Capsula di salvataggio

We could go endlessly to find all the reasons why this B movie is bad (some call it trash!). However, the basic storyline is good and sufficient action is there to avoid it being boring. It also is a remake of the 1981 Lifepod.

For another remake, this could be done. Take the script and invest in more special effects, good CG scenery for the spaceship, the lifepod and all electronics on board. The script can be further expanded with an additional pod surviving the spaceship destruction. Errors can be easily corrected (spaceship explosion, icing through comet tail and more). Then we have the actors, not great but not too bad. Their characters could be far better defined for a more credible behavior.

Anybody interested?

I just watched this last night, which was just a few days after I saw the original Hitchcock film that it was based on, called Lifeboat. I wanted to see this movie because I was pretty impressed by the original film, and I almost always enjoy sci-fi movies. After having watched Lifepod, though, I'd suggest sticking to the original. It's not that Lifepod is all that bad, but it really isn't all that good, either. Overall, I gave it 5/10 stars because that's about what it deserves. There are plenty of films that are worse, and plenty that are better. Lifepod does some things well, and it does some things poorly.

For what it's worth, I wasn't surprised by anything that happened in the movie, but you may be. I guess it all depends on if you are able to pick up on the clues. You'll know right off if you can.

Honestly, I'm not sure this really should count as a remake. It's more like a new film based on the same material. Everything that the Hitchcock movie did well, this one either didn't do at all, or it did it very poorly. On the other hand, Lifeboat didn't rely on lots of action or highly tense scenes, but Lifepod did. I guess what this means is that if you liked Lifeboat, you probably wouldn't like Lifepod. And vice-versa.

One last thing, neither film is appropriate for the younger kids. They would be bored with Lifeboat, and they would be spooked by the violence and tension in Lifepod.

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.

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.

This futuristic adaptation of Alfred Hitchcock's classic Lifeboat packs intense action and thrilling suspense into a human drama of courage and heroism. Lifepod features a top-notch cast including Academy Award nominee Robert Loggia and Emmy nominee Ron Silver in the dual roak of star and director. Alone Lifepod drifts helplessly through space light years from the nearest support station. With scarce food water oxygen and communications, nine survivors on this ill-equipped spacecraft fight for their lives. Deadly meteors and asteroids threaten from outside, but the real enemy will come from within. In the dangerously damaged confines of the lifepod, it's come down to survival of the fittest. Supplies are dwindeling, tensions are mounting, and people are dying. Suspicions grow that one of them is responsible for their disastrous predicament. Trapped with a killer, a new battle for survival begins.