Review: Sphere

Thanks to the cast and occasionally great one liners worthy of a screwball comedy, time has been kind to Sphere.

It's mostly a three hander between Hoffman, Stone and Jackson - and their exchanges make it worth the entrance fee (in this case, about 25p from a charity shop).  In a near breach of the fourth wall, one of them even asks what the another member of the party is doing there.

Sure, it's not terribly original (cf The Forbidden Planet and every base under siege story in Doctor Who) and it doesn't feature groundbreaking special effects - the only OK CGI sphere seems to have absorbed most of the budget, but the film has a certain something.

Harry: Are you a religious man, Norman?
Norman: Atheist, but I'm flexible. 

The claustrophobic nature of the realistic looking undersea environment and largely implied violence winds up the tension to the max. There are some genuinely chilling moments. For example, Hoffman's response to the discovery that the entity is happy, sent a real shiver down my spine.

Verdict: Not quite aged like a fine wine, but more like the unexpected discovery of a slightly out of date chocolate bar at the back of a food cupboard.