Event Horizon (1997) Rated R Starring: Laurence Fishburne, Sam Neill, and Kathleen Quinlan Rating: out of

The year is 2047 and the crew of the Lewis & Clark, a rescue spaceship, embark on a mission to retrieve Event Horizon, the first ship capable of faster-than-light travel. The Event Horizon disappeared seven years earlier, but has reappeared, broadcasting a faint distress signal. Dr. Weir (Sam Neill) goes along with the crew because of his extensive knowledge of the Event Horizon and its gravity drive. You see, he's the man who built it and he really wants to know where it went for seven years.

When the Lewis & Clark arrives at the Event Horizon, they find evidence of strange life-forms all over the ship. Of course, they have to board the ship to investigate, even though they know that these life forms are not human. As they explore, the crew of the Lewis & Clark begin to have hallucinations of their deepest fears. From then on, the film degrades into an Aliens-meets-Hellraiser gross-fest.

Event Horizon had the potential to be extremely frightening and entertaining. Unfortunately, the relatively strong cast is pretty much wasted with dumb dialogue and stupid decision making. Laurence Fishburne makes a good commanding officer, but his character isn't much different from countless other starship commanding hardasses we've seen in other science fiction movies. Sam Neill is his usual smirky self, with little emotion. Even when he hallucinates and sees his dead wife, who he supposedly misses very much, we don't feel anything for him.

Add to the mix some spotty special effects -- good in some scenes and horrid in others -- and the director's strange affinity for spinning the camera's view in nearly every space scene, and you have what I call a mess of a film.

Trivia: Paul Anderson, the director, also wrote the screenplay for 1994's Shopping. (Source: The Internet Movie Database)