Customer Reviews

The Black Hole

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

(Not to be confused with the 1979 sci-fi film of the same title starring Maximilian Schell, Anthony Perkins and Robert Forster. But probably you won't.)

Because of the messy experiences of quantum or something, by the scientists in St. Louis, a huge black hole opens up in the middle of the facility, and is about to swallow the city itself. If you find the premise unconvincing, there's more to come, for Kristy Swanson, who did a good job elsewhere but is miscast here, appears as Dr. Shannon Muir who is responsible for the terrible job. Or maybe not. I am not sure for the film does not explain much about the experiments, but that did not particularly bother me because what really matters in this kind of film is thrill and suspense, or any entertainment value, something "The Black Hole" desperately needs.

Anyway, another scientist played by Judd Nelson is called in, who was kicked out of the research team for the reasons that are not important. What is important is how to contain this disaster within the walls, and at least Swanson and Nelson know as much as that, but sadly not the filmmakers, who have no story to tell after the initial 20 minutes except the `general' who insists on using nuclear bombs, and some not-so-exciting episodes about a strange thing, or "electric entity,' that might be related to the hole.

What is really disappointing about the film is the lack of pace and logics. I can ignore plot holes if the story goes forward and tells something new every ten minute. It doesn't happen in `The Black Hole," where things happen slowly and in a bland way, and the two main characters have little to do. The characters scarcely seem to feel danger before this global disaster, so how can we? To make matters worse, the film doesn't show the titular "black hole" much. Actually you have to see things that are not directly related to the hole itself such as episodes about a divorced wife and her daughter. And though effects are OK, disaster scenes are not so memorable because they happen so sporadically.

I like so-called disaster films and loved to see many of them made in the 70s. Those films may not be the most scientifically correct ones, but they are fun to watch, even today, with a series of thrilling set-pieces. I tried to like this film, I really did, but still I must say "The Black Hole" needs a much better story, logics, effects, acting or everything that makes more decent actions.

The two best things I can say about this movie are 1) it is very short, and 2) I rented it so can return it asap. I don't watch movies like this for the plot (good thing!) or the cast, but for the special effects. Which in this case means a whole lot of camera shaking. It makes no sense, there are way too many holes in it, and what in the world is up with Judd Nelson's hair?

The Black Hole is now in the Top Ten worst movies I have ever seen. It stunk in every way.

The acting was horrendous. The plot laughable. The pacing was a joke as well. The story jumped right into the action without any establishment of the characters at all.

Let's not even get started on the debate that Judd Nelson could possibly be the worst actor in the history of film. I know there have been worse performances, but on the average Judd has been consistently horrible for 20+ years.

This stinker was highly rated when it was on TV's the sci-fi channel. Poor people must have run like mad after 30 minutes. Do the same. Avoid this stinker at all costs.

Total Score (out of 100) = 0

0 (out of 50). Enjoyment. A rating based on my overall enjoyment of the film.
0 (out of 10). Acting. How good was the acting?
0 (out of 10). Immersion. Did the movie suck me into the story?
0 (out of 10). Intangibles. Special effects. Movie pace. Is the movie forgettable, or something you will talk about and remember for weeks? Years?
0 (out of 10). Must see. Is this movie worth seeing/renting?
0 (out of 10). Must buy. Is this movie a must buy/purchase?

"The Black Hole" is about the worst action movie you can possibly
imagine. Scientific experiment in high energy physics goes wrong
and black hole is created inside the particle accelerator. Soon
it becomes obvious there is intergalactic monster (yes - you read
it correctly) involved - it somehow uses black holes to travel
across the Universe. At this point Department of Homeland Security
and US military jump in and their contingency plan is to go
"nucular on that thing". Over wild objections of cartoonish looking
scientists (wild hair nerds with scared look and glasses) who argue
that bomb will "break one big black hole into many small ones".
The rest is just loads of bad dialouge, horrible acting and cheesy
computer generated effects. This movie should come with a warning
label "Viewership restricted to 10 yo and und under".
On a positive side - it is heartwarming to know that there are
some dedicated mad scientists out there who will risk their lives
to prevent the President and Department of Homeland Security from
nuking us all when fighting intergalactic monsters.
OK - you have been WARNED.

If you're really a sci-fic fan, then this is really a pretty good "B" movie. Of course it's not an Alien or Star Trek. I liked it, and I'm not a rainy day sci-fic fan, either.

Hard to believe Hollywood wasted money to make this silly movie. It's not even sure what it wants to be , a disaster movie , an Alien movie ,or Mad Scientist movie. As a result it becomes none of the above and settles for being a mess. Waste of time.

This is another one of those scientifically inaccurate/implausible movies that tries to be soundly scientific but eventually caves in on its own silliness.
Somehow, a black hole has shown up in the middle of St. Louis, and some kind of electrically charged entity hitchhiked a ride and is now threatening to decimate the city, and possibly the world.
The movie's pretty lame in all categories with cheesy special effects and bad performances from Kristy Swanson, Judd Nelson and David Selby. It makes little if any sense and its resolution predictably unimpressive.

Truely amazing. A movie about a black hole that totally ignores the concept of gravity!

The setting of this film is St. Louis, Missouri, but betrays a total lack of understanding of how things get done here. First, hire an out-of-state consulting firm to study the problem. Then pay the company hundreds of thousands of dollars for the report. Finally, ignore the results. If a black hole ever really emerges on our city, maybe we can fill it with all the paperwork we generate to supposedly fix the region.

I have bought a number of copies of this movie, all sent to former Saint Louisans in other cities, with the caveat that it is the worst movie they will watch to the end. If you have ever lived in Saint Louis - ENJOY - fun to identify the sites. Truly, it's not one of those good bad movies. I've only watched it five times (no kidding, hey, I know a lot of people that know StL). It's all about the audience.