hellholehorror Apparently in the future all boardroom extras have taken up smoking and they are too cheap to turn the lights on. Oh and that we are going to mine titanium ore from one of Jupiter's moons, Io. They are crap at painting too. In the end this film was just like Alien (1979) but without the alien in it. The sci-fi had parallels with earth that did not test the mind. Pretty straight-forward and watchable space action-adventure.

dworldeater The much underrated Outland is a great sci fi thriller heavily influenced by westerns and Ridley Scott's Alien. The tone of the film is quite dark and is very realistic and gritty. Sean Connery is in top form here as leading man in pursuit of justice and he delivers one of his best performances in my opinion. The film is quite misanthropic actually. Even though humans have advanced technologically and have the means of space travel and mining colonies on Jupiter, people are still mostly rotten here. The film is a great subtext about corporate greed and capitalism and how it affects the populace at large. Even though this is in a futuristic sci fi setting, the message is still relevant in contemporary times. Jerry Goldsmith did the score and has a similar ambiance as Alien.(Jerry Goldsmith previously did the score on Alien as well) The special f/x are decent and the storytelling, performances and direction are excellent. Writer/director Peter Hyams made an excellent science fiction film, bravo!

Predrag I think, the movie scores by being gritty, tense, slow and almost "awkward". Connery portrays a man on the edge of retirement, lacking confidence, feeling like a loser. His performance is dead-on. All these together give it a feel of realism, by seeming like such a story as we might observe unfolding in our own time and place.There are some logistical gaps in Hyams' screenplay, and a fair amount of the dialogue is leaden, but Connery is both believable and sympathetic here, giving a finely tuned performance that encompasses the marshal's steadfast pursuit of justice as well as empathic scenes involving his wife and son, the former deciding that Io is no place to raise a kid early on. The pacing is set for suspense and the story keeps you interested. But the things that stick and make this worth checking out are the sets and special effects. "Outland" may not be a classic film but it's still entertaining and compelling.Overall rating: 7 out of 10.

Theo Robertson In the recognisable future mankind is colonising the Solar System . One of the moons of Jupiter is being mined for titanium . A series of accidental deaths leads law marshal William O'Neill to investigate these deaths . He finds that the deaths were caused by a psychotic reaction to a drug being used by the men , that this drug is being smuggled on to the colony and that the smugglers want him out of the way and no one is going to help him OUTLAND is the film that is forever known as being a HIGH NOON remake set in space which is somewhat disingenuous . It does mirror some of the plot turns of that Western where a man trying to enforce the law finds himself alone . Carl Foreman's Western screenplay has a rather explicit subtext that talks about Hollywood in the 1950s where by people found themselves abandoned by erstwhile friends because they might have had left leaning sympathies and didn't want to be accused by association .It was undoubtedly Hollywood's most shameful period but OUTLAND doesn't feel it's trying to ape that film and if there's a subtext to this film it's that drugs are bad On its own terms there's a lot to admire about OUTLAND . Connery gives one of his better and more commercial performances as tough and noble marshal O'Neill , a tough guy but at heart a family man whose wife and son feel the stress of the job . The film also benefits from some great set design which is both very convincing and functional without appearing too futuristic . You can honestly believe this is a colony on a satellite of Jupiter where titanium ore is being mined What the story differs suffer from slightly is that there are a couple of scenes where O'Neill knows who the bad guy is and the bad guy talks about his plan over video screens . Are we to take it that in this future world video monitors don't have recording facilities ? Likewise tough hit men referred to as " the best in the business " just happen to pull out and assemble guns in front of a video monitor which is very convenient for the plot . One also has to ask don't shuttle passengers get their baggage searched ?Regardless of a few flaws OUTLAND is a gritty and entertaining science fiction space Western that stands on its own hind-legs which unfortunately gets compared to HIGH NOON a little bit too much for its own good