Jellyfish, jellyfish and more jellyfish (but no giant squid!).
After wrapping up January with a revisit of M. Night Shyamalan’s career resuscitator Split (listen) and getting locked in a movie theater with the cast of Popcorn (listen), we’re kicking off February with a look at one of the lesser-loved Michael Crichton film adaptations in Barry Levinson‘s dull mess Sphere (1998)
In Sphere, psychologist Norman Goodman (Dustin Hoffman) is contacted by the U.S. government following the discovery of a spacecraft of seemingly alien origin that has been sitting at the bottom of the ocean for 300 years. Using a report that Norman half-assed during the Bush administration, the government brings in marine biologist Beth Halperin (Sharon Stone), mathematician Harry Adams (Samuel L. Jackson) and astrophysicist Ted Fielding (Liev Schreiber) to join Norman’s team.
Upon entering the ship, they discover a giant, golden sphere that causes unexplainable things to happen on the ocean floor, leading the crew on a fight for survival as more and more of them begin to die.
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Episode 372: Sphere (1998)
Watch out for those jellyfish and be nice to Jerry the alien, because we’re talking Barry Levinson’s misguided 1998 adaptation of Michael Crichton’s novel Sphere!
Join us as we try to figure out just what went wrong with this thing. From the lackluster direction to the hectic editing to the uneven performances (Sharon Stone innocent), it’s hard to find one single reason for Sphere‘s badness. Hell, we can’t even determine when we turn on the film, as the first chunk of it is pretty damn engaging!
Plus: criticisms of the film’s overuse of title cards (seriously, why?!), comparisons to Annihilation, and wondering why we never see the giant squid.
Cross out Sphere!
Coming Up Next: We’re going a bit further back in the ’90s to look at the little-seen straight-to-VHS Drew Barrymore chiller Doppelganger (1993)!
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