moshomaniac I was born in 1981, and saw the Black Hole on television as a child, and immediately fell in love with the robots, production design(especially on the Cygnus, one the of the coolest-looking ships ever), and the dazzling effects with the black hole. That being said, yes, the movie does have its flaws. It feels like a combination of the swash-buckling action of Star Wars with the cerebral qualities of Kubrick. The movie soundtrack is rather annoying, especially the main title theme. But does that make it bad? No, just misguided. The movie's plot is cliché: A mad scientist wants to pilot his ship into the black hole in search of immortality. Some of the dialogue is cringe-worthy, and the ending tries to out-weird 2001. But the movie is still an underrated film none-the-less. For 1979, the visuals are awe-inspiring, featuring more special-effect shots than Star Wars. The characters, while stock, are still likable. The opening sequence, featuring a wire-frame computer generated black hole yanking you towards the center of the whirlpool is fantastic, and the enemy robot, Maximillian, comes in second only to the Horned King as Disney's scariest and most intimidating villain. Yes, Disney made this movie. As far as Disney live action films go, this is easily one of the most watchable. The best part is that there isn't any singing tacked onto it like so many of their Disney films of the time. The Black Hole was an experiment, some would say failed, but I say that while it may not be as acclaimed as others, this film is vastly underrated and deserves a second look.

Blueghost This film, even for a science fiction film, has flaws. As I've stated on the BBS (forum) here on this website, "The Black Hole" was written by a couple of screen writers who were used to writing westerns and police dramas, and penned for us a film that is essentially a haunted house with a mad scientist in space kind of movie.That, and it is a Disney film aimed at a younger audience but with some pretty dark story elements and imagery. And it's a double edged sword, because Science Fiction is not "horror", though the two do intersect at times.The characters are right out of central casting, the special effects are what you might expect from Disney, and overall even though there's a lot of money dumped into sets, costumes and everything else, it has that "Disney feel" to it visually and stylistically.But even so there is a certain amount of intrigue here that should keep the younger viewer intrigued. The film has some interesting visual segments, but nearly derails itself with the semi- controversial "ending". Keep in mind that this film was released in 1979, which means it was conceived in the wake of Star Wars' success, and was also playing catch up with a lot of the competition that went before it. In this sense it's a bit of a kludge film that borrows from a lot of other films and tries to retrofit things to make a coherent commercial feature film. And it works after a fashion in spite of some of the audience criticisms.Over all I think it's an entertaining film if you try not to apply too many scientific conventions to it.A Disney film made in a very transitional period of Disney studios, maybe give it a shot if you're a science fiction fan.

jimbo-53-186511 The Black Hole is a film that actually has a relatively good and interesting premise and it's a shame really that this 'good' premise is very rarely taken advantage of. The idea of an eccentric, disillusioned lonely megalomaniac effectively turning his own crew into humanoid robots who obey his every command coupled with the idea of said lunatic then trapping the innocent crew members of a research ship on board his vessel has all the hallmarks of a film that could have been both insightful and thrilling, but as mentioned it rarely achieves these basic objectives...For a start, the narrative is a little threadbare and doesn't reveal much about what had happened on board Reinhardt's ship? What sent him mad? How did he create his army of robots? How did he survive there for 20 years? These are just a few things I could think of 'off the cuff', but I'm sure there are more weaknesses in the writing.Another failure with this film is in its complete failure to make the main antagonist interesting; Maximilian Schell's performance has all the trappings of a Bond villain (I couldn't help shake off the notion that I was basically watching Hugo Drax from Moonraker), but he's given no real depth meaning I ultimately didn't end up caring for him or his deluded cause. I also didn't find him a particularly menacing villain - although to his credit Schell is still the best thing about this film by a mile.The idea of a man going insane and turning his own crew into a humanoid robot crew is quite unique and interesting, but as mentioned the filmmakers only really scratch the surface here and never really develop this aspect of the story - the main focus of the story seemed to be about Reinhardt trying to enter The Black Hole which just never really held my interest to be honest.More notable problems lie with the utterly horrendous visuals; I was honestly gobsmacked how awful the whole thing looked - the whole thing looked like it was made on a budget of 75p. In fairness the poor visuals are complemented well by generally poor performances from everyone (I was especially surprised by Borgnine who is usually excellent). The robot helper Vincent (or Dusty Bin as I prefer to call him) was presumably intended as 'comic relief' but he really isn't that funny and when he meets his 'mate' on Reinhardt's ship their whole shtick can be likened to the lamest double act you're ever likely to see.The fact that this film has an intriguing premise, a creepy isolated setting and the potential for some interesting humanoid/robot insights AND yet still manages to be boring, uninteresting and not exactly enlightening is rather shocking in all honesty. With seemingly so much working for it this could and should have been so much better.

FlashCallahan For five years the crew of the Palomino has ranged through deep space, searching for evidence of alien life. With their mission almost at an end, they discover the largest black hole ever encountered. Drifting perilously near it, is the long-lost legendary starship Cygnus. It's commander who designed the Cygnus and planned its epic voyage still survives, served by a horde of mechanical slaves. But Commander Hans Reinhardt has no desire to be rescued. He has a rendezvous with the incredible forces of the titular hole, and he plans to take the Palomino crew along on his doomed adventure.The Black Hole is a film that has to be seen to be believed. Not because of its wonderful story, narrative, or characterisation, it's the blatant ripping off of Star Wars that Disney has seemingly done......and it's a wonderful disaster.If Perkins had Switched roles with Schell, then it may have been a little bit more darker than it is here, it's odd to see Perkins looking threatening even when he's a seemingly harmless Doctor, and having Schell apologise every five minutes for his red hot robot.Story wise, the film sucks, and ironically, one of the main plot holes involves that word,so go figure.But, it's a technical marvel. It's the best Bond theme Barry never did, the effects are pretty cool for the seventies, and there's always the charm of seeing weightlessness depicted with people on wires.Forster looks permanently embarrassed as the Will Robinson caricature, McDowell is okay as the below par cowboy wannabe R2-D2, and the extras as robots look like something straight out of a Kraftwerk.It's an oddity movie for sure, not very good, but certainly not boring, and it has one of the most bizarre, psychedelic last shots I've ever seen in a film.A technical achievement, purely because it's pretty dreamy to watch.