Sphere (1998)
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 134m
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Coyote, Liev Schreiber
Synopsis:
A team of scientists is summoned to a remote Pacific location under conditions of secrecy to investigate the hull of an alien spaceship lying intact on the ocean floor.
Review:
Not so much The Abyss revisited as Event Horizon in inner space, Michael Crichton's beguiling story faces us with one of his typical posers: how could a vessel far larger than anything seen on Earth be at the bottom of the ocean without anyone noticing its arrival, and more importantly, how could it have signs in English and Spanish? The sphere of the title is in many ways the star of the piece, investing its captives with the power to manifest their deepest fears and imaginings, at considerable peril to themselves, a bit like Morbius's Id going on the rampage in Forbidden Planet. Like an enormous golfball wrapped in gold foil, you might say it dominates its scenes and is testimony to what you can accomplish with a green screen these days. Meanwhile the stellar cast emote a little but do a lot more intellectual reasoning, with the odd jocular aside - this is a Barry Levinson film, after all - and generally the whole adventure is a cut above the average Alien imitator. Suspense sequences and scenes of extreme peril are grippingly handled; a pity the chapter headings (presumably preserved from the book) somewhat sap the narrative of energy, and only occasionally deliver a Shining-style frisson (viz. The Monster).
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 134m
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Coyote, Liev Schreiber
Synopsis:
A team of scientists is summoned to a remote Pacific location under conditions of secrecy to investigate the hull of an alien spaceship lying intact on the ocean floor.
Review:
Not so much The Abyss revisited as Event Horizon in inner space, Michael Crichton's beguiling story faces us with one of his typical posers: how could a vessel far larger than anything seen on Earth be at the bottom of the ocean without anyone noticing its arrival, and more importantly, how could it have signs in English and Spanish? The sphere of the title is in many ways the star of the piece, investing its captives with the power to manifest their deepest fears and imaginings, at considerable peril to themselves, a bit like Morbius's Id going on the rampage in Forbidden Planet. Like an enormous golfball wrapped in gold foil, you might say it dominates its scenes and is testimony to what you can accomplish with a green screen these days. Meanwhile the stellar cast emote a little but do a lot more intellectual reasoning, with the odd jocular aside - this is a Barry Levinson film, after all - and generally the whole adventure is a cut above the average Alien imitator. Suspense sequences and scenes of extreme peril are grippingly handled; a pity the chapter headings (presumably preserved from the book) somewhat sap the narrative of energy, and only occasionally deliver a Shining-style frisson (viz. The Monster).
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 134m
Director: Barry Levinson
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson, Peter Coyote, Liev Schreiber
Synopsis:
A team of scientists is summoned to a remote Pacific location under conditions of secrecy to investigate the hull of an alien spaceship lying intact on the ocean floor.
Review:
Not so much The Abyss revisited as Event Horizon in inner space, Michael Crichton's beguiling story faces us with one of his typical posers: how could a vessel far larger than anything seen on Earth be at the bottom of the ocean without anyone noticing its arrival, and more importantly, how could it have signs in English and Spanish? The sphere of the title is in many ways the star of the piece, investing its captives with the power to manifest their deepest fears and imaginings, at considerable peril to themselves, a bit like Morbius's Id going on the rampage in Forbidden Planet. Like an enormous golfball wrapped in gold foil, you might say it dominates its scenes and is testimony to what you can accomplish with a green screen these days. Meanwhile the stellar cast emote a little but do a lot more intellectual reasoning, with the odd jocular aside - this is a Barry Levinson film, after all - and generally the whole adventure is a cut above the average Alien imitator. Suspense sequences and scenes of extreme peril are grippingly handled; a pity the chapter headings (presumably preserved from the book) somewhat sap the narrative of energy, and only occasionally deliver a Shining-style frisson (viz. The Monster).