Sam Panico The Black Hole is more than just the first Disney movie to be rated PG and to feature swearing (as well as one of the most expensive they'd produced at that point). It's also a dark film, one closer to Event Horizon than Escape from Witch Mountain.For years, I believed that The Black Hole was a slow-moving effort, much like Star Trek: The Motion Picture. But after watching it again, I was taken with how quickly it moves and how gorgeous the visuals are, thanks to solid direction by Gary Nelson(who also was in the chair for the original Freaky Friday). The film is big and brash and bold, the way only late 70's movies can be - the movie starts with an overture, one of the last films to do so! It certainly is no ripoff of Star Wars, but obviously got made because of that films success.

mrbunghoolio 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.

martin-fennell The movie only really picks up in the second half, when it is highly exciting. The almost non existent acting, except for Schell is compensated for by the splendid visuals and set design. The robots are the best thing in the film. But the lasst ten minutes when it tries to do a 2001 is a big disappointment. So if you like space movies, you might like this.

rudge49 ..and 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea for special effects, cinematography, story, acting, dialog. Like those two it is an adventure movie, people who find themselves swept into something beyond their comprehension and like nothing they expected. Like the first two movies its ending is somewhat ambiguous, I still haven't figured out the end to 2001 and 20,000 Leagues ends with Vulcania going up in a mushroom shaped cloud and our heroes in a small boat in the vastness of the Pacific. IMHO the special effects hold up, I note the movie has a film noir feel to it, the blackness of space means so much of the action takes place in darkness or shadows and has a claustrophobic feel to it. Reinhardt is Captain Nemo in space-the two actors even resemble each other. Brilliant gifted men who have gone over the edge, think the rules of human conduct no longer apply to them, and have their obsession. Nemo had "that hated nation", Reinhardt the Black Hole, Nemo has his henchman the Mate, Reinhardt Maxximilian. And like Morbius in Forbidden Planet they have lived away from society so long that while they can still follow the form of civility you get the feeling they deeply resent intrusions into their private realms. The movies contains some of my favorite lines. When Harry Booth (Ernest Borgnine) is asked "Didn't you meet Dr. Reinhardt he replies "Collided with him is more like it !" And when Booth meets Reinhardt on the Cyngus, far from being awed by him he notes how Reinhardt conned the space agency into spending vast sums on what seemed to be a fiasco and a boondoggle.