At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Outland - a dystopian sci-fi flick which combines the trades of Western and crime movies with a sci-fi scenario. A perfect mix, with really good acting even in all the minor roles - and on top you get Sean Connery himself as an Space Marshall waiting for his "High Noon" like Gary Cooper did in Zinnemann's immortal classic!Innovative mix for its time and like Zardoz (also with Sean Connery) one of the sci-fi classics of 2nd line.

I hadn't seen Outland since my teenage years, which is a good thirty years ago and frankly I wasn't expecting much. Well even by our 21st century expectations this is actually a decent film. Sci-fi is the chosen genre for the story but it could have been applied to our present time, in a research centre in Antarctica, on an off-shore oil rig or on a ship. Mind you, using one of those environments instead would have avoided us the cringe of hearing sounds, seeing sparks and smoke, and witnessing people and objects fall... in deep space? Fairly entertaining thriller if a bit slow in the first half by our current standards. It was also good to see the ex-007 middle-aged and fit again.

If you take "High Noon" and throw in some "Rio Bravo" and a little bit of "Die Hard" for good measure, the garishly-colored goo left in the blender is "Outlander". Sean Connery is the marshal who faces opposition when he disrupts a drug operation at a mining colony on one of Jupiter's moons. No one around (including his fellow lawmen) are of any help as the top dog (Peter Boyle) has reinforcements arriving any day now. And once they do, it's a cat-and-mouse through the "Alien"-like interiors of the settlement. There's no question that Connery carries this film on his mighty shoulders, and things don't pick up steam until the halfway point. It's when our hero takes up arms and some manly Scottish punches are thrown that this slumbering beast actually stirs. But then everything slows down once again until the hired muscle shows up, and we begin the silly wire stunts of outer space fisticuffs.But Peter Hyams has directed better movies, and "Outland" never rises above "meh". 5/10

The best thing about this average Sci-Fi are the space shots of Jupiter and the mining colony and some bland if interesting sets of a gloomy but uninspiring interiors. All of the sets have more appeal than the story or the action.In fact, the violence and confrontations are pedestrian and sometimes pathetically dull. There is one elongated chase that goes on forever and ends, finally, with such lackluster that it is the harbinger of more to come. The final "gunfight" is also nothing much and it is rather mundane. The performances and characters are not bad but just can't breathe any life into this lifeless and flat story that has been done many times. There is also that one final punch that is laughably a lame ending to it all.