On DVD: The Black Hole (1979)

What happens when Disney decides to cash in on a profitable trend like Star Wars? The Black Hole.

I remember when this movie came out. I was a child but I remember the nonstop commercial barrage on television for this movie. The commercials looked great. More robots and space ships and all the stuff that made Star Wars fun. My parents didn't bring us to see that movie. I know it's been on TV many times since then, but I never watched it all the way through. Therefore I wanted to rent it and have a look at this childhood memory.

As usual, I watched it with no expectations. I became somewhat excited when I saw the rather good cast. However I was about to be let down.

The acting was wooden by the entire cast. The special effects were iffy at best. The story was lack luster. The movie is only 98 minutes, but felt like 3 hours. There were just too many scenes that were entirely too long. With good editing the movie could've been made fine by cutting it down to a short film of about 45 minutes. The theological angle the movie took was diluted and pretty dumb. The actual depiction of Heaven and Hell in the black hole was bordering on cliche.

All in all, I must say it was rather poor and uninspired. It was probably bad when it came out and has gotten worse with time. If you were thinking about seeing it, you might want to rethink that decision.

More on IMDB:
http://imdb.com/title/tt0078869/