Sphere

Somewhere out from Guam something`s lying at the bottom of the ocean - it appears to be a 300 year old space ship but as one of the characters in Sphere points out on discovering a smoked almond wrapper on board, 300 years ago there were no space ships and there was no America either...Gathered together to unravel the mystery are psychologist Dustin Hoffman, marine biochemist Sharon Stone, mathematician Samuel L Jackson and astrophysicist Liev Schreiber, under the leadership of government man Peter Coyote. Lodged in their `habitat` 1000 feet down, from which they can explore the spaceship the tension builds as inexplicable and terrifying events occur...Sphere is unfortunately one of those films where the more you find out the less interested you become....which is surprising when you consider director Barry Levinson`s track record - although come to think of it he managed the same trick with Wag The Dog. Sphere is based on a Michael Crichton novel with Paul Attanasio as one of the screenwriters. What`s frustrating about the film is that all the ingredients are there to begin with for something really suspenseful and interesting. You have a group of fine actors playing potentially fascinating characters who end up being boring. You have a mysterious sphere that remains so. It`s a film without a satisfactory internal logic and, can I say it, an ending that is truly wet.