High Moon

By RICHARD CORLISS

OUTLAND

Directed and Written by Peter Hyams

In 1979 two events took place that inspired Peter Hyams to make this outerspace thriller. On March 9, the NASA space probe Voyager I discovered an erupting volcano on Io, the innermost Galilean moon of Jupiter; and on May 25, 20th Century-Fox released the film Alien. Io gave Hyams his setting: a futuristic mining colony that looks like a gigantic Tinkertoy. Alien provided much of the rest: a crew of steel-spined, me-first mercenaries stalked by a mysterious killer. (In Alien it was a mutating monster; here it is a dangerous drug.) Mix them together with the plot from the old Gary Cooper western High Noon and you have the formula for this summer's big-budget sci fi-horror clone.

If Outland has anything besides familiarity going for it, it is the presence of Sean Connery as a New Frontier marshal who comes to 10 to clean the place up. Connery is perhaps the one genuine romantic hero in the movies now. He is strong; he is soft. He can be hurt physically, and take it; he can be hurt emotionally, and show it. Outland gives Connery every chance to strut and smolder and sends him off on one splendid chase sequence. The rest is strained silliness. Good Guy Connery knows that Bad Guy Peter Boyle is out to kill him, but instead of gunning him down, Connery waits till the end of the movie to wreak his vengeance--by socking Boyle in the nose. Maybe that's how disputes will be settled on the cold moons of Jupiter, but Hyams might have delivered a stronger jolt to the audience if he had dared to follow the tone suggested by his title.

--By Richard Corliss

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