Noutions Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

JinRoz For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Glimmerubro It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

david-sarkies I actually think that this is a telemovie - that is a movie made specifically for television, though this is not really a problem - some of the best movies don't ever make it to the big screen (especially in Australia). Some feel that if a movie isn't a movie from the cinema then it must not be any good. The reason for this is that the companies send movies to the cinemas because they think that they will be good, but in the long run many of them flop.Lifepod is a suspense movie set in space. A luxury liner from Venus explodes when somebody releases a very dangerous mining tool in the reactor, and only one pod escapes. The quality of the pod is very bad as the corporation that maintained the liner believed that they were not needed. Now the seven occupants must get along with each other with minimum food, little chance of rescue, and a saboteur.This movie becomes more of a who done it as we have seven people and one of them is a saboteur. There is a violent criminal, journalist, tech-op, company director, hot headed woman miner come rebel, and a blind man. Not only do need a suspect, but a reason as to why it happened. We instantly believe, through what we are told, that the rebels are responsible for destroying the ship, but are they? One problem is that we know very little about what it is like at this time, so a small write up would have been nice at the beginning of the movie.What this movie explores is the paranoia that builds up with the people all crowded together in the pod with a murderer on board. Suspicions instantly fall towards the obvious, while the real perpetrator is continuing to ply his trade. He is very intelligent and trusting, but the way they found out is pretty lame. I will not say any more lest this movie appear on TV again. I liked it.

Matt Kracht I watched this because I figured Robert Loggia and CCH Pounder were pretty cool and could elevate almost anything to a watchable level. Ron Silver is a recognizable name, but I've never really been a big fan of his. The plot sounded pretty decent -- essentially, just a scifi remake of an Hitchcock bit of wartime propaganda by way of Steinbeck.What I didn't realize was that this was very low budget and given to some really amusing melodrama, with the requisite whooping alarms, shaking camera, and people yelling and panicking. Some of the characters were interesting, and the acting was generally pretty good, but it was really quite full of clichés, such as the fiery revolutionary, the penny-pinching bureaucrat, the feisty pilot, the grief-stricken mother, etc. It's not so much that I hate film archetypes; rather, these weren't really given all that much time to develop into real people and capture your interest. They had somewhat interesting backgrounds that hinted at a familiar, somewhat derivative scifi universe where evil corporations and authoritarian politicians have caused each of the passengers to have at least some degree of motive for sabotaging their ship. Yet we never learn anything about any of the characters beyond which allows him or her to become a red herring. I'm sure that the actors did their best, given the rather two-dimensional writing, but it's somewhat unfortunate that they weren't given more to work with.If you're a fan of CCH Pounder (and I know that this talented actress must have more fans than just me), you'll be disappointed to know that she doesn't have a prominent role in this movie despite being one of the stars. Robert Loggia has a meatier role, and Ron Silver cast himself in a more supporting role. I really liked Ed Gale's character, a cybernetic mechanic, but his character, too, suffered from a lack of depth.In the end, this is actually pretty enjoyable as far as mainstream scifi movies go. I would have preferred to have seen more characterization, a faster pace, and a bigger budget (the special effects were quite laughable, unfortunately), but, for a TV movie, I suppose it could have been much worse. There were a few good lines, some good actors, and a decent-enough ending, but everything was so derivative and clichéd that I felt as though I'd seen it all before a hundred times. An extra ten minutes of dialogue and characterization would have probably helped.It's truly unfortunate that Ron Silver died, but I'm still not a fan.

Woodyanders Christmas Eve in 2168 A.D. A motley assortment of nine people are trapped on board a creaky, rusty, antiquated lifepod after the luxury space liner they were on blows up. One of the nine individuals is the deadly saboteur responsible for destroying the ship. Moreover, after a few days they soon begin to run low on both food and water. Ron Silver's strong, capable direction wrings plenty of sweaty and claustrophobic tension from the smart, inspired and compelling script by M. Jay Roach and Pen Densham. The uniformly excellent acting from a bang-up cast rates as another significant asset: Robert Loggia as a gruff, jerky, overbearing business executive, CCH Pounder as the feisty pilot, Adam Storke as an edgy convict, Jessica Tuck as a sassy, snoopy reporter, Silver as an astute blind man, Kelli Williams as a scrappy young woman, Stan Shaw as a tough cook with a broken leg, Lisa Waltz as a distraught woman with a sickly baby, and especially Ed Gale as a fiercely dutiful dwarf "toolie" with a mechanical arm all give fine and convincing performances. The bleakly serious tone, Robert Steadman's sharp cinematography, the nifty special effects, and Mark Mancina's spare, spooky score are up to par as well. A solid, suspenseful and engrossing little winner.

konadv The story is rather formula: take a bunch of different people and lock them up somewhere, put them in some sort of danger and see what happens (for instance: Night of the living dead, Das Boot, Pitch Black). Nothing new here. But the story unfolds rather nicely, with a neat twist towards the end. The acting is quite good and the atmosphere is tense, dense and thrilling. Major dissapointment are the special f/x, which look like the remains from a 50's cheap sci-fil flick. They add a touch of uncredibility to the all thing. Another letdown is the obligatory happy ending, which seems very out of place here. All in all this is a pretty good movie, which could (and should) have been much better - technically speaking.