Sphere (UK)
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A thousand feet beneath the sea, the blackest holes are in the mind...
Certificate: 12
Running Time: 129 mins
Retail Price: £15.99
Release Date:
Content Type: Movie
Synopsis:
Far below the surface in the mid-Pacific, US officials have isolated what may be the greatest discovery in human history.
They`ve found a huge spacecraft that plunged into the depths 300 years ago. What is the spacecraft`s origin? Could there still be living intelligence aboard?
Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone and Samuel L. Jackson portray members of an elite underwater team charged with finding the answers in `Sphere`, the deep-water, deep-suspense science-fiction adventure that shapes a new dimension in thrills. And it brings the underwater squad face to face with a mysterious terror as near as their own thoughts.
Special Features:
Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Production Notes
Trailer
Behind-the-scenes Documentary; "Shaping The Sphere: The Art Of The Visual Effects Supervisor"
Audio commentary by Dustin Hoffman & Samuel L. Jackson
TV Spots
Video Tracks:
Widescreen Letterbox 2.35:1
Audio Tracks:
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Subtitle Tracks:
Hebrew
Icelandic
Polish
Czech
Hindi
English
Hungarian
Directed By:
Barry Levinson
Written By:
Paul Attanasio
Stephen Hauser
Kurt Wimmer
Michael Crichton
Starring:
Liev Schreiber
Peter Coyote
Samuel L. Jackson
Sharon Stone
Dustin Hoffman
Casting By:
Ellen Chenoweth
Soundtrack By:
Elliot Goldenthal
Music From:
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Director of Photography:
Adam Greenberg
Editor:
Stu Linder
Costume Designer:
Gloria Gresham
Production Designer:
Norman Reynolds
Producer:
Andrew Wald
Barry Levinson
Michael Crichton
Patricia Churchill
Executive Producer:
Peter Giuliano
Distributor:
Warner Bros
Your Opinions and Comments
The story quite interesting, but leaves the viewer with a lot of open questions. A bit too many of those, actually.
The acting is nice and convincing (even Stone makes an exception and actually acts, for once). :)
The video transfer is great. There are a lot of dark scenes during which the blacks and blues are rendered with great details.
The DD 5.1 audio mix is ordinary. Nothing too explosive but a nice surrounding feeling.
My region 2 disk had no extra features other then a crew&cast list. Too bad.
Other than a weird ending, a nice movie to watch. :)
First let me say that the movie is based on one of Michael (Jurrasic Park) Crichton`s maybe best books.
Even though the movie is good it doesn`t do justice.
There`s a whole lot of important comments and entire scenes
from the book that isn`t in the movie.
Being a fan of the book and having read it countless times I know what`s going on, but others who saw it didn`t understand the concept, and I found myself trying to explane out from the book.
To take one example:
In the book the scientists have a long (and quite funny) conversation with "Jerry" in the movie they cut to the mad part without explanation.
Also the way the lead just suddenly knows what`s going on. In the book he used ages figuring things out.
And now to the worst part. The ending.
The movie scrapped the ENTIRE ending as written by Crichton and created a new one. (and a bad one)
In the book *spoiler* the characters started an all out mind war, but in the movie they just... I don`t know what happened. I gues they thought of the sphere... and then... but why did they think they where still inside the sub? ... uhm...
My advice is to buy the DVD (as it`s a great movie.. although a bit yucky sometimes)
BUT READ THE BOOK FIRST!
~Strat