| Science Fiction | MPAA:PG13 |
Back in the mid-'80s, I used to hang around with these 2 other guys. We were all single, went to the same church, and had nothing better to do than hang around together on the weekends and watch videos (all of us have since gotten married, two of us have kids, and the other, having married a real loser, is divorced (it's a genetic thing apparently, his brother and sister had the same problem)). Being three guys, you can pretty much guess that we weren't watching things like Steel Magnolias, or Tess, or some other sappy thing like that. Lot's of action. Arnold. Eastwood. Bond. Macho men and frequently nude women (I said we went to church together, not that we were all studying for the priesthood together). Lots of comedies of the same vein. Westerns with lots of Eastwood & the Duke. Even Sci-Fi, as long as it had a lot of action ... or at least James Bond in it.
Ok, technically Sean Connery isn't playing James Bond in the film Outland. Oddly enough, the very British Connery plays a Federal Marshall (with a very British wife and a cute British kid) at a mining facility out by Saturn. He's definitely not up for Law Enforcement Officer of the Year, and has been bounced around to successively worse posts, and has finally hit the bottom of the list. He's been here just a few days and his wife already hates the place, and bugs out shortly after. She wants real gravity, real air, real sky (I guess on the future Earth people don't have exhaust fumes, factory stenches, rampant crime and terrible weather like we have now). Sean's next in command (James B. Sikking a.k.a. Doogie Howser's dad) tells Sean that life on the mine is usually pretty boring, breaking up the occasional bar fight, making sure the company hookers are following the rules, that kind of stuff (actually sounds like what my wife's uncle used to do when he was a Nevada state trooper). Right after he tells Sean this, people start freaking out for no apparent reason. Sean goes to the company doctor (Frances Sternhagen) and asks about autopsies. She tells him that standard company procedure on apparent suicides is just to bag 'em up for a burial at space. Sean gets suspicious, and sneaks into a cargo container one night(?) and draws blood from a body about to take the journey to it's final resting place. He wakes the Doctor up and makes her analyze the blood, and guess what they find ... DRUGS!!!!!! To be more specific, a synthetic amphetamine, that enables workers to work longer and harder, but also turns them into raving lunatics. So, Sean starts in with the real detective work; he searches the company files and finds two guys with past drug convictions who also happen to be in ideal positions to receive and distribute drugs. Then finds out that the boss of the mine (Peter Boyle) is in on it, and that his own deputy is on the payroll as well. He brings in one of the drug guys, but he gets wasted before Sean can get any information from him. His Deputy get's killed because some one thought he was helping out, and he actually was, because he left a message to Sean telling him when the next shipment was coming in. Sean destroys the shipment and confronts the boss about it. Boyle panics and calls the big drug guys, and asks for 'Professional Help'. This turns out to be the worst kept secret ever, and as the day approaches for the help to arrive, people start calling in sick, and hiding wherever they can. Sean makes preparations, and when the big day arrives, he manages to evade them long enough to kill them (with some help from the doctor). He punches Boyle, and gets on the next shuttle to join his wife and kid, and everyone lives happily ever after.
This movie is pretty average for it's type. I mean, no one thinks that Connery isn't going to win out in the end, but they sneak a few odd surprises in, just so things aren't completely predictable. As a fairly low budget film (most of which was probably spent to get Connery on the cast), the effects aren't exactly state-of-the-art, but they try to keep things more on the action / thriller angle as opposed to Sci-fi. It's entertaining enough to keep your taped, if not exactly riveted, to your seat.