Rating: 
Summary: The Arrival and Arrival 2
Review: Buy The Arrival on its own if possible it's a worthwhile purchase for sci-fi fans.4 STARSI bought The Arrival and The Arrival 2 on one DVD and I'm not happy! 1. The box states on the back a widescreen and standard (full screen) format for The Arrival but I can't find a standard format anywhere on this disc! 2. Also and more important is that you don't want to pay the extra for The Arrival 2 because they have boxed it together with the first one because it would not sell on it's own! The Arrival 2 is at best a bad TV movie not even as entertaining as a bad episode of The X-Files. Bad acting , bad directing , bad story , and cheap special effects AVOID THIS ONE ! 0 STARS
Rating: 
Summary: Aliens are here (again)
Review: Charlie Sheen's first sci-fi movie and it isn't bad at all, despite what the other reviewer has said. Yes it could use better acting and script but it's still an average movie, meaning it's worth watching. Nice effects and Sheen tries hard to give a credible performance. Can't review part two cause I haven't seen it yet. But I do know it hasn't Sheen in it.
Rating:
Summary: Arrival is very good; Arrival II is?
Review: Consider this DVD with Arrival in mind, and with Arrival II as a forgettable footnote. Arrival is worthy of 4 stars, where Arrival II is a 1 star film. While I'm not a big fan of Charlie Sheen (and his performance here is no better than usual), this movie taken as a whole is really engaging science fiction -- much better than I anticipated. Arrival is also a very paranoid, taut and believable thriller that entertains numerous conspiracy theories, first and foremost being that sinister aliens are among us with plans to raise the temperature of the planet to suit their plans of colonization, while leaving humans in their wake. For a low budget film, this is certainly one of the best sci-fi films of the 90's (along with Contact, The Matrix and Dark City). As for Arrival II, scarcely worth watching if only to see how they ruined the sequel-potential of the first film.
Rating: 
Summary: The best space alien invasion movie ever, and a lousy sequel
Review: I haven't seen every space alien invasion movie ever made, but I still think I can safely call The Arrival the best ever made in that genre. Too bad it was mostly lost in the marketing assault of Independence Day, a spectacularly awful movie in the same genre. Not only is The Arrival the best space alien invasion movie ever, it's one of the better science fiction movies. The Arrival, unlike most space alien invasion movies, gives the invaders motivations, cleverness in place of firepower, secrecy instead of grand overconfidence, exploitation of human weakness, and an overall sense that beings capable of star travel aren't stupid. The hero is clever too, and dedicated to his work, and finds a credible way to continue his research after things go bad at the office. He usually makes common-sense decisions rather than idiotic blunders or ridiculously lucky choices. It's good when characters in a movie do what we'd do, instead of something that doesn't make sense but forces the plot in the direction the movie-makers wanted. Unfortunately, The Second Arrival was an undistinguished sequel. It wasn't truly awful except in comparison to the original, but it certainly wasn't good. Its first problem was that the original didn't leave a good place for a sequel to go, even though its ending left some things unresolved. Another problem is that no one involved in the original was interested in the sequel. Some of the visual design was borrowed from it, but little or none of the mood or intelligence. It's just a not-very-exciting chase movie borrowing a title and a few themes from the original. It's as if a piece of cheesy fan fiction had been adapted into a movie. To rate the DVD, which has The Arrival on one side and The Second Arrival on the other, it's best to think of the latter as just a DVD extra. Even the lamest DVD extras shouldn't reduce the rating for a good movie. I rate The Arrival at five stars. The Second Arrival deserves only one star, but since it was free with a movie I would have bought anyway, I can give it two. This DVD doesn't do anything bad to The Arrival, so I give it the same five stars as the movie.
