So Black Hole is officially being remade by Disney?
- Thread starter RAMA
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I think there's a lot to admire about the original film. Its visual effects still hold up very well today. Its designs are gorgeous and its ships have a good sense of realism to them. Its simulation of weightlessness in the early scenes is pretty good, better than most movies bother to attempt. Its science is actually relatively well-researched by movie standards, and it deserves credit for broadening the public's awareness of black holes. And how can you not love a robot with the voice of Roddy McDowall?
I was around 5 when The Black Hole came out. I lived near a movie theater and my school had given each kid 20 free movie tickets because we had won some kind of inter-school thing. I saw The Black Hole 10 times. 
I think Maximilian was one of the most awesome "evil robots" ever realized, and I even liked V.I.N.CENT and B.O.B.
I think Maximilian was one of the most awesome "evil robots" ever realized, and I even liked V.I.N.CENT and B.O.B.
Actually there's nothing there I'd really disagree with. Though I think the ending's marginally salvageable if you dismiss the whole "hell" thing as symbolic or hallucinatory.
Agreed on the FX and the production design overall. That, in my mind was not a problem...and yeah...McDowall was good in just about everything. I've always been a McDowall fan.
I just felt like the movie screamed "Disney" just a little too much for my taste -- and at the time, they were trying to break out of that perception.
I LOVE the ending because I do take it as a much more symbolic experience than a "realistic" portrayal. It gives it an emotional resonance than a visual portrayal of what would happen realistically.
It gives the movie something different for an ending than most sci-fi/space fantasy films.
Another fan of the original here, and I've actually wanted to see a big budget remake for years now. The ending has never bothered me, because it's one of those things that if you try to explain it scientifically you're just going to shoot yourself in the foot.
I wonder if they'd do toys for it this time around. I had some of them from back in the day, I think I even had an activity book with punch out ships and such like a spiral cut black hole you could hang from a string.
And I love the score.
I wonder if they'd do toys for it this time around. I had some of them from back in the day, I think I even had an activity book with punch out ships and such like a spiral cut black hole you could hang from a string.
And I love the score.
Grrrr fucking cunty bollock motherfuckers.
Writing a remake of that movie was *my* fucking ambition.
Cunts.
Still, at least there's still At The Earths Core and Horror Express...
Writing a remake of that movie was *my* fucking ambition.
Cunts.
Still, at least there's still At The Earths Core and Horror Express...
For some reason it was very easy. What's next for Disney, a remake of Snowball Express or The Computer Who Wore Tennis Shoes?
I remember absolutely loving the movie as a kid but when I tried watching it a few years ago, I couldn't even finish watching it. It was an excruciating experience. Not entirely sure what happened -- I suppose it could be chalked up to a case of mismanaged expectations -- but even so, it still isn't an especially solid film (even if certain VFX shots hold up or the science is relatively sound).
It's interesting to note that a Disney kids' movie had a cast made up mainly of 40+year olds. And a cast that included Ernest Borgnine, Anthony Perkins, Maximillian Schmell and the voice of Roddy McDowall. Apart from the cutesy wannabe 3PO & R2 robots, there's very little pandering to kids in it. Even the other robots are some sort of zombies and then there's that daring ending. Can't see that going into a modern movie.
Despite that, the great (for its day) SFX, lovely designs (the ship especially) and a score by John Barry, the original is less than the sum of its parts. Great ideas in it, to be sure, but not too well realised. I think it's a good movie to remake, insofar as you take the Steven Soderbergh and Ocean's 11 approach - don't remake a classic, remake a movie that can be improved on. If they did this as an adult-orientated movie, in the vein of Sunshine, it could be really interesting.
Despite that, the great (for its day) SFX, lovely designs (the ship especially) and a score by John Barry, the original is less than the sum of its parts. Great ideas in it, to be sure, but not too well realised. I think it's a good movie to remake, insofar as you take the Steven Soderbergh and Ocean's 11 approach - don't remake a classic, remake a movie that can be improved on. If they did this as an adult-orientated movie, in the vein of Sunshine, it could be really interesting.
It wasn't a kids' movie. It was Disney's first attempt to branch out into more adult fare -- the sort of thing that they eventually created the Touchstone Films label for. Quite a big deal was made at the time of how this was Disney's first PG-rated film, complete with violence and cuss words and scary stuff. (PG was a bigger deal back then in the days before PG-13 ratings existed and G ratings acquired a box-office-death stigma. These days, even a lot of kids' movies get one or two cuss words slipped in to get a PG, and the more intense films get PG-13, so we aren't surprised to see a PG rating on a kids' film. But in 1979, "Parental Guidance Suggested" actually meant something.)
^^
I was wondering it is viewed as a kid's movie myself....
You usually don't have a robot(Maximillian) drilling into someone (Anthony Perkins' character) in a kids movie...
On that same note, I always wonder when people call 'The Incredibles' a kids movie, when there are so many things that were 'adult' in that film....a reason, I like it so much.
I was wondering it is viewed as a kid's movie myself....
You usually don't have a robot(Maximillian) drilling into someone (Anthony Perkins' character) in a kids movie...
On that same note, I always wonder when people call 'The Incredibles' a kids movie, when there are so many things that were 'adult' in that film....a reason, I like it so much.
I hope they keep the 'hell' scene. How many other films have you seen where you actually get to see the bad guy get what's coming to him at the end?
On that same note, I always wonder when people call 'The Incredibles' a kids movie, when there are so many things that were 'adult' in that film....a reason, I like it so much.
Well, the best kids' stories don't talk down to kids. But I think Pixar's movies tend to be family films in the truest sense of the word -- not just kiddie pictures that adults have to sit through, but films that have appeal to family members of all ages.
