Supernova
Terry Re-Discovers Crack, and Watches a Movie

Walter Hill never gets the respect he deserves and here is no exception. The director, who I believe fills the void left by the passing of Sam Peckinpah, is responsible for some of the best action dramas of the last twenty years, including "48 Hours" and "Hard Times" with Charles Bronson. Hill was either fired or quit from this troubled production after its completion. Francis Ford Coppola agreed to edit the film and rescued it from oblivion. All of the studio trouble aside, "Supernova" has many great moments and some very well acted performances. James Spader, Angela Bassett, Lou Diamond Phillips and Robin Tunney make up the crew of a spaceship responding to an emergency beacon from a nearby planet. The ship is endangered and the castaway they pick up, Peter Facinelli, has secrets and is full of danger. OK, its not the best movie ever made, but like the much aligned "Event Horizon" it deserves better than the negative reviews and disses it has garnered. Walter Hill might have made a masterpiece, but what's left is still worth watching and kind of surreal.

1999 1 hour 31 mins. Unrated

Terry Osterhout
October 2002