Rating:
Summary: arrival/arrival 2 pretty good
Review: i must say that after reading the reviews of the other people that have seen these movies i thought both movies were going to suck. i have to said that they did not suck. everybody put down arrival 2 and i think that arrival 1 and 2 were very good. the special effects were good and the story lines were very good. i would recommeded people to see both movies. they are both worth watching.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting sci fi thriller and a disappointing sequel
Review: I think they put "The Arrival" (4 stars) and "Arrival 2" (2 stars) on the two sides of the same DVD because they knew that was the only way anybody would ever get around to watching the lame sequel to a pretty good science fiction film. In "The Arrival" writer-director David Twohy comes up with an interesting culprit to explain global warming. The 1996 thriller begins with scientist Ilana Green (Lindsay Crouse) finding something in Antarctica that should not be there. Meanwhile, the hero of our tale, radio astronomer named Zane Zaminski (Charlie Sheen with a goatee), is working on a S.E.T.I. project by looking where nobody in their right mind should be looking, in the FM band. To his surprise and the shock of his colleague, Cal (Richard Schiff), he finds something there. This could be the biggest scientific discovery of the 20th century by Zane's boss, Phil Gordian (Ron Silver), not only refuses to get excited, he destroys the evidence. Then some strange guys in suits show up to make sure they have all of the evidence. Clearly Zane has discovered something he is not supposed to know about. But part of the problem is that he has no clue what he has stumbled upon or why it should get people killed. The other key part of the problem is that Zane is now unemployed and no longer has access to a gigantic radio telescope. So he has to, basically, build one, which is how "The Arrival" lets you know that Twohy has paid attention to the science of the story (okay, I know nothing about science and this could all be nonsense, but there is an effort being made to connect the scientific dots). Zane effective does build his own radio telescope, and if this new phase of his old obsession has made him lose his girl friend, Char (Teri Polo), at least he has Kiki (Tony T. Johnson) the smart street kid who lives next door to take up the slack. Of course the audience gets to figure things out a bit before Zane does, but then he is distracted by the most ingenious attempts to kill someone is bath tub I have seen since "Final Destination." I checked out this film because I saw one of Twohy's more recent efforts, "Below," and again he shows some creativity in presenting the conventions of the science fiction-thriller genre. Sheen's performance is an interesting mix of paranoia and anger, sometimes switching back and forth between the two in an instance if somebody looks at him funny or is just funny looking. I did not bite on the obvious red herring as to who the ultimate villain was in "The Arrival," but I did not see the final revelation coming either, so that is a good thing. Ultimately, I did not find "The Arrival" to be a classic science fiction film, but for a modern version of the "B" movie it is very good. Unfortunately the 1998 sequel, "The Arrival II," makes it clear from the start that things are going to go awry. We get a news report that Zane has died under mysterious circumstances while hiding out with the Eskimos. Every since Newt and Hicks were killed during the opening credits of "Aliens3" I have a visceral reaction to similar attempts to clear the decks for the new characters in the new film. However, it turns out that before his death Zane sent packets of information about the alien menace to a few key individuals, including his half-brother, Jack Addison (Patrick Muldoon). He has to be a blood relation because that makes things personal as opposed to merely being concerned with the fate of the world. Those who received the packages from beyond gathered in a meat locker, where Jack meets reporter Bridget Riordan (Jane Sibbett), and Professor Nelson Zarcoff (Michael Sarrazin). It looks like we might be assembling a team of intelligent people in key positions who will be able to work together to stop the menace. But, no, this is going to be primarily a chase film. The biggest problem with this sequel is that once you understand what the aliens can do and where this script has them embedded in the government, then it is really game over, they win, hope you use really heavy sun screen in the world to come. But on a more intimate level as much as the first film plays fair with the science and the audience, this one insists on yanking our chains. In the first film there is a wonderful sequence where Zane, denied access to radio telescopes, creates his own by hooking up neighborhood satellite dishes that he can use in the dead of night when their owners are asleep. This might be nonsense, but in the context of the film it works. In this one Jack is a computer hacker who can work his magic on the alien computer when in "reality" he would be lucky to figure out how to turn it on let alone do significant programming. This was Mark David Perry's first script and given the detail and flair of Twohy's original what we have here just pales in comparison, even with a gratuitous nude scene thrown into the mix early on. There is not much the actors can do with this mess and there are few times in the film when they come close to catching the appropriate emotions of the moment since the script keeps insisting they be a step behind in figuring out what is happening. As I said, the only reason to watch "The Arrival II" (a.k.a. "The Second Arrival") is that it is not that hard to flip over the DVD. However, you really would be better off just watching the first side twice.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting sci fi thriller and a disappointing sequel
Review: I think they put "The Arrival" (4 stars) and "Arrival 2" (2 stars) on the two sides of the same DVD because they knew that was the only way anybody would ever get around to watching the lame sequel to a pretty good science fiction film. In "The Arrival" writer-director David Twohy comes up with an interesting culprit to explain global warming. The 1996 thriller begins with scientist Ilana Green (Lindsay Crouse) finding something in Antarctica that should not be there. Meanwhile, the hero of our tale, radio astronomer named Zane Zaminski (Charlie Sheen with a goatee), is working on a S.E.T.I. project by looking where nobody in their right mind should be looking, in the FM band. To his surprise and the shock of his colleague, Cal (Richard Schiff), he finds something there. This could be the biggest scientific discovery of the 20th century by Zane's boss, Phil Gordian (Ron Silver), not only refuses to get excited, he destroys the evidence. Then some strange guys in suits show up to make sure they have all of the evidence. Clearly Zane has discovered something he is not supposed to know about. But part of the problem is that he has no clue what he has stumbled upon or