so what do you get when you mix together plot elements from various successful sci - fi films such as close encounters of the third kind , 2001 : a space odyssey , apollo 13 and contact ?
well , whatever it is , you 'd sure as hell hope that it would be a thousand times better than this shoddy attempt at such a melange , considering the disastrous results we 're left with here .
this is a film that takes a little bit of everything , but ultimately adds up to a lot of nothing !
it 's like i said . . .
this movie sucks .
plot : a rescue crew of astronauts is sent down to mars in the year 2020 , after an unknown energy force leads to a loss of contact with the previous gang of space aviators to visit the red planet .
critique : extremely underwhelming is the best way to describe this movie .
uneven
, would be another .
the trailer for this movie actually showed some promise , the buzz around it had been so - so , and even the film itself starts off with a decent first twenty minutes , all leading you to believe that it 's actually going to go " somewhere " .
but it is n't long before
the entire movie downshifts into neutral , features more space walks than anything interesting on the cherry - colored planet , tries too hard to get us into the " pain " of some its characters and unsuccessfully tosses some romance into the mix .
in a sci - fi movie ?
well , i do n't know , much of it just seemed like
a bunch of nerdies talking techie jargon for about an hour and a half , only to figure out some big secret in the end , a secret which practically had me yawning with excitement .
ultimately , this is a movie that starts off with a decent premise , joins the crew in their " misadventures in space " for the main crux of its journey , and eventually settles down for one of the most anti - climactic endings this side of contact .
mind you , if you enjoyed that film 's shrug - of - the - shoulders ending , you might just enjoy this frivolous ditty as well .
of course , i do n't remember contact having such obvious and painfully distracting computer generated effects at its end of story .
ugh .
what a friggin ' mess
.
films like this generally get me wondering about the brass in hollywood again .
did n't anybody recognize the crappiness in this script ?
did n't they read the bad dialogue , the cheezy lines , the obvious derivative nature of the work ( mind you , with a director like depalma at the helm , that ai n't saying much ! ) .
of course , you ca n't really blame the brass for the inclusion of jerry o'connell in this fine crew of thespians .
'nuff said .
neither can you blame them for depalma cranking up the juice on the film 's musical score during the last fifteen minutes , presumably in order to wake the audience up ( okay , we get it brian , this scene is supposed to be powerful . . .
wow . .
. yawn . . .
my ears hurt ! ) .
so is anything salvageable in this movie ?
sure .
gary sinise does another great job , as does cheadle , the film does n't completely bore you as much as it just moves along slowly without anything really interesting happening , and yes , the " sand - twister " effect that you see in the commercial is well done .
other than that ?
i guess i could say that i admire how filmmakers have become so much more devious in their product placement strategies .
. .
oops , did i say " admire "
, i meant " am disgusted " !
all in all , this movie delivers very little in actual substance , offers two - bit dialogue
masked in a lot of sci - fi mumbo - jumbo
, pretends to be deep when really
it 's just sappy , and eventually just settles into an ending which , other than presenting us with a pathetic computer graphic as a part of the story , gives us little more to think about than how we might be able to get our money back for sitting through this rehashed dreck
.
go see the ninth gate .
. .
now there 's a great movie !
and on a personal note , i think it 's time for depalma to stop worrying so much about his proverbial 12-minute uninterrupted film sequences , and start worrying more about
how crappy his movies are getting .
two - bit dialogue it 's just sappy ugh rehashed dreck the entire movie downshifts into neutral had me yawning with excitement delivers very little in actual substance this movie sucks one of the most anti - climactic endings disgusted yawn how crappy his movies are getting uneven the bad dialogue obvious derivative nature the disastrous results extremely underwhelming the cheezy lines a friggin ' mess a bunch of nerdies talking techie jargon the crappiness in this script shoddy attempt adds up to a lot of nothing ! mumbo - jumbo a pathetic computer graphic