Extras: Trailers, Cast and Crew info, Production Notes
Director:
Peter Hyams
(2010, Capricorn One, Hanover Street, Narrow Margin, Outland, The Presidio, The Relic, Running Scared, The Star Chamber, Stay Tuned, Sudden Death, Timecop)
Producer:
Paul N. Lazarus III
Screenplay:
Peter Hyams
Music:
Jerry Goldsmith
Cast:
Robert Caulfield: Elliot Gould
Commander Charles Brubaker: James Brolin
Kay Brubaker: Brenda Vaccaro
Lt. Col. Peter Willis: Sam Waterston
Commander John Walker: O.J. Simpson
Dr. James Kelloway: Hal Holbrook
Judy Drinkwater: Karen Black
Albain: Telly Savalas
Hollis Peaker: David Huddleston
Elliot Whiter: Robert Walden
Walter Loughlin: David Doyle
One of my favourite conspiracy movies, Capricorn One,
is a film about a mission to Mars that never happened for
Commander Charles Brubaker (James Brolin), Lt. Col. Peter Willis
(Sam Waterston) and Commander John Walker (O.J. Simpson).
The U.S. space programme has hit rock bottom. One more cock-up and all funding
will be cut, so since not a lot has happened since Neil Armstrong first set
foot on the moon, it's time to send three all-American heroes to the red planet
to see what they can see - except they won't be going. It'll all be staged
to look real, but the Mars surface they'll be walking along resides in a
TV studio in a disused army base.
Everything goes to plan until the real spaceship comes in for re-entry, burns
up and explodes, leaving the government no alternative but to bump off the
astronauts which leads to a suspense film of the highest calibre as the three
men take their lives into their own hands and search for a way out in separate
directions.
On the trail of the conspiracy is journalist Robert Caulfield (Elliot Gould),
who gets a tip-off from NASA technician Elliot Whiter (Robert Walden)
who thinks the TV transmissions aren't coming from a transmitter 300 miles away
but somewhere much closer to home. If the truth gets out, the shit will hit
the fan big time for man in control, Hollis Peaker (David Huddleston).
Telly Savalas also pops up in a great cameo towards the end as Albain,
a crop-dusting farmer.
There's so many classic moments in this film, be it when Peaker gets antsy
as it looks like Brubaker's about to give the game away while supposedly
floating round his tin can; the time when he has to eat a rattlesnake and
the car trouble Caulfield finds himself in when he discovers someone's
tampered with his car and taken out the brakes.
While the film is one of my favourites, the bad news comes in the presentation.
A non-anamorphic print is presented in the original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio -
despite the 1.85:1 claim on the back cover - and definition is sorely lacking
throughout the film. You start to get a bit used to it as time goes on but
it's never perfect at all.
The average bitrate is 3.16Mb/s, occasionally peaking over 5Mb/s.
The sound has been remastered in Dolby Digital 5.1, but the only time I found
a bit improvement was in Gould's "tampered car" scene. The DD5.1 mix is
dropped in from time to time, so don't play the film late at night because
you need to turn it up to hear the dialogue and then BANG! you race for the
volume control to reduce it when something is dropped in way too loud.
In the extras dept. it's a rather meagre affair. Two Trailers (one teaser
and one trailer), Cast and Crew info for the main stars and director
Hyams and four measly pages of Production Notes. Yes, it's all stuff
you'll read once and forget about.
The disc contains 36 chapters which is plenty through the two hour film, but
menus are static and silent and there's far from the right number of subtitled
languages with just ONE and it's Spanish(!)
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
