Sphere Reviews
February 14, 2001
As the umpteenth entrant in the We-Are-Not-Alone sweepstakes, Sphere feels awfully familiar because it is.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
January 1, 2001
I found the film interesting and somewhat engrossing, but the characters weren't developed enough to make it a better than average film.
Full Review
| Original Score: 6/10
January 1, 2000
This journey is a road to nowhere.
January 1, 2000
Original Score: 6/10
January 1, 2000
Cool premise and eerie buildup from the first hour, ultimately downshifts into an unsatisfying film that drags long past its bedtime, and turns into a gobbledygook of psychological head games and illusions.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/10
January 1, 2000
Decent performances and an abundance of good ideas and effects but there is definitely a lack of pace to the dramatic tension and you may find yourself just not caring.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
January 1, 2000
Most science fiction spectaculars these days have second-tier actors and first-tier special effects. Levinson tries second-tier effects, and first-tier actors, but never makes that exchange pay off for the viewer.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/10
January 1, 2000
Sphere tries hard to be an intelligent genre piece, but a weak and convoluted storyline only leads to a disappointing experience.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1.5/4
January 1, 2000
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
January 1, 2000
Despite being blue bloods of filmmaking, Levinson and his stars are relative novices in the special-effects world of science fiction.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/10
January 1, 2000
Original Score: 2/4
January 1, 2000
Basically, what Sphere delivers is a mediocre Outer Limits TV script resting atop a massive, needlessly complex superstructure of overplotting, high-dollar f/x and banal head games.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
January 1, 2000
Original Score: 2/4
January 1, 2000
Director Barry Levinson still has his strong visual sense -- both the infinite water and ultimate confinement are effectively creepy -- but the story starts dragging about halfway through.
January 1, 2000
The sphere is luminous and hauntingly beautiful on the surface, with its interior kept alluringly, frustratingly unclear -- much like the superficially diverting but ultimately disappointing film itself.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
January 1, 2000
Sphere is a high concept, overly calculated, expensive, long, badly written, and terribly concluded waste of time.
Full Review
| Original Score: 62/100
January 1, 2000
Sphere winds up just a load of balls.
January 1, 2000
Sphere starts off as The Abyss, then turns into Event Horizon and finally turns out to be Forbidden Planet and Solaris.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
January 1, 2000
There are some things that humankind is just better off not knowing about.
January 1, 2000
While this is no quick-witted treat on a par with Mr. Levinson's Wag the Dog, it's a solid thriller with showy scientific overtones.
Original Score: 3/5