I'd read and heard that this movie is sub-par, but I still expected more. I thought, with Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson how bad could it be? Notice that I don't mention Sharon Stone, because I thought she was SO out of place in this film. What were the casting directors thinking? But anyway, I thought with such great actors, the movie couldn't be too bad. But I again learned what it is to have good actors and crappy direction or whatever it was that was crappy. I completely agree with the people who said that it lacked suspense. I remember reading the book and being glued to my chair, not being able to put it down. The movie, on the contrary, made me yawn. It seemed so rushed for some reason. There seemed to be such great stuff in the book that wasn't used and so the movie seemed rushed and choppy. There were some great shots though and some good editing at parts. Like the scene where Dustin Hoffman sees that all the cabinets in the galley are filled with copies of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. That was a great, great scene and there needed to be more like it! The whole movie just seemed flat and a poor adaptation of an amazing novel. To see a good one, try The Andromeda Strain. It's an oldie, but a goodie.