Sphere

While this is no quick-witted treat on a par with Mr. Levinson's ''Wag the Dog,'' it's a solid thriller with showy scientific overtones.

If the writing and direction carry Sphere most of the way, the actors manage to bring it home.

While the length and ridiculous finale are a drag, the only thing that stinks about Sphere is its pervasive boys-club snarkiness, especially since Stone is actually good. Levinson has always been a better director of men, but it would be nice if Attanasio could learn how to write a role for a woman that wasn't an embarrassment as well as an insult.

Waterlogged trip to nowhere. [13 February 1998, p. 3D]

A watered-down take on the sci-fi classic "Solaris," by Stanislaw Lem, which was made into an immeasurably better film by Andrei Tarkovsky.

The film itself regresses, starting in the present and winding up with a cautionary ending that evokes the hokiest SF movies of the 50s.

Stripped of the pleasures of terror, flattened of grandeur (with a tacked-on coda that fairly groans with storytelling defeat), the movie sinks from the weight of its own heavyhandedness.

while it does give flashbacks of Lem's book and Tarkovsky`s movie (Solaris), Sphere is fairly good movie to watch

Sphere is a classic fantasy thriller of the 90s. There is a good cast here and not a bad plot in its tie-up. But there is no intelligible ending, there is absolutely no suspense and as such an antagonist. Well, there is no pulling the ball at the antagonist in any way, and the viewer is not even particularly trying to convince

When it comes to Barry Levinson doing a film based on a novel by Michael Crichton when they did Disclosure which is a box office success, Sphere was a downfall but this is not the first time that the film from Warner Bros in 1998 did bomb at the box office. Fallen became the first bomb that year but aside from that, those film by that studio'll get a cult following. Now that Sphere came into my attention even though that I've been thinking about that it's scary and boy, was I right. Considering the fact that it's a sci-fi psychological thriller with a few scares. A team of experts, four doctors, Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone, Samuel L. Jackson and Liev Schreiber and a U.S. Navy Capt., Peter Coyote are assembled and taken to the Habitat near the spacecraft which is been there for nearly 300 years. Norman believes there's been a plane crash but later said there was no plane crash and Barnes said it's a spacecraft crash through underwater. So they got the Habitat, went underwater to look inside the ship and they found a sphere inside it. OK, so I don't mind this movie as such. It's just not as not as good as I thought it would been. It has it's moments like when after Harry went inside the sphere and wakes up, he eats the squid which he hates and then he started choking it out and the scene where the Habitat is on fire caused by an alien intelligence from the sphere "Jerry". They realise that Jerry is able to see and hear everything that happens on the Habitat. Of course the film had some scares like I said and yeah I found it to be an okay film so I guess that's it for me.

Yikes. It's a movie with a fantastic concept, and a great cast that tries to keep it alive - but the plot disintegrates into complete nonsense. It tries to be mysterious and present some kind of psychological current, but the character's actions, the logistics, the presentation, even the music all felt hammy and almost comedic at times. This one needs a remake.

Not worth the $ at all! Too high priced! Cool to see, but way too costly for what you get - a 55 minute video! Go to The Awakening instead. It’s worth every penny!