Outland

Trailer—Outland

I first watched this movie not expecting much as i had never really heard much about it and it didn't seem to be particularly acclaimed, but I was pleasantly surprised by it, Connery's performance is solid and the rest of the cast do a good job, there are some exciting scenes in this movie and the settings (outer space,mining colony) are convincing enough to keep you emersed in the story, the story is like a western in space, (which is about all I heard of this before I saw it),though its not particularly original and doesn't try to be spectacular, it is an entertaining way to spend a couple of hours and good fun for Connery fans to see him kicking arse back in the days.

The movie is amazingly realistic in regard to the technology used and in regard to the human characters. I totally agree with OP Voutilainen, who wrote a very good comment on this movie on 24 October 2001. The movie is never superficial if you look at its characters: The bad are not simply bad but realistically brutal. The good are not simply heroic, they rather strive to survive and struggle to keep what's left of their personal dignity and values after the school of life. People of the future will possibly wonder why anyone ever liked such a "normal life"-movie. The answer is: Simply because of the everyday life dignity that people emanate in the movie. Really a great positive movie !

Marshal W.T. O'Niel (Sean Connery) is newly assigned to a mining colony on Jupiter's moon Io. His wife isn't happy and leaves with their son to Earth. Sgt. Montone (James Sikking) is his second in command. Mark Sheppard (Peter Boyle) is the head of the operation who wants him to let the men operate smoothly without interference. However miners are acting weird and getting killed. Dr. Lazarus (Frances Sternhagen) discovers that the last dead miner has taken an amphetamine drug which lets people work day and night until they have a psychotic breakdown. Sheppard provides the drugs with Montone looking the other way. I like the design of the camp which reminds me of 'Alien'. I like the gritty underbelly feel of this realistic future world. It moves a bit slow at times which is its biggest problem. This is a sci-fi western compared most notably to 'High Noon'. This keeps getting compared to other movies but always comes up a little shorter. It's still a good movie.

Sean Connery. A man's man, a woman's sex symbol. Good start! Now let's put him on a remote moon of Jupiter. So how many other films have Io as their center of action? Absolutely excellent in combining the effects that were available at the time with a darn good plot. Well overshadowed by the likes of Alien, this is late 70's/ early 80's sci-fi at it's best. No more is the future in space a Utopia, it is a grimy, nasty everyday world where people carry on their sordid business as they ever did. Except there is always a hero; a flawed hero, as is Connery. A personal crusade, a battle almost against the odds (but not unbelievably so, at all) and the true hallmark of a good sci-fi story: That is, the story would work just as well anywhere, any place, any time, as it does in space in the future. What more do you want (Just check out the shuttle landing)? Essential viewing!