Sphere (1998)
Genre: Scifi / Mystery
Duration: 134 minuten
Country:
United States
Directed by: Barry Levinson
Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone and Samuel L. Jackson
IMDb score:
6,1 (117.442)
Releasedate: 13 February 1998
Sphere plot
"Terror can fill any space."
At the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, US naval forces stumble upon a mysterious spaceship that crashed more than 300 years ago. Psychologist Norman Goodman, mathematician Harry Adams, biochemist Beth Halperin and astrophysicist Ted Fielding, who are part of a governmental mission, are tasked with studying the strange structure of the wreckage. Led by Harold C. Barnes, the group of scientists descend into the ocean where they make a strange discovery. They find a giant golden ball that reflects everything except humans, and a computer. This indicates that it is an American discovery from the year 2048.
Actors and actresses
Dr. Norman Goodman
Dr. Elizabeth 'Beth' Halperin
Dr. Harry Adams
Captain Harold C. Barnes
Dr. Ted Fielding
Alice 'Teeny' Fletcher
Jane Edmunds
Helicopter Pilot
Seaman
O.S.S.A. Instructor
Reviews & comments
Vinokourov
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- 3143 messages
- 2909 votes
Gosh, a film that is a derivative of the Event Horizon released year earlier, another mysterious film with a spherical structure. The pity about Sphere is that as the mystery continues to unravel, the film loses interest as well. The start was still reasonable with a nice team-going-adventure atmosphere and some tense moments. However, the film is quite long and is quite predictable in its course.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Collins
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- 7452 messages
- 4430 votes
Barry Levinson is good at drama, at tragicomedy. The film adaptation of a novel by Michael Crighton about an expedition to a spaceship discovered at the bottom of the ocean is therefore not a masterpiece.
The story is quite intriguing. It has an exciting premise from which plenty of mystery springs. The acting is also good. In the presence of the actors, Levinson's talent for almost carelessly hiding dry humor in a story is very noticeable. Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson are great.
Then where does it go wrong? As far as I'm concerned, the large-scale portrayal of the characters' consciousness-expanding experiences goes wrong. In my opinion, they would work more effectively with a more subtle approach. The experiences are accompanied by great horror effects. Well done in itself, but the effects also lift the film from a subtle oppressive atmosphere to a spectacle-based tension level. Easy going, transparent and very Hollywood.
And ah. Speaking of Hollywood. At the end of the film there is of course a nice message to think about. Humans are better than thought, but are not yet good enough and still have to grow. That obvious message is smugly hidden in the film's horrific and pathetic ending. brrr. Yes, the ending is very weak and anything but convincing. A ridiculous crown on a never more than reasonable film.
Translated from Dutch · View original
Lovelyboy
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- 4059 messages
- 3041 votes
Film based on a book by Michael Crichton, not his only film adaptation and not the best either. In the distant past I once read a movie version of Jurrasic Park, as far as it was still by Crichton, and once broke Sphere itself because it didn't appeal to me. The rest of his oeuvre just doesn't appeal to me.
Something that doesn't have to matter with this cross between The Abyss and Event Horizon to which a number of psychological thriller elements have been added. The beginning, with the mystery unfolding, is not so bad after all. Great work is done with four people who differ enough from each other and/or have history to have a bit of friction and tension, this in the midst of the dark underwater location and startling discovery. The mystery only grows bigger after the discovery of the sphere.
Not bad in itself until then. Yet the film slowly loses momentum from there and people don't seem to know where they want to go. It doesn't get scary anywhere, the Sphere itself is hardly discussed anymore, what or who Jerry is is little discussed and the paranoia towards each other with phenomena that affect them all is played out too late and too little. I do like the philosophical message in which Norman more or less states that people think they are very smart but have many pitfalls and are in principle dangerous for themselves and others.
Sphere is therefore a film that in itself has a nice starting point, has its location and cast with it, but otherwise lacks the taste to say it just like that and therefore scores an insufficient score. It's just not it all.
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