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Losers in space >> Lost in Space is the latest TV-to-movie transfer by MATTHEW HAYS
Lost in Space feels--dare I say it?--lost somewhere in between these two categories. It certainly has casting in its favour: William Hurt and Mimi Rogers play the Robinson patriarch and matriarch; Heather Graham, Jack Johnson and Lacey Chabert play their children (Chabert looks and sounds like the Muppet-baby version of Neve Campbell); Matt LeBlanc is the ship's heroic pilot, while the brilliant Gary Oldman is the ultra-evil double agent Dr. Zachary Smith. Lost in Space has its fun elements, for sure. There are lots of neato gadgets for kids and adults alike to play with, and the filmmakers certainly didn't skimp on the special effects budget. There are plenty of great explosions and aliens that are certainly as scary as the dinos in Jurassic Park. Then there's the dialogue, which is often quite hilarious in its idiotic, over-the-top family-values jingoism. (There's even a reference to The Waltons.) But then there's the bad stuff, and it is bad: beside the good bits of dialogue there are the truly awful lines, the jokes that don't work, the kid teaching the robot about friendship, the banter between amorous LeBlanc and Graham, and the stuff about family values which ultimately isn't so funny and just gets on your nerves. The folks behind Lost in Space have tried to update things by doing a couple of things: adding a healthy dose of dysfunction to the Space Family Robinson, making papa Hurt a virtual deadbeat dad, and rendering Dr. Scott, who was softened somewhat in the old show after an episode or two, irredeemably evil. The trouble with all this is, they've also upped the ante on many of the things that are annoyingly stupid about the old show (that family values stuff again). Lost in Space doesn't quite know if it's a parody (à la The Brady Bunch Movie) or more of an homage (The Fugitive). Unfortunately, the 1998 Lost in Space movie pales in comparison to the original episodes of the series, which ran from 1965-68--and were set in 1997 (several of which have been re-released on video and are well worth a rent). Irwin Allen was the man behind them, and his genius at inspired, hallucinogenic sci-fi was very clear from the first episode, which he directed. Though his spirit can be felt sporadically throughout the feature-length Lost in Space, the full extent of his ability to confidently guide a project through both melodrama and sci-fi feels sorely missed by the closing credits. Lost in Space opens Friday, April 3
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As simplistic as it may sound, there are two categories into which movies based upon retro TV series fall: those that work and those that don't. Those films that have worked, such as The Fugitive and The Brady Bunch Movie, have had a good idea of what made the original series work, why its popularity has proven resilient and what elements should remain while others are dumped or updated. Those that haven't worked, like The Beverly Hillbillies, simply felt like so much flogging of a dead horse.