Sphere (1998)

Best movie of this year hands down!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

In the book, we learn what the message decodes to merely from what Harry claims. In this movie, 'My name is Jerry' is actually what's printed on the screen, which isn't realistic. If it were realistic, all of the sentences would be messed up. After getting back from the falling eggs and getting unsuited, Norman states with determination that he wants to talk to Jerry, only to try to explain to him a minute later that the guys and he need some time alone to talk things over while Jerry's adamant to talk.

"I borrowed from good writers ... like Rod Serling" one of the characters exclaims in the middle of the film. Do I ever wish.Sphere is based on not-one-of-Crichton's best efforts. Instead, go see "Andromeda Strain," which, although long and slow-paced in classic Robert Wise directorial style, creates a real atmosphere as a team of scientists struggles in an isolation facility to save humanity form a deadly virus.The film is full of cheap scares (like women-sea divers jumping up and screaming when a skeletonized human astronaut is found, one of those stereotypes). And that's pretty much all it tries to deliver.A bunch of diver-scientists discover a US spaceship from the future. It contains a mysterious sphere, which grants them the power to materialize their imagination to reality. Of course a storm traps them under water (in a great B-flick like "Deep Blue Sea," that old plot device is tolerable), and some of them die under the influence of the hallucinations/creations. Back to the surface, the survivors decide to take away the power granted by the sphere - or is one of them cheating? Sequel time! Fortunately, they did not bother making one.The movie is mediocre SF fare based on a mediocre SF novel (although Crichton has written some great ones). It replaces genuine wonder with in-your-face sounds or flashes to make you jump in your seat. The characters are so routine you wish they'd just die and get on with it. There is some competent action, and for a while (middle third) the film has spell-binding imagery, so it still gets a 5: watchable, but not really satisfying even on the first viewing.

This film blew me away when I first saw it. Unfortunately, 18 years later, it is just embarrassing. I'm not sure why I didn't notice back then that it is just crammed with unnecessary hysterics and over-the-top drama. Most of the characters are just plain annoying, and the story just doesn't seem to make sense. Did it make sense 18 years ago? Probably not, but the effects must have been dazzling enough to mask the lack of a cohesive plot. And to allow it to run for what is now obviously an excessively long time.One of the worst, yet most often committed mistakes in any film that involves spacesuits/diving suits is the inclusion of a bright lamp INSIDE the helmet. Obviously, this is done to improve the lighting for the camera. You don't need to be very intelligent to know that this light inside the helmet will absolutely destroy all visibility for the wearer. All he/she will see is glare. And yet, nearly every filmmaker does it. Here is no exception, although I will admit it's not the worst. But use of this lame lighting trick reflects either stupidity or bare contempt for the viewer. I can't help it, it ruins the whole film for me, no matter what other merits it might have.But this one ruined itself, it didn't need the helmet light to do that. It's unfortunate; I anticipated a very rewarding experience going into this viewing so many years later. I now wish I hadn't bothered. My memory of the film is now also ruined.

Four specialists are brought together to investigate something on the ocean bottom. Dr. Norman Goodman (Dustin Hoffman) is the psychotherapist. Dr. Beth Halperin (Sharone Stone) is the marine biologist. Dr. Harry Adams (Samuel L. Jackson) is the mathematician. Dr. Ted Fielding (Liev Schreiber) is the astrophysicist. Captain Harold C. Barnes (Peter Coyote) tells the team of a possible spacecraft that crash landed 300 years ago. They discover a perfect liquid sphere in a ship possibly build by humans in the future. Along with sailor Fletcher (Queen Latifah) among others, the group is stranded on the bottom of the ocean.It's too slow and too long. The action has no thrills. The horror elements are lackluster. The cast may be superior but their work here is mediocre. The only good scene is Jackson fake out the Alien chocking scene. The rest is a long meandering sci-fi adventure without much adventure. A tighter story could elevate the tension and make this exciting.