why it should get people killed. The other key part of the problem is that Zane is now unemployed and no longer has access to a gigantic radio telescope. So he has to, basically, build one, which is how "The Arrival" lets you know that Twohy has paid attention to the science of the story (okay, I know nothing about science and this could all be nonsense, but there is an effort being made to connect the scientific dots). Zane effective does build his own radio telescope, and if this new phase of his old obsession has made him lose his girl friend, Char (Teri Polo), at least he has Kiki (Tony T. Johnson) the smart street kid who lives next door to take up the slack. Of course the audience gets to figure things out a bit before Zane does, but then he is distracted by the most ingenious attempts to kill someone is bath tub I have seen since "Final Destination." I checked out this film because I saw one of Twohy's more recent efforts, "Below," and again he shows some creativity in presenting the conventions of the science fiction-thriller genre. Sheen's performance is an interesting mix of paranoia and anger, sometimes switching back and forth between the two in an instance if somebody looks at him funny or is just funny looking. I did not bite on the obvious red herring as to who the ultimate villain was in "The Arrival," but I did not see the final revelation coming either, so that is a good thing. Ultimately, I did not find "The Arrival" to be a classic science fiction film, but for a modern version of the "B" movie it is very good. Unfortunately the 1998 sequel, "The Arrival II," makes it clear from the start that things are going to go awry. We get a news report that Zane has died under mysterious circumstances while hiding out with the Eskimos. Every since Newt and Hicks were killed during the opening credits of "Aliens3" I have a visceral reaction to similar attempts to clear the decks for the new characters in the new film. However, it turns out that before his death Zane sent packets of information about the alien menace to a few key individuals, including his half-brother, Jack Addison (Patrick Muldoon). He has to be a blood relation because that makes things personal as opposed to merely being concerned with the fate of the world. Those who received the packages from beyond gathered in a meat locker, where Jack meets reporter Bridget Riordan (Jane Sibbett), and Professor Nelson Zarcoff (Michael Sarrazin). It looks like we might be assembling a team of intelligent people in key positions who will be able to work together to stop the menace. But, no, this is going to be primarily a chase film. The biggest problem with this sequel is that once you understand what the aliens can do and where this script has them embedded in the government, then it is really game over, they win, hope you use really heavy sun screen in the world to come. But on a more intimate level as much as the first film plays fair with the science and the audience, this one insists on yanking our chains. In the first film there is a wonderful sequence where Zane, denied access to radio telescopes, creates his own by hooking up neighborhood satellite dishes that he can use in the dead of night when their owners are asleep. This might be nonsense, but in the context of the film it works. In this one Jack is a computer hacker who can work his magic on the alien computer when in "reality" he would be lucky to figure out how to turn it on let alone do significant programming. This was Mark David Perry's first script and given the detail and flair of Twohy's original what we have here just pales in comparison, even with a gratuitous nude scene thrown into the mix early on. There is not much the actors can do with this mess and there are few times in the film when they come close to catching the appropriate emotions of the moment since the script keeps insisting they be a step behind in figuring out what is happening. As I said, the only reason to watch "The Arrival II" (a.k.a. "The Second Arrival") is that it is not that hard to flip over the DVD. However, you really would be better off just watching the first side twice.
Rating:
Summary: superb,very exhilarating , and very real.
Review: I think when people think of aliens they think of just science fiction.Im very glad that movies like the arrival and many others are bringing people to the awareness door.The arrival is real.very direct.invoking the powers of such powerful agencies as NASA,NSA, and the government about their knowing of these species, and how they are probably deeply engaged in certain xperiments that they would not like normal citizens or the publik to know. Sometimes these creatures due to their ability to defy space and time , and due to their ability to appear at will and in any dimension are probably deeply mix in our society.Who knows if we have some alien creatures in kongress,white house,schools,higher think-tank institutions,wall street, and in all aspect of society,?WORKING HARD 4 HIS PEOPLE .DOING ALL HE CAN TO SECURE THE FUTURE OF HIS PEOPLE. We dont know. Next time examine anybody u ever come in contact with.The person next door could be an alien. Now i think arrival is the movie that have agregated all these things in one. it is a great movie addressing the possibility that we could be colonised and be treated just like the way we treat our sub-species.VERY GREAT ALIEN MOVIE.And I like the fact that astronomers are getting some attention in these alien movies
Rating:
Summary: Arrival/Arrival 2
Review: Now....lets "REALLY" be serious about this two-movie DVD. The problem with a dynamite, ingenious movie made by a favorite star most ANY film watcher recognizes (Charley Sheen) is that people automatically place it in a position where part II faces a pole vault height nearly set to the heavens. To accomodate us ----unfortunately,---- part II acquires a pre-conceived status of cosmo heights that is nearly unreachable even by George Lucas and Stephen Speilberg. I read many, many reviews prior to purchasing a movie (DVD or VHS) and was expecting part II to be the "dredge" of the Love Canal radiation sewage drains. Let me report that Part II was very enjoyable. I DID NOT expect to see Charley again. I DID NOT expect it to parallel part one. I DID NOT have my expectations aloft upon the MIR Russian Space Station. Many reviewers "BLASTED" part II for these previous listed reasons. Shame, shame, shame. Although not "AS" perfect as Part I, you'll enjoy it all the same. Part one is great with wonderful acting and a nicely paced (not too slow) story line. Great modern-day alien invasion flicks. Note in part II: The FX crew accidently broke a door window '''too soon''' prior to the star throwing an object through it. Play it again in slow-mo. It's comical. Please view these with openness and warmth and you too will find both movies enjoyable. I guarantee it.--JIM
Rating:
Summary: 2 GOOD FILMS [...]!!!
Review: Real Sci-Fi movies. Nice audio/video effects in both films (great sound at the end of the second film). Films are 4 stars, [inexpensive] edition - 5 stars. "Buy it" deal.
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