The Void (2001) (V)

Director:

Gilbert M. Shilton

Writers (WGA):

Geri Cudia Barger (written by) and
Gilbert M. Shilton (written by)

Release Date:

28 November 2003 (Argentina)

Genre:

Sci-Fi | Thriller

Tagline:

It Will Swallow You Hole!

Plot Keywords:

Black Hole

Cast

Adrian Paul	...	Prof. Steven Price
Amanda Tapping	...	Prof. Eva Soderstrom
Andrew McIlroy	...	Oscar
Kirsten Robek	...	Christine Marshall
Roger R. Cross	...	Detective
Michael Rivkin	...	Dr. Jason Lazarus
French Tickner	...	Dr. Soderstrom
Malcolm McDowell	...	Dr. Thomas Abernathy
Desiree Zurowski	...	Grace
Carlton Watson	...	Phil
Apollonia Vanova	...	Tech #1
Martin Budny	...	Tech #2
Ulla Friis	...	Tech #3 (as Ulla Fris)
Frank Cipriano	...	Larry
Adam Murphy	...	Adam

MPAA:

Rated R for some sexuality.

Runtime:

Argentina:92 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Germany:12 | South Korea:18 | Spain:13 (video premiere) | UK:15 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Lions Gate Entertainment

Quotes:

Prof. Steven Price: I'm not just a pretty face, you know.
Prof. Eva Soderstrom: You are, but that's beside the point.

Movie Connections:

References The China Syndrome (1979)

Soundtrack:

Is Nothing Sacred?

(calm lady computer voice) Warning, bad movie detected. Warning, bad movie detected.

The key to a successful screenplay is creating willing suspension of disbelief. When a screenplay refers to the US Atomic Energy Commission (a government agency which was disestablished over 30 years ago when the US Department of Energy was created) as though it were still with us, that destroys willing suspension of disbelief.

So does the movie's main premise that the bad guys are making black holes by colliding protons and anti-protons at high speed "to turn energy into matter." Collide matter into antimatter and you get an annihilation reaction, and the collective mass of the matter and antimatter becomes energy (apart from the possible creation of some neutrinos, possibly some pair-production events). Just the opposite of what the movie is telling us.

This is high school physics information we're talking about here! The writers could have taken an undergraduate physics student out for pizza and gotten the true facts for the price of the meal - or just used their good friend Google.

Worse, the dialogue is predictable and the movie just creeps along in that made-for-TV-hack science fiction way. The characters are neither memorable nor very sympathetic. Malcolm McDowell, playing the bad guy-in-chief, is a BORING bad guy with none of the intensity he brought to every other film of his I've seen. Adrian Paul (of The Highlander TV series and movies, Dead Men Can't Dance, among others) is a self-parody as a physicist, complete with a suit made from car seat cover-fabric and glasses swiped from the set of Revenge of the Nerds.

Amanda Tapping (Stargate SG-1) is hemmed in by a horrible script in her role as the helpless heroine whose nuclear physicist dad dies, bringing her into danger. They went all the way back to the 1950s for that hackneyed plot device, the "murdered good scientist's vulnerable daughter who must be rescued by the male lead". And the trip wasn't worth it. They didn't even play it for laughs.

The producers did demonstrate the power of a dead script to subdue every bit of acting ability in the cast of a film. Adrian Paul has had a run of bad luck in this regard - first "Dead Men Can't Dance," then this. I hope some better scripts come his way, because he was very good in the Highlander television series.

Avoid this movie as you would a rabid dog. Walk across the street from it when you see it. Find something else to do besides watch it. It's a worthy bookend to that other Adrian Paul-starring turkey, "Dead Men Can't Dance." They need to be used to keep uneven tables from wobbling at the video store, or their DVDs recycled as targets at a skeet range - maybe used as part of a mobile in a kindergarten art class. Just don't play the things.