Enemy Mine

Wolfgang Petersen directs a sort of sci-fi version of “Hell in the Pacific” (1968), where the two antagonists find themselves with little choice but to cooperate, and, over time, begin to set aside their mutual hatred, allowing a reciprocal understanding to blossom as stereotypes are broken down, and they overcome the distrust born of their differences. In short, a cinematic call to peace and tolerance, but despite its noble intentions, “Enemy Mine” leaves something to be desired, execution-wise.

Specifically, on the pacing front, the plot drags along with a Teutonic weightiness that gets somewhat boring, to say the least. Meanwhile, as for the content, the story is suffocated by a pervasive rose-colored sentimentality so preachy and heavy-handed that it becomes annoying.

Despite a lofty budget, the alien planet – a world populated by mechanical brutes and rocked by cataclysms that are anything but convincing – is rendered in a rather crude and rudimentary manner. At the end of the day, science fiction has never seemed to be a suitable genre for a director mostly at home in a fairy-tale world.

Recommended only for younger audiences or those nostalgic for the 1980s.