The Black Hole (1979)

Director: Gary Nelson
Starring: Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins, Robert Forster

Synopsis:
The USS Palomino, an exploratory ship, comes across a research vessel believed lost just outside the event horizon of a black hole. The Palomino is damaged and manages an emergency dock with the research vessel and discover a lone survivor who may well be mad.

Impressions:
I found Disney's attempt to cash in on the Star Wars hype to be rather charmless and uninspired. I know the movie has its fans, but it didn't do much for me. I found the design of the robot sidekicks to be a little grating, but curiously, I liked the performances of Roddy McDowall and Slim Pickens. I also like Ernest Borgnine in it, though his was a smaller role, and the mad scientist played by Maximilian Schell was also entertaining. In other words, I found the major characters on the good guys' side all meh. Not a good thing.

If you're a fan of 70s and 80s scifi, before everything got CGed to heck and back, you might want to give this one a whirl, but if you want fun with black holes, I recommend Event Horizon instead.

Rating:
50/50