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The Black Hole

The Black Hole (1979)

December. 21,1979
|
5.9
|
PG
| Adventure Action Science Fiction Family

The explorer craft USS Palomino is returning to Earth after a fruitless 18-month search for extra-terrestrial life when the crew comes upon a supposedly lost ship, the USS Cygnus, hovering near a black hole. The ship is controlled by Dr. Hans Reinhardt and his monstrous robot companion, but the initial wonderment and awe the Palomino crew feel for the ship and its resistance to the power of the black hole turn to horror as they uncover Reinhardt's plans.

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mrbunghoolio
1979/12/21

Hey, never mind the bad reviews. It's a Disney sci-fi movie about spaceships, robots, laser fights and a black hole. It's meant to be entertaining and fun - it's not about physics. Plot: The crew on board the spacecraft USS Palomino - that is our friends Captain Dan Holland, First Officer Lieutenant Charlie Pizer, journalist Harry Booth, the ESP-sensitive scientist Dr. Kate McCrae, the expedition's civilian leader Dr. Alex Durant and the funny talking robot V.I.N.CENT (Vital Information Necessary Centralized - is nearing the end of a mission exploring the outer space. Then they stumble upon a ship that has been missing for 20 years, The Cygnus. The explorers go on board and discover that the entire crew of the Cygnus has disappeared, except for the brilliant but creepy scientist, Dr. Reinhardt (Maximilian Schell), whom we find out is on a mission to plunge into the black hole. The Cygnus, with long hallways and high ceilings, is designed like a mansion from the 18th century, the LV426 from Alien and Hugo Drax' secret base in the jungle from the movie Moonraker. Of course, Disney wanted this movie to be their Star Wars, which of course came out two years earlier. Well, it's not exactly that. More like "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea» - in outer space.Yup. It's cheesy and campy and silly. But I've loved it since I was a kid. And to be honest, for a Disney movie (their first pg-rated movie),it's pretty dark and claustrophobic. And the soundtrack by John Barry is a killer! And yeah, Maximillian - Dr. Reinhardt's robot - he's scary. Watch it on a rainy night with a mountain of popcorn.

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dworldeater
1979/12/22

It has been awhile since I have seen sci fi classic (since childhood) The Black Hole and I think it is a great science fiction film. The Black Hole is an unusual film and is easily the darkest and weirdest movie released by Disney. The film is, I believe one of the last films to open with an overture and has a classy score and cast. The Black Hole gets compared to Star Wars a lot (which is apt in some ways, as they both shared the same special f/x team), but in my opinion the film has more in common with Star Trek but with a darker edge. The f/x, although state of the art at the time makes the film a bit dated in some ways, but the film itself is very strong and grounded with excellent acting, dialogue and storytelling. This project has a great cast which includes Robert Foster, Anthony Perkins,Ernest Borgnine and Maximilian Schell as our main villain. Plus we have robots,(what is a sci fi adventure film without robots) that are actually cool characters like VINCENT(voice-over by Roddy McDowell) and BOB(voice-over by Slim Pickens). Plus, lets not forget about menacing robot heavy Maximilian. This was made with kids in mind, but is much more geared towards adults and as an adult, I can truthfully say The Black Hole is a great film that I enjoy immensely. Excellent old school sci fi!

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Blueghost
1979/12/23

This film, even for a science fiction film, has flaws. As I've stated on the BBS (forum) here on this website, "The Black Hole" was written by a couple of screen writers who were used to writing westerns and police dramas, and penned for us a film that is essentially a haunted house with a mad scientist in space kind of movie.That, and it is a Disney film aimed at a younger audience but with some pretty dark story elements and imagery. And it's a double edged sword, because Science Fiction is not "horror", though the two do intersect at times.The characters are right out of central casting, the special effects are what you might expect from Disney, and overall even though there's a lot of money dumped into sets, costumes and everything else, it has that "Disney feel" to it visually and stylistically.But even so there is a certain amount of intrigue here that should keep the younger viewer intrigued. The film has some interesting visual segments, but nearly derails itself with the semi- controversial "ending". Keep in mind that this film was released in 1979, which means it was conceived in the wake of Star Wars' success, and was also playing catch up with a lot of the competition that went before it. In this sense it's a bit of a kludge film that borrows from a lot of other films and tries to retrofit things to make a coherent commercial feature film. And it works after a fashion in spite of some of the audience criticisms.Over all I think it's an entertaining film if you try not to apply too many scientific conventions to it.A Disney film made in a very transitional period of Disney studios, maybe give it a shot if you're a science fiction fan.

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d-maxsted
1979/12/24

Well it seems that over the years Disney has tried to distance itself from 'The Black Hole' in fact it is still one of the few back catalog films that Disney has as yet refused to release on Bluray Format and to be honest I cant figure out their reasoning for doing so. Following the impact of Star Wars in 1977 every major movie studio jumped on the band wagon and began investing huge amounts of money into what they hoped would be a rival to Star Wars and remember in only a short period of 3 years we were given Star Trek The Motion Picture,Battlestar Galactica,Alien but to mention a few and then Disneys 'The Black Hole" As a young child I remember well the hype and promotion that went with the releasing of The Black Hole,The trailer was amazing,the advertising on T.V,the posters,Disney were really hoping to knock Sar Wars of its pedestal. Unfortunately this did not happen,mainly due to film critic's panning the movie even before it was released but Disney took us on a trip unlike anything we had ever been on before with some very mind bending suggestions,a lot of movie goers just didn't get it,the ending I mean and for that reason and word of mouth the movie became an incredible failure both at the box office and with Disneys credibility as a movie maker. Yet through it all and over the years as so many movies that failed at the box office The Black Hole has become a real classic in its own and justly so,it has everything you could want in such a movie...its got the good guys...its got the bad guys who are led by an even badder guy who just so happens to have at his side one hell of a sycopathic robot..sure Star Wars had Darth Vader but The Black Hole had Maximillion and his creator Dr Carl Rendhart played to perfection by the late great Maximillion Schell,we also got two quirky little robots,one voiced by none other than Roddy Mcdowell and finally a cast of just about who's who in Hollywood at the time. All in all The Black Hole has its flaws but its still a movie that deserves a place in the great science fiction films of the 20th Century

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