d-millhoff A clever, if implausible, premise with some trite dialog and an abundance of plot holes and goofs - not to mention numerous bad guesses on future technologies. You definitely have to suspend disbelief here, but the storytelling is good enough this isn't a huge issue.Some impressive production design and miniature effects foreshadows Gerry Anderson's later cult classic series 'Space: 1999'.Special effects hold up quite well - this movie looks better than many CGI-riddled features made decades later.And the climactic destruction of the launch complex is spectacular - miniature effects involving smoke, liquids and fire tend to suffer, it's even distractingly noticeable in Titanic, and troublesome enough that Terry Gilliam doesn't even attempt realism in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. But the explosions in this movie definitely don't look like miniatures, they're utterly convincing, comparable to footage I've seen of propane facilities and oil fields blowing up. The miniatures must have been quite large, and I can't imagine how they could have kept this under control in a closed indoor set. A jaw-dropping technical achievement.

Scott LeBrun Intriguing sci-fi entry has enough going for it, that it deserves to be better known. It stars Roy Thinnes as Colonel Glenn Ross, an astronaut selected to travel to a newly discovered planet that is on the opposite side of the sun. Accompanied by scientist Dr. John Kane (Ian Hendry), he crash lands on the new planet. Some time later, he's grilled by his associates, who believe that he didn't accomplish his mission (having arrived home too soon).However, this is only the beginning of a few twists that this nifty and entertaining movie throws at the viewer. Conceived and produced by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson of 'Thunderbirds' fame, it has a pace so slow that it's not going to be to all tastes. But patient audience members should appreciate the excellent, colourful visuals and the vibrant cinematography. The special effects are pretty good, for the most part. Barry Gray's music score is an enjoyable one.Once you realize the implications of the scenario, devised by the Andersons and Donald James, "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun" may look even better to you. It really does know how to hook you in.It benefits from excellent acting from all concerned: Thinnes as our hero, Mr. Hendry, Patrick Wymark, lovely ladies Lynn Loring and Loni von Friedl, George Sewell, Ed Bishop, and the too briefly seen Herbert Lom as a spy with cool gadgets at his disposal.Viewers are likely to remember the unexpected ending, which is violent and devastating. Certainly it's one of the darkest of endings to be found in this genre.Seven out of 10.

bean-d "Journey to the Far Side of the Sun" (1969) is a beautiful movie with impressive special-effects (given the year) and is well worth watching, although ultimately disappointing. Part of the problem lies with the script. First, the initial fifteen minutes of the film feature some impressive espionage by Herbert Lom for which he is murdered, but this vignette seems to have nothing to do with the rest of the film. Second, the main theme of the film--that a second, identical Earth has been found behind the sun in orbit directly opposite of our Earth--is never explored beyond the superficial. Apparently the only things that distinguish this second Earth are that words are backwards and our internal organs are on the opposite sides. Oooh, wow. Perhaps if the producers had not spent so much time in the filming of the space-flight special effects, they could have dedicated more time to exploring the paradoxical effects of a reverse Earth. Still, the film does have an allure; you can feel the sincerity of the filmmakers.

bmears-1 You know those films you see as a child, the ones that stick in your memory and really make an impression, the kind of movie that when you watch it again, years later, all the original thrill and magic suddenly comes rushing back to you? This movie isn't one of those.OK, that might have been a little harsh. 'Journey to the Far Side of the Sun' certainly DID make an impression on my when I first watched it as a child, on television back in the early 1970's. The idea was--and still is--intriguing: that an Earthlike world lies on the far side of the sun, traveling in the same orbit as our world, forever hidden from our sight. And the convention of this film, that this other world is the mirror-image of ours, and possesses a double for each person here, is quite a thought-provoking notion. I'm sure that this idea really captured my imagination back when I first watched 'Doppelganger' so many years ago.But the problem with this film, is that it is sooo slow and tedious; it takes soooo long for the astronauts to get to the other world; and when we do finally discover that the other Earth is a mirror-twin of our own, not very much is really done with it. Of course, that's my feeling today as an adult viewer, after many years of watching more modern science fiction films. As a boy, I suppose I was more of a blank page, and sadly, perhaps, more willing to appreciate a film purely for its intellectual virtues. I also think the detailed minutia of spaceflight depicted in the film was probably much more interesting to viewers of that time; as a modern viewer, all I could think was "Please--just get ON with the story!" All that being said, 'Doppelganger' does have some redeeming features. The basic premise of an exact mirror-image Earth is a clever one. Many of the technical details of the future society were pretty insightful--and the model miniatures were quite nicely done, given what had to be the film's limited budget. And, certainly, as another reviewer has said, the sad and downbeat ending does actually give the film an emotional jolt, and is probably the main reason it made such an impression on me as a child. The final scene, in particular, where a broken Patrick Wymark deliberately rams his wheelchair into his reflection in the mirror, still has a haunting quality to it.But when I think of 'Journey to the Far Side of the Sun', I can't help but compare it to an episode of The Twilight Zone, called "The Parallel." That episode shows us an astronaut who returns to an Earth that's slightly different than the one he left; and rather than the idea of an reversed, mirror world, uses the idea of an alternate reality where events and history are slightly different. Although it's not one of the better Twilight Zone episodes, I think, it still carries more emotional power for me than Doppelganger, because it carries less extraneous cinematic baggage. You quickly get the concept, the story, and the protagonist's situation--and that's all.So, all in all, watching 'Doppelganger' again (through Neflix) did bring back some of the same feelings of wonder it originally inspired in me as a boy, but if you're a first-time viewer, be warned that it's tone and pacing is much slower than most modern science fiction films.