Rating: Summary: great movie, see it! Review: I haven't seen the SPECIAL EDITION DVD, but if you want to know if the movie itself is good, trust me, it's good. I've also heard it has a lot of cool extras. If you're a science fiction fan and have a good home theater system with DVD, I highly recommend this one.
Rating: Summary: He did it again Review: Emmerich recipe: take a few good special effects, a good sound mixer, some see-through characters and a good many clichèes. Shake well, et voila! You have a hit movie. Why this film was such a big success I'll never know. All the good effects and scenes had been shown in countless interviews and trailers before the film even opened, and there wasn't anything else to see. There was no suspense, no surprise, it only appeals to American patriotism. Sorry, I can not recommend this one. Maybe it's one for naive movie-goers who, after 90 minutes of racket blasting out of five speakers, think they just watched a great film.
Rating: Summary: Fails to meet expectations Review: I was really psyched to see this movie, and came out very dissappointed. I know, some people like to watch special effects, but when they're buried in a foolish plot, they are wasted. If it wasn't for the special effects, this looks like something Ed Wood would do! From the aliens use of an egg timer to coordinate their attack, to the computer virus, to the easy way to destroy the ships, this movie just keeps dissapointing!
Rating: Summary: Another big disappointment Review: Here's another of those movies that the public went to in droves. And, as with Armageddon, Top Gun, Godzilla, and so many others, it is a big waste of film. I can't say I hated this lame story as much as I absolutely loathed Armageddon, but it's close. Why, oh why can't they have a script before they start cranking out fast food tie-ins? And why do I keep thinking just maybe *this* will be the blockbuster that actually amounts to something other than frequent eye-rolling at the endless cliches and overall BADNESS of it? God awful stuff, especially all of the characters and the horrid dialogue. And that Randy Quaid character...jeeez. OK...I'll admit to liking one scene in the film. It's where Will Smith gets up in the morning and goes out to get the paper, still half asleep, and finally starts to notice his panicked neighbors fleeing, and finally the huge spaceship looming on the horizon. A cool shot, and it gave me a little tingle that "wow, wouldn't that just blow your mind?!" Too bad those 5 minutes are basically it. Please people...just because it will sound cool in your home theatre is no reason to buy a DVD of this junk.
Rating: Summary: I've got a cold! Review: Fun visuals. One star. Fun sound. One star. I can barely get a Mac to talk to a PC. We beat the aliens by using a computer virus? Uh huh. Why not give them a human virus? It would work as well.
Rating: Summary: check it out. Review: ok ok. I know lot of you people iut there are saying how dumb and idiotic this flick is. I got one thing to say about that. THAT IS WHAT MAKES THIS FLICK GOOD!! It is good to get away from the "smart" films and foreign stuff and just watch a totally mindless movie with friends and shout and yell at the screen. So what, it aint Magnolia, or Saving Private Ryan, but how many of those movies can you really stand? Sometimes you just wanna see major cities gettin blown away like a bottle rocket in an apple.(That's a funny visual, go ahead, visualize it.) So if you got the mula, go ahead and by the movie, i think you'll enjoy it.
Rating: Summary: An Obvious Crowd-Pleaser Review: I saw this piece of work in the theaters, and at the time I thought it was okay. Seeing it for the second time here made me reconsider. This movie blows. Sure, there's plenty of action, and little else. Will Smith plays a fighter pilot, Jeff Goldblum a computer expert, and Bill Pullman plays the President in this film. This movie, in which aliens invade the Earth, cannot be called science fiction. Science fiction is Star Wars, 2001, and Starship Troopers. This movie does do exactly what it set out to do. The special effects are incredible, the sound is extremely good, the alien ships do look, alien. On the other hand, the aliens themselves are laughable, as is the "plot", which should make comic-book writers shudder. Pancake characters round out this film that was so successful the first time they are selling it again so that the company can get more cash to make more movies like this. So if you want an post-lobotomy action movie, you've come to the right place.
Rating: Summary: great ad for anti virus software Review: Yes the usual "aliens are coming" stuff but - the most amazing thing for me was the strange parallel Lets's see we have a young president with a can-do attitude He has a cute daughter...and a very workaholic wife....any of this sound familiar? Oh, and of course the President saves the world. I thought the whole thing was a somewhat subliminal attempt by Hollywood to get us to relate dear old Bill Clinton to the heroism of the films presidential character...all a bit too much for me and I'm a Clinton supporter As for the rest of the film, as usual these days, the effects distracted us from a pretty mundane plot and a stupid ending ( with the obligatory nuclear blasts etc.) Just one question. If the aliens were so advanced that they could build huge intergalactic spaceships and conquer everything in their path, dont you think they would have had the alien equivalent of Dr Norton to detect computer viruses? I cant even get my computer to speak to the internet reliably but apparently interfacing a macintosh laptop to an alien spacecraft is a piece of cake. Dont buy this DVD- rent the video
Rating: Summary: Good Combination of Science Fiction and Action Review: This film has it all. Science Fiction, Action, Adventure, Comedy and Drama are all masterfully juxtaposed to create a good old fashioned Saturday Matinee movie undated with the latest technology and mega-budget. Very impressive as it appeals to all levels intellectually and emotionally. It covers the entire gamut splendidly delivering pure entertainment.
Rating: Summary: A Great Show. Review: Independence Day is a throw back to the alien invasion films of the 1950s. Sure the special effects are superb, but couldn't the filmmakers at least attempt to have some story? Instead, they have given us a laughable piece of work. Watch this film in twenty years when the special effects will be old hat, instead of cutting edge, and I bet you will be embarrassed to admit you even saw it. Still, it is not yet twenty years in the future. Today, looking at this film, you will be amazed at some of the effects. For that reason, this film is best watched at a theatre. Since it is to late for that now, you should see it on DVD so can get the most from the special effects. I would warn you that, even with my enjoyment of the special effects, the action in this film does not get going until about fifty percent through the film. Does your DVD have a fast forward? Am I being to hard? Well, let me tell you just two of the things which bothered me about this film. The aliens are eliminating people, city by city. Presumably, millions are dead. Current projections, they will win in four days - killing everyone. But a scientist, played pitfully by Jeff Goldblum, does not want to use atomic weapons because it might pollute and thus eventually destroy the environment. Are people really this dumb? Or how about this, the aliens have some type of super technology that is above anything here on earth. Our weapons cann't effect them at all. Even our atomic weapons, J. Goldblum loses that argument, fail. Yet somehow, he can interface with their computers with an ordinary apple computer. Do I really need to say more? The story, as far as it goes, gets a "1" from me. The special effects, a 6, thus the 2 rating. I have actually watched portions of this DVD more then once, because I enjoy the effects. Expect nothing by way of story, and you might enjoy it.
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