Escape Velocity (1999)

On a distant planet a psychopath is saved from execution by a space monk. He releases a few fellow inmates and breaks out of the prison in a spaceship. They dock onto a ludicrously enormous spacecraft that is orbiting a supernova star. This massive craft is populated by only three people, presumably because the budget of the film did not extend to hiring many actors. Anyway, to cut a long story short, the three goodies end up in a game of cat and mouse with the baddies.The psychopath in this movie is curious in that he is annoying. 'Annoying' is generally not a term one would use to describe a lunatic - unhinged, frightening, dangerous maybe but not 'annoying' but he is. The three people manning the giant ship are seriously unconvincing as warranting such important roles - this ship is practically the size of a city! Considering that the film is set approximately 50 years in the future, it is somewhat optimistic that such a huge man-made craft could exist, never mind the fact that it is used for such a relatively mundane task. Despite the vast size of the spaceship, the crew all have appallingly kitted out, tiny rooms and the dining room consists of what appears to be a plastic table and chairs. But there are a lot of corridors.The film is fairly well acted and it works as an averagey sci-fi thriller. But nothing great.

Ok...watch this movie and just have fun! There are a lot of things that the audience could pick apart - like the ridiculously long space ship, or the countless meaningless shots of empty corridors, or the sometimes 'campy' dialog. AND...I can't leave out the irritating character of the daughter, Ronnie. She whines and whines and ...ok, you get the picture. BUT...Wendy Crewson is great! It is such fun to see her as the tough gal with a gun! It proves again, that this fabulous actress can turn just about any role into a gem. She is gutsy and sexy, and even manages to be convincingly maternal with her whiney daughter. That alone should have guaranteed her an academy award nod! Don't expect "Aliens"...just expect an evening of entertainment. This little film can deliver that.

Don't let the fact that this is set in a space station orbiting a star about to go nova fool you. This is a low tech story. Their ship is huge, but for no apparent purpose other than to provide a lot of corridors in which to play cat and mouse. The conflicts are solved with 1980's vintage firearms and in some cases a knife.This movie bounces between some great parts and many that make absolutely no sense whatsover. I like the characters; the actors are excellent at making them work. But what kind of mom thinks its the right thing to do for a 16 year old daughter to get over her fathers death is to spend nearly two years in an isolated space station? No contact with anyone but her mom and stepdad-to-be. By the time a guy shows up the poor kid is so horny that she damn near mounts him even before he comes out of cryo-stasis! (This happens on her 18th birthday, which mom forgot about.)The inevitable fight sequences is where the movie works best. Enjoy it for that and forget the rest.

A pretty average scifi film. The plot was more or less obvious from the start. Although the acting was reasonably good, the writing seemed very cliched, using ideas taken from numerous films.The basic plot: Scientists working on a deep space research platform rescue a fighter from crashing into the red dwarf that they have been orbitting. Onboard they find a stasis pod, which coincidently malfunctions at that very moment. After 2 or 3 minutes of the man in the pod waking up, you realise that he is a complete lunatic. Something which totally escapes the 3 person crew of the research ship...After that it becomes a rip off every other film involving a psychotic madman terrorising innocent victims, overall I think Speed 2 was a better exploration of the subject matter, which I didn't consider to be a good film either.Not a good film, get Aliens out and watch that again.