Outland – Planet der Verdammten (1981)

Outland – Planet der Verdammten: Directed by Peter Hyams. With Sean Connery, Peter Boyle, Frances Sternhagen, James Sikking. A federal marshal stationed at a mining colony on the Jupiter moon of Io uncovers a drug-smuggling conspiracy. He gets no help from the workers or authorities when he finds himself marked for murder.

“After leaving the James Bond franchise in 1971, Sean Connery gave a number of notable performances in films such as The Offense and The Man Who Would Be King but Outland is really the film that started him on the comeback trail that culminated with his Oscar acceptance speech 6 yrs later for The Untouchables. No one seems to recall this but at the time of Outlandu0026#39;s release, no one had seen or heard from Connery for a few years and most of the reviews, while not kind to the film for a variety of reasons–chief among them being the fact that most movie critics (at least back then) harbored serious prejudice against sci fi–the main comment was u0026quot;It is good to see Sean Connery back in action againu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThis film has one of the best production designs ever.Phillip Harrison did a superb job. Obviously the look was copped from Alien–blue collar workers in space–but it works remarkably well. I was often reminded of OUTLAND during my seven year prison term; the housing was remarkably similar–as was the company. But I digress…u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNothing special about the plot– itu0026#39;s routine cop show or western movie stuff–but who cares? Sean Connery gives a splendid performance and the whole film moves at a nice clip. Very enjoyable.”