Sem Gravidade... Sem Cérebro

I can't remember the last film I saw that frustrated me as much as SPACE STATION 76. I remember reading reviews when it hit the festival circuit and thinking how awesome it sounded. Then I was disappointed when it was finally released on home video and never found it's way into stores. I finally ordered it on Amazon (DVD because there was apparently no Blu-ray release) and…ugh…I want to like this movie more. It's not horrible. In fact, there's a lot of hilarious stuff in this movie. But the execution...the lack of any real main plot thread…it's aggravating. The premise is perfect: a science fiction film based on the imagined future of the 70's with a modern bent. Jessica Marlowe (Liv Tyler) is a new arrival on the station and finds that she's having trouble with her new crewmates. Captain Glenn (Patrick Wilson) is a closeted homosexual, an alcoholic, and a misogynist who resents Jessica's assignment under his command. Ted (Matt Bomer) and Misty (Marisa Coughlan) are unhappily married and have a daughter, Sunshine, who suffers more than anyone else aboard the station. Finally, there's Steve (Jerry O'Connell) and Donna (Kali Rocha); another picture perfect couple, Steve cheats on his wife while she remains home drinking wine and tending to their newborn child. SPACE STATION 76 is basically a comedy/soap opera that follows the lives of our deep space rejects as the tensions mount. The movie is apparently based on a stage play and I'm sort of curious to see it.

Rarely had I seen a movie with so much going on but very little actually happening. Of all the subplots bubbling around each other, the thread with Marlowe, Ted, and Misty could probably be considered the "main" plot since it gets the most attention. Jessica and Ted are also the only decent people in the whole movie. Literally everyone else in the movie is pretty unlikeable. Funny, but unlikeable. The crew of the station and their significant others are two-faced, fickle, and brimming with distaste for everyone around them. You really start to feel bad for the little girl trapped in the middle of it all. At no point do they come together to overcome some obstacle or achieve a goal; there is no growth of any sort in SPACE STATION 76. In the end, no one has learned any sort of lesson or changed in any sense. The big climax seems to be the realization that their squabbles are small and stupid in the grand scheme of things. It's all very unsatisfying, story-wise. Although, with some tweaking, this could have worked as a mini-series or potential full television series. Actually, that sounds pretty good. I'd watch that. But as a 90 minute film, it falls pretty far short. It's a bummer because I wanted to love this movie. Still, aside from the aimless nature of the plot, this movie works well in most every other sense. SPACE STATION 76 is obviously someone's passion project and it shows in the details.

The production design and the visual gags are where the movie shines. Casual audiences might not see the charm in the simplistic sets and retro costuming. Fans of cheesy 60's and 70's science fiction will love it. It's very much a classic design with a modern (miniscule) budget. The CG effects are limited and cheap, and they fit the vibe of the film just right. Most of the film's humor is derived from the setting and it works. A prime example: the station has a therapist on board, Mr. Bot. Mr. Bot looks like a cheap 80's children's' toy robot and he's programmed to latch on to key phrases, distributing advice…and Valium…to his patients. It's a fun recurring gag. Ted is missing a hand and has had it replaced with what reminds me of an old Nintendo power glove that he must physically plug into a wall to recharge. There's a great ongoing bit where one character's repeated attempts at suicide are foiled by the system's automated safety protocols. There's a lot of really good stuff in this movie and there were more than a few scenes that got a laugh from me. The problem is the dull ensemble melodrama it's all wrapped around. I hate to say it but I'm not sure there's enough to elicit a recommendation out of me. Fans of the genre it's satirizing will probably find enough to enjoy but, if you're like me, it'll leave you feeling unsatisfied. It's all sadly forgettable.

I find it strange and suspicious that I saw the so-called international premiere at the Montreal Fantasia Festival yesterday and that there were already 7 reviews up that had been there for months (all from March except 2), that were all roughly of the same length (one-paragraph long), that were all very positive, that were often the only review done by the reviewer on IMDb, and that 3 reviews were from people who joined IMDb at the same time. I'm not sure what to think of this but let's give the benefit of the doubt. (September 21 edit: Since writing this review, I learnt that the movie was actually shown at South by Southwest festival in March even though the Fantasia Festival website and program do say "International premiere". It's why I wrote "so-called" international premiere. I still find the early reviews suspicious but less so.)

Contrary to those other glowing reviews, I didn't like this movie and I'm still not quite sure why. I didn't really laugh except perhaps once. I might even have found it more sad than funny most of the time. When people in the public laughed, and they did laugh, I wasn't even smiling or amused. Keep in mind that the Fantasia festival audience is usually very generous and expressive. To be fair, 2 friends I went with thought the movie was good.

So what went wrong? Why was it that, apparently, a good portion of the people in the theater enjoyed this '70s sci-fi pastiche made today while I didn't?

Maybe it was because of my age and lack of familiarity/nostalgia. I'm way more familiar with sci-fi shows/films of the '80s and after, although I've seen a few of the '70s. Usually, I do love sci-fi comedies and I do love dark humor. Maybe it was because of the acting. Most actors - especially the captain (Patrick Wilson), the new first officer (Liv Tyler) and the "mechanic" (Matt Bomer) - played this very seriously and deadpan. Usually nothing wrong with that, it's supposed to be "drama" too after all, but here I found it sometimes jarring. It's like those actors weren't cast in the right film. I did enjoy the Misty character, the blonde Anna-Faris look-alike, that was a little more over the top.

