Supernova

Anytime, in movies or in real life, you hear someone say, "I'm sorry. You're very pretty; I haven't been around a girl in a while," you should immediately recognize it as a very bad sign for all involved. Gary Gilmore said it. I think the guy from Cape Fear says it. In Supernova, the new deep space thriller from director Walter Hill (Brewster's Millions, 48 Hours), the red-flag line comes from Karl Larson, a patient rescued from a frozen lunar-mining-colony by medical rescue vessel who answered his distress signal. (Note to anyone currently in outerspace: Never answer distress signals; the people you pick up are always very bad. Most of you will die.)

Every space thriller owes a lot to Aliens and Supernova is no exception. There's a talking supercomputer named Sweetie. Angela Basset is the stong female lead. James Spader (Tuff Turf) is the gruff new guy who needs to start trusting people. Peter Facinelli, who plays Larson (and who looks exactly like a younger elongated Tom Cruise), becomes the super-predator. And as is the case with most successful thrillers, Supernova really starts to cook when people start to die, and - unsurprisingly - everyone besides the aforementioned quasi-stars dies towards the middle of the picture. In fact, Lou Diamond Phillips practically looks at the camera and says "I'm going to die next." He doesn't actually die "next" but he does die very soon after.

Despite the predictable plot twists, Supernova is surprisingly decent* because it sidesteps the common deep space mistakes. Anyone with a casual familiarity with sci-fi is familiar with these story killers: (1) Starting off with too large of a crew which takes too long to kill off; (2) Having the evil alien/vampire/killer-type come back from the dead one to many times; (3) playing classic rock (especially "Bad to the Bone") and, most importantly, (4) Going on to long. Supernova misses all four traps, and pulls off a fairly simple story with some decent acting and decent writing. An unexpectedly pleasant, if disposable, surprise.

*Note: I was the only reviewer in America who gave this movie an even somewhat decent review. Everyone else hated it.