Lost in Space

The dysfunctional Robinson family -- John is a remote father, Judy is a workaholic geek, Penny is a resentful Goth, and Will is a neglected super-genius; only Maureen seems normal -- have, for some inexplicable reason, been chosen as the last best hope of mankind. Off they set, along with resentful hot-shot pilot Major West, on the Jupiter Two, to cryosleep the ten-year journey to a new planet, there to build a hypergate, through which the rest of the world can escape from a dying Earth. But not everyone wants them to succeed, and the double agent Dr Smith [Gary Oldman at his gibbering, evil best] sabotages the robot, telling it to destroy the ship. The sabotage is stopped before the ship plunges into the sun, but they all end up Lost in Space.

There are a few fun nods to the original TV show: the "Never fear, Smith is here" catchphrase and the robot's "Danger, Will Robinson" are slipped into the script, in different context from before. And the plot follows the original in its the major details (they end up as Space Family Robinson because of Smith mucking around with the robot, and they inexplicably don't space said Smith), but darkened for the nineties. No silver space suits and all-American family here. Rather, it's black uniforms, lots of SFX of things blowing up, and an attempt at a time paradox. It's slickly made, but mostly, it's pretty mindless fare.

John Robinson ..... William Hurt
Maureen Robinson ..... Mimi Rogers
Dr Smith ..... Gary Oldman
Major Don West ..... Matt LeBlanc
Will Robinson ..... Jack Johnson
Judy Robinson ..... Heather Graham
Penny Robinson ..... Lacey Chabert
Will Robinson (adult) ..... Jared Harris

Rating: 4

[ unmissable | great stuff | worth watching | mind candy | waste of time | unfinishable ]

reviewed 9 September 2001