Maybe it's because it was depressing or sad. Basically, all the characters were depressed and/or unhappy. Even the captain was suicidal. Usually, this is fertile ground for dark comedy but the pay-offs here seemed disappointing. A little girl here was very good but almost everything involving her just seemed sad, and not "ha-ha" sad. Maybe it's because I was spoiled beforehand. I did read the festival program entry, saw the trailer. Perhaps it ruined the better jokes, the effect of surprise. Maybe it was because most of the comedy bits weren't that funny after all. I do get how unacceptable behavior today (such as smoking around children) was more acceptable in the '70s and that the differences can be amusing. I do get that with pot, you find things funny that you otherwise wouldn't. I do get that cliché pop psychology advice can be amusing. However, this and other things seemed funnier on paper than how it was in delivery. It was all very deadpan. Again, this usually doesn't bother me, but it did here.

Maybe it was because of the decors and special effects. Actually no, those were better than expected. Even though the Fantasia festival program said the movie was "faithfully free of new-fangled CGI", I learnt recently the effects were indeed done digitally. To my eyes, they did seem to look vintage and made with models, but I was fooled. I thought the looks inside the station from space were especially well done. However, I thought the dingy toy robots distracted from immersion. They felt like props from the stage play this movie was based on. Yeah, the decors were repetitive, but it was like this back then, so not complaining there. Maybe I just wasn't into the right mood. All that being said, even though I didn't personally care for that film, a certain nostalgic audience having the references and in the right frame of mind might find it enjoyable. However, I do not think that it deserves those 9-stars and 10-stars ratings in the IMDb reviews made before the "international" premiere. I would give it around a 6 or 7 stars for most people because it was too hit or miss. Personally, for me, I have to rate it lower as I found it disappointing and mostly unfunny.

Rating: 4 out of 10 (Poor)

When I first heard about this movie, I was quite interested in it. I grew up watching those sci-fi movies and TV shows from the 70s, all those leisure suits and haircuts and the wonderfully cheap special effects. Retro is my thing, and anything with punk in it – steampunk, dieselpunk, atompunk – so I was looking forward to seeing Space Station 76.

Now, for the positives: it was well made, well acted (especially from Liv Tyler, Patrick Wilson and young Kylie Rogers), well directed. In addition, it looked like something that could have been made in the Seventies, which was obviously the intention: the computer graphics, the smoking, the Valium, the beige, the videocassettes, the robot therapist (although the exterior space shots and interior zero- gravity scenes looked a little too good – no strings to be seen!).

Where it fell for me was the story. This is *not* a science fiction movie. It may be set in space and the future, with all the expected trappings, but it could just as easily had been set in a suburban street in the Seventies, or in a groovy apartment complex. The plot lines are all very human and Earthbound (and certainly not anything that would have been part of any movie or show from the era): the alcoholic, closeted gay Captain, the lonely little girl who can't keep her pets alive, the bitter couples in the broken, empty relationships where even affairs are just masturbation by proxy, and the infertile Assistant Captain who arrives onboard the station (although everyone keeps calling it a ship) unwittingly brings all the tensions to the surface. There's an asteroid headed for the station, an obvious metaphor for the proverbial lid that's about to blow among them, but it doesn't really play a part in all of this.

I had read the other reviews that warned not to expect Galaxy Quest, Spaceballs, Red Dwarf or other laugh out space comedies, and I'm not some neophyte cinephile unfamiliar with black comedy, but I had expected *some* laughs. I laughed once. More often than not, I was sad, which was more a testament to the performances. Billing this as a comedy, even a black comedy, is misleading.

To be honest, I'm not sure who this might be for: the sci-fi fans will be mostly disappointed, as will the comedy fans, and those looking some adult psychodrama might be confused by the retro-future setting.

This is probably one of the stranger movies I have ever seen but I liked it. It is not, however, in any way a comedy and the trailer is hugely misleading.

Basically, and bizarrely, this story, about unhappy and lonely people, is staged in a 70s style space station. The acting is fantastic (absolutely everyone is good) and the sound track is delicious, but there is absolutely no comedy, apart from strangeness linked to the setting and a few gimmicks, (all done in the first 5 minutes).

The film is even a bit depressing. But, as I mentioned before, I liked it. It's almost like a strange hallucinogenic trip.

The idea of spoofing 70s sci-fi TV shows is great, even if it's been done before. (And better, as in "Galaxy Quest.") This has all the right trappings in terms of sets, costumes and soundtrack track choices, as well as a game-enough cast. But where is the script? There are a few half-baked comic ideas here, but few if any of them are developed beyond the level of the verrrrrry mildly amusing, at best. There's less than a SNL skit's worth of actual laughs here. Worse, the characters are mostly irritating, with ideas that are potentially funny (Wilson's Captain being a closet case) and those that really aren't (two sets of bad, oblivious parents) both simply repeating themselves without building toward any big payoff. In fact, what they build toward is a weirdly serious scene at a Christmas party where everyone reveals how much they hate each other, something that might actually be cathartic in a movie that WASN'T aiming to be a comedy. I just don't know what the filmmakers were thinking. It's very strange to go to all this trouble and expense to mount a sci-fi fantasy satire, and seemingly forget to include much in the way of actual humor. No, the humor wasn't too "subtle" for me--deadpan is one thing, but this was just flat and lacking wit. A pity.