Event Horizon (1997) / Drama-Comedy

MPAA Rated: R for strong violence and gore, language and some nudity
Running Time: 96 min.

Cast: Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, Kathleen Quinlan, Joely Richardson, Richard T. Jones
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Screenplay: Philip Eisner
Review published September 9, 1998

In the year 2047, a crew of American astronauts are sent to Neptune to try to save the crew and ship called the Event Horizon, which had mysteriously disappeared several years before. They find the Event Horizon but what they find inside is something more than they expected.

There's more fun to be had in trying to name the movies this one rips off than in watching the film itself. Alien, Aliens, Hellraiser, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, Stargate, Sphere (the book), Solaris, and countless others too many to name.

As soon as you hear that the Event Horizon was built to make a fold in space to form a black hole and travel through, you know all plausibility has been jettisoned early. Director Paul Anderson, who was responsible for such cinematic "masterpieces" as Mortal Kombat and Soldier, creates nonsensical garbage once again, with a virtuoso style that bespeaks the vapid nature of the film.

The art designer went mad while making this film, creating a set that is more meant for mood than for practicality, and never allowing the possibility of believability because they opted for whatever looked "cool" instead of designing spaceships and costumes that would have been within the realm of reality.

One would have thought that fine actors like Fishburne (Searching for Bobby Fischer, The Matrix) and Neill (Jurassic Park, The Piano) would have at least made the film credible, but even they too turn in their worst performances to date.

With credibility and suspension of disbelief shot down from the get go, there's little else to hold your interest. It's nothing more than 90+ minutes unpleasant images with nothing to look forward to but its inevitable ending, which thankfully wasn't long in coming. The only black hole in the film was the void formed by the lack of creativity of all involved. An appallingly horrible film.

Qwipster's rating:

©1998 Vince Leo