Some cause must have created all this, but what caused that cause?

The Black Hole

(1979)

The big failure here isn't so much the greatest hits package script as Gary Nelson's utterly unimaginative direction and the lackluster editing (rammed home all the more forcefully with John Barry's attempting-to-be-exciting score over the top - although his music over the titles is superb).

Whenever the female lead mentions her ESP I kept thinking of Garth Merenghi. Maximillian Schell is marvellously OTT and many of the design elements are very good (certain effects, such the meteor rolling down a tunnel are still highly impressive, as is the final shot of Max in purgatory).

It's just a shame that it's all put together so unstylishly, because for a kid's film it is laudably chock full of weird-arsed ideas and eerily metaphysical suggestions.

***

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