Terrible acting, screenplay and direction.

A very feeble attempt at affirmatie action

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Psychiatrist Dr Norman Goodman (Dustin Hoffman) once wrote a manual on what to do with an encounter with an unknown life form for the government.When the authorities find something alien, the military bring in Dr Goodman along with biochemist Dr Elizabeth Halperin (Sharon Stone) mathematician Dr Harry Adams (Samuel L Jackson) and astrophysicist Dr Ted Fielding (Liev Schreiber.) They are to investigate a spacecraft that landed in the pacific ocean almost 300 years ago.The scientists go deep below the ocean and are astonished to find that the spacecraft is from Earth but from the future that somehow travelled back to the past. Inside the ship is a sphere and some kind of sentient entity which manifests people's fears that threatens to destroy them.There is some pedigree in this adaptation of a Michael Crichton novel. The film is directed by Oscar winner, Barry Levinson. The problem is that apart from being overlong and dull. The film does not do much with its interesting premise. The film kills of its characters one by one, starting with a black character. We get people having terrifying visions and not realising what is real and what is not, but the film just falls apart and wastes its cast.

Movie Review: "Sphere" (1998)Based on the 1987 novel by Michael Crichton (1942-2008), director Barry Levinson encounters new grounds with this underwater science-fiction drama, working with collaborated-before actor Dustin Hoffman, who performs undermined and coldly the character of psychologist Dr. Norman Goodman together with character supporting cast members Sharon Stone as zoologist Dr. Beth Halperin, Samuel L. Jackson and Peter Coyote as submarine captain going down as scientific team to the grounds of the deep blue sea, where a mystical golden "Sphere" hidden in a coral-overgrown spaceship, giving anyone, who witnesses its existence the power of foreclosure and putting thoughts into reality due to metaphysical mind-binding.The result of this unless beyond-belief promising motion picture of 80 Million Dollar production value, open for Warner Bros. Studio distribution set for December 1997, which had been pulled to be Mid-February 1998, turns into full-bodied character development by neglecting cinematography as sound design and an hammering score of Elliot Goldenthal, which leads to a mixture of enormous scene potential in character conflicts, which stay behind full-frontal expectations and even the occasional suspense catharsis, when one Samuel L. Jackson's character interpretation of mathematician Dr. Harry Adams, enchanted by the "Sphere", envisions parts of Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" in order to endanger remaining crew members outside the underwater station.The editorial by Stu Linder (1931-2006) comes along fairly, but uninspired with its 120plus minutes final cut. The director as the editor treats the adapted screenplay by Kurt Wimmer as psychological claustrophobic chamber play, without risking the scope nor boldness in action of competitive productions as the major focused and character-confronting piece of cinema "The Abyss" (1989) directed by James Cameron and even the more trivial horror-oriented science-fiction movie "Event Horizon" (1997) directed by Paul W.S. Anderson.© 2017 Felix Alexander Dausend (Cinemajesty Entertainments LLC)

I remember catching parts of this movie in years past and was intrigued enough to buy the DVD. Now having seen the whole thing, I regret spending the money. SPOILERS AHEAD! As a plot, it tries to do too many things in too little time. This may appeal to the Moulin Rogue mindset, but it leaves no room for character development. What's sad is there are so many aspects that COULD have been developed but were short- sold in interest of adding subplot after subplot (did it really further the story that Dustin Hoffman's character and Sharon Stone's character had a sordid past?) Hoffman's character diagnoses "Jerry" as a child who hasn't had interaction with people for 300 years which works for the plot at first, but then it's not "Jerry" but "Harry"... so why would Harry be acting like a lonely child? And this is just one of the many plot holes that are just too big to ignore. If it was Harry that killed the other scientists, and not Jerry, does that make Harry a homicidal maniac? And would two fellow scientists be sitting in the debriefing room acting "ho hum" and holding hands with this guy that just killed everyone? Oh! I forgot! EVERYONE entered the sphere at one time or another (or did they?) Ya' know, if the audience is intentionally "kept in the dark" about what's really going on so they can "empathize" with the characters on the screen, you're going to leave the audience with a "WTF" feeling when all that confusion is "explained" in a BS rough-shod, we- gotta'-keep-it-around-two-hours resolution. They were able to just "forget"??? How??? By wishing it?? Why do only SOME fears (and wishes, evidently) manifest while others don't? Stone's character mentions a fleeting thought of wanting to die and BOOM that threat materializes. And yet, during the ascent to the surface not one of them had a "fleeting" fear that there would be no boats, or that the mini-sub might be damaged and they might explode? "Oh but the magic in the movie is in the unanswerable questions." Horse hockey! Barry Levinson saw "Abyss" and wanted to make a similar movie, read Chrichton's novel and thought he could make a block buster but got in over his head and slapped the ending on so sloppily it looks like Bondo on a '63 Corvette Coupe. Don't waste your time. Watch the Abyss instead.

The first half part of sphere is quite good and convincing but the final part the movie clearly sunk into darkness,confusing and disturbing including the viewers...has some inconsistencies in the script and some huge mistakes like when Dustin leaves the flooded room into underwater one thousand feet bellow without a proper equipment....Crichton'story is pretty smart,but the main characters didn't help to much....just Samuel L Jackson deserves some recognition....Dustin didn't fit in science fiction,but the movie itself isn't too bad at all....enjoyable and watchable if you forget some mistakes.....Levinson was a good director in the past but everyone has a bad days indeed!! Resume:First watch: 2000 / How Many: 4 / Source: Cable TV-Netflix /Rating: 7