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Information
- Year
- 1979
- Runtime
- 98 min.
- Director
- Gary Nelson
- Genres
- Action, Adventure, Family
- Rating *
- 5.9
- Votes *
- 16,372
- Checks
- 1,124
- Favs
- 31
- Dislikes
- 43
- Favs/checks
- 2.8% (1:36)
- Favs/dislikes
- 1:1
Top comments
-
dpanter
Great classic.
A dark tale about man's endless pursuit of knowledge, offset by the Disney formula of adventure and an adorable comic sidekick who saves the day, all overshadowed by the savage brutality of a genius scientist turned into a brooding genocidal lunatic.
The corny 70's pop-science combined with Disney's happy-go-lucky attitude yields a very eerie result. They hadn't quite perfected the commercial formula that we expect from Disney today.
This one is not for younger children, despite V.I.N.C.E.N.T.'s cute appearance and the adventure setting.
Highly recommended. 10 years 4 months ago -
Siskoid
If it weren't for the casting and a few (and only a few) of the effects, I would believe it if you told me The Black Hole was a contemporary of Forbidden Planet. Its plot is right out of 50s sci-fi, and so it its dialog, glacial pacing, and design aesthetic. If it really WERE from the 50s or 60s, I would consider it a charming movie and a technical marvel. In 1979, it's dated right out of the box, even compared to the era's genre television like Battlestar Galactica. Disney really learned the wrong lessons from Star Wars, which took its cues from older cinema, but was still a thoroughly modern-looking film. You do feel the Disneyness of it, what with the Captain Nemo villain, and the overly cutesy robots. I'm not really down on V.I.N.C.E.N.T. and B.O.B., mind you, as they're just about the only engaging characters in the story. (Psst, by the way, if emotions in robots is going to be a crucial clue to what's going on, don't give your main robots emotions!) Things get better in the action-packed third act, I admit, though it all kind of ends on a "see you in the sequel" beat, and as we know, that would never come. Perhaps the 2001-ish epilogue should have been the third act. 5 years 5 months ago -
Zeltaebar
There is an odd mix of bleakness and cuteness to this movie. The plot goes very dark places, especially towards the end with a brutal death scene, a morbid explanation to the previous crew's faith and some imagery which clearly alludes to hell, but at the same time you have cute robots with eyes that move and with something almost like a soul where they are clearly shown to have feelings like pride, sorrow and fear. The whole robot-part of this movie is terribly dated and laughably silly by todays standards, while the acting and story-telling are all under par. The musical score and visual effects are, if not exactly good, at least interesting enough to provide the movie with some form of value. The Black Hole did not bore me, but neither did it pick my interest. 9 years 1 month ago