"The Black Hole" (1979). I saw it in the theater as a kid. Not sure I've seen it since. Some of it has stuck with me all this time. I remember being terrified of the robot Maximilian. Several scenes I distinctly remembered. I can't think of many movies I've seen once, 40 years ago, that left that kind of impact. It certainly looks dated, the FX was probably really good for its time. Some recognizable cast members like Robert Forster, Anthony Perkins and Ernest Borgnine. A bit slow paced, but fairly much kept my interest. I see lots of negative (more current) reviews about it being a bad Star Wars knockoff, also a few references to 2001. Came out the same year as Alien. While it may not be a classic, I don't think it should be completely dismissed. Seems like it's had a few knockoffs of its own over the years, discovering a long missing ship in space and surprisingly finding a maniacal captain in charge and the ship not derelect seems like a common enough trope I've seen in numerous other films. There is some mystery left at the end. Was Dr. Hans Reinhardt really running the ship or was Maximilian? The end goes a bit psychedelic (that's mostly where the 2001 comparisons come from), was it a depiction of heaven and hell? There's a mention of Dante's Inferno early in the film, seems like it was coming back to that, too. The physics of outer space were nearly completely ignored, so there's that you have to overlook. Anyway, I got it from the library, was worth the nostalgia trip for me.
