hole in my life is plugged again, though I was more than a little surprised that the precipitating incident was, apparently, my mild slagging-off of the film The Last Starfighter in the course of my nearly-three-year-old review of the stage-musical version of same. I said:

Even to its ardent defenders, the movie version of The Last Starfighter has always played like a low-rent version of Star Wars, with a thinner, more maudlin story, inferior special effects and a production design no more convincing than the original Star Trek's. The genius of this new adaptation lies in its recognition that these apparent weaknesses are really strengths when translated to the musical stage.

My estimable correspondent said:

Re: Your review of The Last Starfighter, musical and film versions. I loved the movie. I have it on DVD. I consider it one of my favorite inspirational films. The effects are ground breaking in this, the first film to rely completely on CGI. If you told me the sky was blue, I'd check first. Screw you, Mary.

Goodness. That's the last time I speak out of turn about the film's ardent defenders. And I won't breathe a word about Tron.