I was reluctant to see "Lost In Space,"because it was written by Akiva Goldman, the individual responsible forpenning last year's bomb, "Batman & Robin" (a fact only aselect few bother to remember). On the other hand, I wanted to see thefilm because it stars Gary Oldman, one of Hollywood's most underratedactors. Mr. Oldman's appeal won me over, and I walked into the filmexpecting a cheesygood-guy-saves-the-day-and-rescues-the-girl-while-falling-in-love-with-herformula, with a dash of corny lines on the side.

That is exactlywhat I got. Yet, while the use of poof lines in "Batman &Robin" ("She's no beauty, she's just a beast.") gave meflashbacks of Adam West, Goldman watched himself a little more carefullyin writing this script. While "Lost in Space" does have somecheesy lines, there is no sense of overkill in using them.

Theplot is pretty easy to comprehend. A family of intergalactic explorersget lost in space. That's it. William Hurt stars as Daddy Robinson, MattLeBlanc of "Friends" is the ship's pilot (he's still Joey tome), and Oldman is the evil doctor who gets the Robinson clan in thismess to begin with.

A major flaw with the original televisionshow was that it was so low-budget (strings holding up the ship wereclearly visible). In a day and age when fated ships that sink into theAtlantic and aliens taking over the Earth sell tickets, the creators of"Lost In Space" spared no expense in making realistic starwars, futuristic settings and freaky little aliens; these specialeffects are the best part of the movie. The film grabs you, and does notlet go for two-and-a-half hours.

The film that may knock"Titanic" out of number one at the box office, "Lost InSpace" - a tale about a similarly fated ship - is a wild ridethrough the stars for the entire family ... Robinson or not.