member of the online critic's association at : <a href= " http : //www . geocities . com/hollywood/studio/5713/index . html " >http : //www . geocities . com/hollywood/studio/5713/index . html</a> it looks more and more like hollywood is running out of ideas . remember a little space horror film entitled 'event horizon' from 1997 ? 'sphere' has almost the exact same plot and manifestation of visual output except that 'event horizon' is a lot scarier and i actually recommended that one for the kind of film that it was because it was the first film in a long time that made me jump in my seat at the movies as it was genuinely scary with religiously sublime overtones . i can't recommend 'sphere' . i get so angry at hollywood marketing through coming attractions on posters , trailers , newspaper , t . v . and radio ads when they say 'sphere' is from " michael crichton , the author of 'jurassic park' and 'the lost world' " and immediately people begin saying , " wow , if it's from that guy , it must be great " . to no one's surprise , in many cases advertising is an insult to the intelligence and we've all fallen for it at one time or another . 'sphere' is from director barry ( in most cases--'yawn' ) levinson who has concocted a flat and lifeless motion picture disguised as science fiction but looking more like a low budget episode of any paranormal television series with a cast of actors far beyond the realm of this mess . dustin hoffman ( a psychologist ) , sharon stone ( a biologist ) and samuel l . jackson ( a mathematician ) along with two others are sent on a mission to the bottom of the pacific ocean to investigate an alleged alien spacecraft that landed more than 300 years ago . as they investigate further , there is a strange transmission coming from somewhere on the ship that allows the crew to communicate with an unseen force and later they discover a gigantic golden sphere which reflects everything in the room except the people looking at it . members of the team get drawn into it and they later draw conclusions that it has the power to inhibit mind control at will and visually enhance a person's sub-conscious thoughts . at one point jackson is reading the book '20 , 000 leagues under the sea' and says to hoffman that he can never get past page 87 because it's " too scary " . later , hoffman finds the cupboards of the ship filled with multiple copies of '20 , 000 leagues under the sea' all with blank pages after page 87 . the film is just downright boring and never gets off the ground with any substance or point of interest worthy of a plot twist and the film feels like a nightmare you have trouble describing to people the next morning because it was so weird , people look at you funny . there's also no reason for it to be well over two hours with a running time of 132 minutes . i looked at my watch about every fifteen minutes after the first half hour and i was drawn into a tedious and restless odyssey of blandness . there isn't much more to write because there isn't that much more to say about a film that looks so similar in many of its scenes . the only thing memorable about 'sphere' is telling people that for quite a while , dustin hoffman appeared in a movie about every five years and now that he's been in three in the last 6 months ( 'mad city' , 'wag the dog' , 'sphere' ) perhaps it was a good idea for him to remain absent until a good project came along , one that he could really believe in . there certainly isn't a good film contained in this block of celluloid . 
