Black Hole, le Trou Noir

"Following a scientific mishap, mankind is faced with total annihilation as a threatening black hole appears over St. Louis. Now, time is running out to obliterate the black hole and the electricity-feeding alien it has unleashed," according to the DVD sleeve description. This film has nothing to do with either the original "Black Hole" movie or a real astronomical black hole, which could not make an appearance like the one depicted in this film. It plays more like an episode of "The Outer Limits".

"The Black Hole" stars hairy Judd Nelson (as Eric Bryce) and pretty Kristy Swanson (as Shannon Muir). It was a "Science Fiction Channel" original, featuring David Selby (as General Ryker) in a substantial supporting role. Ironically, the network stopped airing repeats of Mr. Selby's "Dark Shadows" in order to present more first-run entertainment (like multiple airings of this movie). Although Selby is always a dependable player, this program made you want to see "Dark Shadows" return.

*** The Black Hole (6/10/06) Tibor Takacs ~ Judd Nelson, Kristy Swanson, David Selby, Christa Campbell

1. Poor acting - at the very least poor depiction of what should have been strong emotions such as living without children, scared, etc. Lead character acts as if he just woke up

Disconnected or no flow at all - such as characters making statements about research they did that they never had time to do (because they spent all time driving or running around)

The "black hole" would not behave at all the way it did in the movie. Suffice to say that there is no "Science" in this fiction.

The whole army behaves like it is in a war with another ... human army. Hiding behind walls, carrying guns, etc.

The only reason I gave it a 2 and not 1 is that it could, nevertheless, be amusing to watch how people have no clue what they are talking about.

Stupendous.

As a resident of the city in which the movie took place, I enjoyed it mostly for the amazingly silly geographic liberties the filmmakers took with St. Louis. I knew it was going to be entertaining from the moment the Planetarium/Science Center - one of the most well-known buildings in the city - was labeled as the stand-in for the nuclear physics institute where the whole mess started.

From there, it was a silly and stupid ride through bad science and locations that left most of my family going, "But isn't that building in the area they just said was destroyed?" My favorite moment was after the Arch and Downtown St. Louis were destroyed and then we saw Judd Nelson racing down a road...in downtown St. Louis...toward a darkened but obviously still visible and untouched Arch.

The actors performed their roles with earnestness and deserve credit for doing what they could with the silliness of the plot.

I am not going to waste too many words on this simply horrific movie.

The only thing that matches the poor acting the inconsistency in the time line and story telling.

The Arch which is supposedly torn down by the black hole... can be seen standing in the background near the ending.

Additionally.. if they shut down the power... the city lights would've been out. While even at the very end all the lights are still on. Which makes me think... if you know the creature absorbs energy... turn it off straight away! The only thing going for this movie is the alien if self, which doesn't look too bad.

Avoid at all costs if you can.

Why, oh why, does SciFi continue to create these horrible wastes of time and money? I watched this solely for it being set in St. Louis. There's really nothing good to say about this movie.

There is just so much wrong here that it's hard to even know where to start. The dialog is horrible and the plot is even worse. Particularly bad is when a character tells you something and then the camera shows you something completely different (e.g. "the black hole is growing" and then shown the same size throughout the entire movie). There are too many examples to list, and I'd hate to "spoil" this movie for anyone who still wishes to abuse themselves by watching it.

If I had to say something nice, it would be that some of the effects aren't half bad. Not good across-the-board, but not bad. Since you can see those in the ads for the movie, there's no reason to subject yourself to the complete film.

Please, SciFi, save your money and create 24 episodes of Stargate instead of 20. At least then you'd have four hours of programming people would enjoy instead of this two hours of nonsense.