CAPRICORN ONE

Sam Waterston, O. J. Simpson, James Brolin

CAPRICORN ONE (1978). Director: Peter Hyams.

Astronauts Brubaker (James Brolin), Willis (Sam Waterston) and Walker (O. J. Simpson) are about to go off on a flight to Mars when they are told by Dr. James Kelloway (Hal Holbrook) that the mission is scrubbed because of a faulty life support system. Kelloway is afraid the space program will lose its funding. so he and his associates decide to film the astronauts on a sound stage and make the world believe they have actually landed on Mars. Brubaker and the others are appalled by what they've participated in, but they really get worried when it is announced that the three "died" during re-entry. Then the chase is on ... Capricorn One has an utterly absurd premise (inspired by the notion that the Moon landing was staged), but it holds the attention and has a terrific, suspenseful climax where a suspicious reporter (Elliot Gould) tries to save Brubaker, and an old-fashioned bi-plane is engaged in a dogfight with two sinister helicopters. As for the acting, Holbrook walks off with the movie, particularly in a long monologue when he tells the three men what's happened and the reason for the hoax they're about to perpetrate. The three lead actors are okay but give perfunctory performances (considering what has happened to them), even Waterston, although he has some good moments out in the desert. Brenda Vaccaro as Brubaker's wife plays the role of "widow" a little too jovially. The script lacks depth but that may be because no one had any real faith in the premise.

Verdict: If you ignore the sheer preposterousness of the premise, the movie is fun. ***.

A SOUND OF THUNDER

T-Rex and time travelers

A SOUND OF THUNDER (2005). Director: Peter Hyams. Loosely based on a short story by Ray Bradbury.

In  the future Travis Ryer (Edward Burns) works for an outfit that sends wealthy clients back in time to hunt dinosaurs, the animals' slayings timed to occur just before they would have died anyway. This is done to prevent anything screwing with the time stream and affecting the future. Travis meets a lady scientist, Sonia Rand (Catherine McCormack), who claims she not only helped create the time machine and was shut out of enjoying its success, but that Ryer and his associates are endangering the world with their time jumps, on one of which something comes back from the past. This happens because boss Charles Hatton (Sir Ben Kingsley) wants to save money by turning off the energy-using screen that would prevent this. Because of this anomaly, the world is affected by time waves that create new "prehistoric" animals and even begin affecting the human race itself. Can Travis and Sonia manage to set things right in a world beset with dangerous monsters, hysterical humans, and weird sweeping changes to the landscape and everyone else at all the wrong moments ...? A Sound of Thunder has a great idea and is entertaining for the most part, and some scenes are rather well-done (a struggle with a hungry underwater creature, for instance) but there's just something off about the movie. By no means as bad as, say, a Syfy Channel Original, there's still something second-rate about the entire enterprise. Edward Burns, who often makes and stars in smaller personal films, seems uncomfortable in the role of action hero, although Kingsley is more on the mark as slimy Hatton [although you still have to wonder what he's doing in this movie]. McCormack and the other cast members are all professional and then some. The effects are uneven, although there are a host of good-looking futuristic baboon-dinosaurs, and most of the other monsters are at least well-designed. Ultimately the movie isn't terrible, just unconvincing. Hyams has directed better movies, such as Outland and Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, and Kingsley has appeared in worse movies, such as Thunderbirds.

Verdict: Interesting disappointment. **1/2.

BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT (2009)

Michael Douglas confronts Jesse Metcalf

BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT (2009). Writer/Director: Peter Hyams. From the 1956 screenplay by Douglas Morrow.

C. J. Nicholas (Jesse Metcalfe) is a young, ambitious reporter who thinks he's got a great story: he's convinced that district attorney Mark Hunter (Michael Douglas) has won a long string of cases because he and a cop confederate are manufacturing last minute evidence and convicting defendants regardless of guilt or innocence. C. J. gets help from Ella (Amber Tamblyn), an associate of Hunter's, and from buddy Corey (Joel David Moore), who plays a particularly important part in his scheme. C. J. arranges to get himself arrested for a murder he didn't commit, figures that Hunter will do his usual trick with fake evidence, and at the last minute Corey will rush in with proof that said evidence was manufactured. Obviously, things don't work out the way C.J. intended. This is a highly interesting and adept updating of the 1956 Fritz Lang movie of the same name. While Metcalfe may need a little more seasoning before he can carry a whole picture [Douglas is excellent but has only a supporting role], he has his moments, the other actors are fine, and the movie has some clever and ingenious twists and turns.

Verdict: A rare case of a remake being perhaps slightly -- and arguably -- better than the original. ***1/2.

OUTLAND

Frances Sternhagen

OUTLAND (1981). Writer/Director: Peter Hyams.

In the future, a mining colony has been established on Io, the third moon of Jupiter. The new Marshall, William O'Neil (Sean Connery), investigates when there is an increase in grisly suicides, and discovers something rotten in the state of Io: illegal drugs are being offered to workers to increase their productivity but it eventually makes them psychotic. When Sheppard (Peter Boyle), the head of the operation, realizes that O'Neil is out to shut him down, he enlists the aid of two hit men to come to Io and finish off the Marshall, who can expect no help from anyone, including his men. The only exception is the feisty Dr. Lazarus (Frances Sternhagen). This is basically High Noon in outer space. Connery is okay although it might be said that he's just going through the motions, betraying no sense of moral outrage over what's happening to the miners. Sternhagen is simply terrific. The special effects are solid and still hold up thirty years later. Fine score by Jerry Goldsmith.

Verdict: Not exactly original but an interesting variation on a theme. ***.