Review of Outland (1981) by Ben L — 18 Feb 2016

Outland is about a mining colony on the moon of Jupiter where Sean Connery is the head of law enforcement. As the film progresses a number of people start to go crazy and kill themselves which leads Connery to discover a drug smuggling operation that he vows to stop. Then the climax becomes one big homage to High Noon. Sean Connery is great as always, which means I get invested in his journey right away. The problem with the casting is that they have a couple of actors that have since become well known for comedy roles so it is difficult for me to take people like Peter Boyle and John Ratzenberger seriously. But that's a minor distraction from an otherwise strong cast, including a great over-the-top performance from Steven Berkoff. The climax is actually handled better than High Noon. I liked the quick build-up and limited scenes of Connery asking for help and then planning his strategy for when the hit men would arrive. Also when he starts to take on these guys his technique surprised me, so I was excited through that whole sequence. There were a few problems with the execution though. First of all, one decompression with exploding head is enough for an entire film in my opinion, but this one has about five. A little more variety in the way people are dispatched would keep the audience guessing more. The next couple of points would be considered spoilers:

Also, they telegraphed their moves a little too much, particularly when Connery is betrayed by his fellow officer. Finally, upon reflection, I can't stop thinking about the fact that Sean Connery leaving at the end means he didn't really resolve anything. All he did was risk his life stopping one attack from the corporations drug suppliers. By him leaving he has now left the door open for the drug trade to start up all over again. It's almost like they were so committed to drawing comparisons to High Noon that they didn't think about how him riding off into the sunset with his wife ruins the end of this film. My problems with the film don't quite outweigh the things I liked, but I still have a hard time making a strong recommendation for Outland. If you like sci-fi and Sean Connery then give it a shot, but otherwise I'd say you probably should avoid it.